{"id":28214,"date":"2024-03-15T01:01:46","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T08:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=28214"},"modified":"2024-03-15T01:01:46","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T08:01:46","slug":"problemista-is-sweet-and-amusing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=28214","title":{"rendered":"PROBLEMISTA is Quirky, Sweet and Amusing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Running Time: 104 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This feature from A24 is opening exclusively at movie\ntheaters on March 15th<\/sup>, 2024.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every so often there is a comedy that divides viewers over\nits tone and approach. Typically, these pictures have an oddball sense of humor\nand are described as anything from quirky and oddball, to more negatively,\npeculiar or twee. Problemista<\/em> is one of those films. Either you\u2019ll be\nable to get on its wavelength and be entertained by its eccentric characters\nand their strange behavior, or find its tone grating and difficult to endure.\nIt won\u2019t speak to everyone, but it did put a smile on this reviewer\u2019s face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alejandro (Julio Torres) has moved from El Salvador to New\nYork City hoping to land an internship at Hasbro and live his dream of becoming\na toy designer. As the story begins, we learn that no his application has been\nignored, forcing him to work at a cryogenics facility. After a very minor\nmishap on the job, Alejandro is fired, creating immense trouble for himself. If\nhe cannot find a new job and sponsor in a short period, he will lose his work\nvisa and be deported back to El Salvador. Surprisingly, while being let go the\nlead encounters headstrong, erratic art critic Elizabeth (Tilda Swinton). Her\nhusband is painter Bobby (RZA), whose terminally ill frozen body was under the\ncare of Alejandro. The protagonist asks to help Elizabeth manage Bobby\u2019s\npaintings in order to get him a gallery showing and the artistic respect she\nfeels he deserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Indeed, there\u2019s no shortage of bizarreness on display.\nAlejandro is completely innocent and timid. Despite being a grown adult, his\ngait as he moves around the city is almost like that of a child. By contrast,\nElizabeth is nearly unhinged, frequently getting wound up and confrontational\nout of the blue. It often leads to an amusingly wide-eyed Alejandro often\nstaring in shock as his moody associate and potential sponsor flies into rages,\nberating anyone in her sightline. Swinton is hysterical as Elizabeth, playing\nthe type of individual whom anyone would be terrified to cross paths with\n(especially if they aren\u2019t familiar with an outdated filing system she\nadores). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The awkward and amusing conversations between Alejandro and\nElizabeth do make up the funniest moments in the film, as the protagonist\ngently attempts to keep the erratic Elizabeth in check and himself in her good\nbooks in order to earn a sponsorship. And Torres is likable as Alejandro whom\nover the course of the story is ultimately encouraged to be more forceful in\nhis pursuits It all leads to a big laugh near the close.There are also some\nentertaining flashbacks between Elizabeth and Bobby, a struggling but\nkind-hearted artist whose work has a very specific and humorously bizarre\nfocus.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Of course, this story is in large part about the immigrant\nexperience. Using humor, the movie effectively goes about revealing just some\nof the many strange contradictions in the visa process, including the\nincredibly stressful and unpleasant hoops that one must jump through just to\nsurvive the ordeal. This reviewer has gone an immigration process over his\nlifetime, and can confirm that while these scenes may seem over-the-top, they\nreally aren\u2019t as exaggerated as you might think.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Admittedly, not everything in the film works. There are also\na few bizarre interludes as we travel inside Alejandro\u2019s mind. These moments\nare visually striking, but aren\u2019t as funny as some of the lead\u2019s real-life\nescapades. Not every toy product in Alejandro\u2019s arsenal makes a big impression\neither. And a couple of other jokes begin in a very amusing fashion, but take\nunusual tangents and switch tones unexpectedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, the movie features a completely unique voice. And like its rough-around-the-edges characters, if you can simply accept some of their personal oddities, much of the story is funny and even sweet. Problemista<\/em> is an interesting little indie feature that may change the way you view the immigration process (as well as poultry, oddly enough), making a lasting impression in the process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Running Time: 104 minutes This feature from A24 is opening exclusively at movie theaters on March 15th, 2024. Every so often there is a comedy that divides viewers over its tone and approach. Typically, these pictures have an oddball sense of humor and are described as anything from quirky and oddball, to more negatively, peculiar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":28215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[215,605,4660,4983,6251,9689,11175,15281,16406,16407,16408,16409,16537,17489,22881],"class_list":["post-28214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-215","tag-a24","tag-comedy","tag-cult","tag-drama","tag-immigration","tag-julio-torres","tag-oddball","tag-problemista","tag-problemista-film-review","tag-problemista-movie-review","tag-problemista-review","tag-quirky","tag-rza","tag-tilda-swinton"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}