L'Art des problèmes

The problem with a comedy is that you will never please everybody as we all have a different sense of humour. I read that some other reviewers found it very funny whilst I found Problemista an entertaining movie that I enjoyed watching but not really funny. It has an ironic tone but it's not a tearjerker. Writer/director Julio Torres also played the main character, a weird looking nerd that tries to get sponsored by Tilda Swinton who plays an annoying "Karen". They both did a good job with their performances. The rest of the cast was good as well, but it was more about the two main characters than anyone else. It's worth watching.

Julio Torres, for his first debut, manages to create one of the weirdest, chaotic, and unapologetically narrative that is really great with it's electrifying atmosphere, writing, direction, and approach. Torres writing delivers one of the most activating, surrealist, intentional cringe-like and hilarious stories with interesting satirical themes of art, immigration, companies, and the world we live inside. With beautiful camerawork, production designs, framing, and structure pacing.

All of the performances are great and Tilda Swinton, my god, she gave one of the absolute best and insane performances of her entire career as she is chaotic, insane, yet, so engaging to observe. Many of the chaotic tones, humor, and characters were hilarious and surreal to observe. It's one strange debut of a movie that I can't think anyone else could ever do. Overall, it's amazing. It's a shame that the marketing of this movie wasn't great cause it deserves more attention!

I'm not sure how this film hooked me but it did in the first 15 minutes. It has the wackiness of a "Joe vs the Volcano" (a film I adored) and the slight emotional tug of maybe "Harold and Maude". It feels like something bad could happen, like in real life, but still I'm rooting for the protagonist Alejandro's wild toy dreams to come true as well as rooting for him to (successfully) find his way through the immigration paperwork process.

And Tilda Swinton's character is swirling through life like a Tasmanian devil but I still liked her and, for some reason, wanted her to succeed as well.

It's not the kind of film that will make a top ten list but it is definitely one you'll want to watch more than once!

Really enjoyed this movie. It really takes a good look at life and shows how some aspects are so absurd if we really look at them. It had great humor and some really enjoyable moments between the characters. Actors and performances were really great too. There were a few scenes that I felt didn't work all that well and took me out of the story a bit, but overall is was really fun and I'm glad I was able to see it. Just funny and uplifting.. with personal challenges along the way. Visual style was unique and interesting. Did feel like a cable indie TV show sometimes.. but that worked with the style of the movie. I look forward to seeing more work from Julio Torres.

I came in expecting a fun, wild, and interesting experience and this movie delivered ten fold. It was one of the best movies that I have seen in theaters in a long time and has one of my all time favorite performances by the ice queen herself, Tilda Swinton. My date and I laughed, we cringed, we were captivated, and at the end we were both crying tears of joy. It was heartfelt, surreal and a rare pleasure for us both. Tilda is both the villain and a sort of hero as well. We were both very impressed with the acting, writing and directing all of which were spearheaded by Julio Torres. I can't recommend this movie enough.