Problemista

Problemista (2024) is a surreal comedy you can watch online on iFILM. It marks the directing debut of Julio Torres, who also stars opposite Tilda Swinton and RZA, with Isabella Rossellini narrating.

Alejandro has come from El Salvador to New York chasing one dream: designing toys for a major company. Nobody wants his ideas, so he scrapes by at a cryogenic-freezing firm, loses that job over a tiny accident, and lands on the edge of deportation as his visa clock runs out. His lifeline turns out to be Elizabeth — the volatile widow of an artist, a woman who picks fights with everyone and is desperate to stage her late husband's exhibition. Becoming her assistant is the only way Alejandro gets to stay.

Torres reshapes the bureaucratic hell of immigration into a storybook: software forms sprout into monsters, the visa office becomes a literal maze. Underneath the whimsy sits a sharp, oddly tender argument about what it costs to survive in a country where your right to dream hangs on a stamp in a passport. Swinton, as the impossible Elizabeth, is a show unto herself. One for fans of off-kilter A24 indie comedy. Stream Problemista (2024) online on iFILM.