Problemista: reviews

What the critics say average 7.1 from 60 outlets

• 10 The Wall Street JournalZachary Barnes Problemista is a brilliant comedy of the surreal and the absurd, and it finds no shortage of either in the bureaucratic processes of immigration. Read
• 9.1 The PlaylistMatthew Monagle Torres peels back layers of the immigrant story in something packaged as entertainment. It may appear whimsical, but you don’t need to dig too deep beneath the surface to find universal emotions underneath. Read
• 9.0 The Hollywood ReporterLovia Gyarkye Torres has created a weird and special little film, one that reflects his particular tastes and curiosities. Read
• 9.0 Q+ MagazineAlex Valencia Problemista stands as a triumph of storytelling. Torres invites us into a world where the ordinary meets the extraordinary, where dreams collide with harsh realities, and where the journey is as illuminating as the destination. Read
• 8.8 Associated PressMark Kennedy Problemista is not like a Wes Anderson-type hyper-whimsy, but more like the surreal bursting joy of “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” It even breaks space and time like the latter. It is absolutely captivating. Read
• 8.5 Paste MagazineAurora Amidon This fearless, authentic debut showcases immense command of a unique and inventive form of humor, while touching on a very real issue with heart and candor. Read
• 8.5 La EstatuillaJorge Espinoza Lasso 'Problemista' is a piece made with a lot of passion and wit, whose strangeness and eccentricity faithfully portray a less familiar side of the American dream. Besides the laughs it hands out everywhere, its director shows a very good command of cinematic form in a work that is both demanding and fun. Read
• 8.5 CulturizarteJeremías Mateluna A film well worth seeing, because it will keep you laughing and it will move you, and it looks lovely too. Read
• 8.3 IndiewireRafael Motamayor Problemista is not just funny, however, it is also rather earnest and compassionate towards its characters. Read
• 8.3 The Film StageJake Kring-Schreifels The beauty is that Torres never forces these messages down your throat. The movie is too looney, too specific to be so obvious. Read
• 8.3 Dennis Schwartz Movie ReviewsDennis Schwartz Silly comedy about the immigrant experience in NYC. Read
• 8.3 Above the LineAbe Friedtanzer Problemista is a singular, wildly original vision that knows exactly how to temper one over-the-top protagonist with her perfect foil Read
• 8.3 The Detroit NewsAdam Graham An inventive, whimsical and delightfully oddball story of the immigrant experience, "Problemista" marks the promising writing and directing debut of Julio Torres. Read
• 8.3 Crooked MarqueeKimber Myers Problemista is smart, sly, and so silly, balancing all its stresses and social commentary with a sense of wonder at the wild world and those who populate it. Read
• 8.2 The AtlanticShirley Li Within Problemista is a heartfelt core conveying something profoundly human. It’s a marvelous mixture of surrealism and social satire that depicts the American dream as a nightmare of bureaucracy and phone calls to customer service. There’s nothing more absurd, the film argues, than the mundane. Read
• 8.0 ColliderRoss Bonaime Torres' humor might be too niche for some, but Problemista shows that it can be used to tell a compelling and heartfelt story for the masses. Read
• 8.0 Screen RantAlexander Harrison Problemista invokes the simplicity of myth without ever letting its characters become simplistic. Read
• 8.0 Los Angeles TimesJoshua Rothkopf If I call the movie a love story, don’t laugh. Torres has made it with love in his heart. Read
• 8.0 Rolling StoneDavid Fear As a dig at generational dissatisfaction and/or a lament about the migrant’s blues, the film is good enough. As a portrait of a diva on the verge of a meltdown that could take out a metropolis, it’s a next-level nightmare. Read
• 8.0 The Arizona RepublicAmanda Luberto If you’ve ever been lucky enough to find a creative partner who sees the world the way you do, the connection between Elizabeth and Alejandro will hit you joyfully and achingly. Read
• 8.0 IGNAlyssa Mora Problemista is a deeply considered, fantastical tromp through a wonderland of the mundane. Read
• 8.0 Little White LiesLex Briscuso The performances sell everything unique and special about Torres’ approach to this story, and they bring his characters, who already feel so vibrant through their words, alive. Read
• 8.0 Rough Draft AtlantaSammie Purcell “Problemista” blooms with inventiveness, using magical realism with a clever, modern sensibility to tell the story of how Alejandro comes into his own. Read
• 8.0 Hey, Have You Seen...?Jared Mobarak Torres is great in the lead he’s written for himself. The mix of exasperation and excitement is key to endearing Alejandro to us while his deadpan sarcasm towards the troubles that ail him punch up the satirical nature of this bureaucratic nightmare. Read
• 8.0 HyperallergicEileen G'Sell While Torres’s droll humor can at times distract from the movie’s dire themes, at its best Problemista is a scathing satire in a jester’s cap. Read
• 7.8 The Austin ChronicleJenny Nulf Torres mixes in everything that makes his specific brand of comedy unique into Problemista: Alejandro's toy pitches are obscurely sassy, his imaginative use of CGI and costuming is fantastical, and his dry delivery is the perfect juxtaposition to the film's outlandish absurdity. Read
• 7.5 Roger EbertMonica Castillo Knowing Julio Torres’ previous work is the key to understanding his feature debut “Problemista,” which combines his love of design, the inner lives of toys, surrealism, and whimsy into a race against the clock, the immigration system, and the art scene in New York City. Read
• 7.5 The A.V. ClubMatt Schimkowitz There’s no doubt that should Torres continue, Problemista will eventually look like a scrappy first album filled with promising primordial quirks. The film’s issues do not impede it from being a fleet-footed comedy filled with laugh-out-loud jokes. Read
• 7.5 Original-CinLiz Braun It doesn’t sound much like it, but Problemista is a comedy and a savage send-up of much of what America holds dear. Torres’ absurdist humour underpins the storytelling. Read
• 7.5 CGMagazineRidge Harripersad Problemista had just enough bite and humour to stick the oddity landing, edging Everything Everywhere All at Once territory at some parts. Read
• 7.5 StuffJames Croot Bringing to life a colourful and chaotic, character-filled world that should appeal to those enjoy the films of Michel Gondry, Wes Anderson, Guillermo del Toro and Tim Burton, this also features deliciously dry narration by Isabella Rossellini. Read
• 7.5 Looking CloserJeffrey Overstreet Above all, we should appreciate that Torres gets from the great Tilda Swinton one of the most ferocious performances of her extraordinary career. Read
• 7.5 The Mercury NewsRandy Myers Torres gifts Swinton with a frazzled but larger-than-life character and the Oscar-winning actor — one of the best in the business — makes the most of it. Read
• 7.5 Chicago ReaderMaxwell Rabb Julio Torres cleverly pairs absurd comedy with real stakes. Read
• 7.5 San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen Johnson Torres’ story isn’t great — “Problemista” feels like a series of sketches — but his ideas are interesting, sometimes even inspired. Read
• 7.5 MicropsiaDiego Lerer 'Problemista' may suffer in the move to feature length, but the film grows out of the humanity its writer-director gives his characters. As played by Swinton, Elizabeth can be the most reckless and unbearable person on the face of the Earth, yet Torres manages to see behind that rough front so that we can connect with the sadness and loneliness she is trying to hide. Read
• 7.0 SlashfilmErin Brady Problemista won't be for everyone, but it doesn't want to be. It simply exists as its own magical thing, and for an auteur like Torres, that is the best possible result. Read
• 7.0 New York TimesAmy Nicholson Problemista, which Torres wrote, directed and stars in, reveals a new willingness to tell a relatable story with a riveting sketch of an honest-to-goodness person. Read
• 7.0 Loud and Clear ReviewsJoseph Tomastik It’s not so insane that I can see it alienating anyone, but it’s out there enough to be fresh to those who crave such a thing. Read
• 7.0 Shadows on the WallRich Cline While many details might be silly, and scenes often play out as wildly imaginative fantasies with engaging on-set effects, the underlying story has a vivid emotionality that catches us off guard. Read
• 7.0 The Globe and MailJohanna Schneller The film is very funny, but also so jam-packed – with fairytale imagery, art world tropes, caustic roommates, uncaring institutions – that as you’re watching, it can feel a bit much. Read
• 7.0 CinemagaviaGuillermo Sánchez Ferrer 'Problemista' is a film about immigration that also knows how to tell an original story we can feel for from the very first minute. The kind of film people call necessary, and fresh, funny and cruel at the same time. Read
• 7.0 EscribiendoCineJuan Pablo Russo 'Problemista' ends up in a territory where social criticism and formal experiment live side by side. On one hand it offers a reading of migrant precariousness and the conditions for fitting into the United States; on the other it chooses to handle that material as a comedy that defuses conventional drama. Read
• 6.3 Chicago Sun-TimesRichard Roeper There’s no denying that Torres (a former writer on “Saturday Night Live” and the co-creator of the HBO series “Los Espookys”) is a unique talent; it’s just that his first feature film, while featuring some clever ideas, has a repetitive nature that grows more irksome as we go along, and the humor dissipates into heavy-handed social commentary. Read
• 6.3 The Washington PostAnn Hornaday The story is a familiar one — a young immigrant fetches up in New York to seek his fortune, only to be buffeted by a bumptious city and cut to the quick by its competitive edge — but Torres reshapes it into something simultaneously more fantastical and far more real. Read
• 6.3 Movie NationRoger Moore Problemista becomes the Great Tilda’s grandest playground, a chance to wear the wacky fashions, keep her hair at its unruliest and let her furious freak flag fly in the best “I want to speak to the manager” send-up ever. Read
• 6.0 The GuardianAdrian Horton The predominant mode of Problemista is playful, its comic sensibility curious and askew – enough to make the film, a promising if uneven debut, a delight throughout. Read
• 6.0 VultureAlison Willmore The best parts of Problemista, which is a charming film without ever becoming more than semi-successful, bend the world through his perspective with the help of some Michel Gondry–esque DIY Surrealism. Read
• 6.0 FilmHoundsGavin Spoors Charming and affecting, it feels like a film only Torres could make, yet this modern fairytale isn’t without faults. Read
• 6.0 Always Good MoviesFilipe Freitas Problemista is only partially satisfying and easy to overlook, but hope is its last word - even if it means achieving things forcibly - and some aspects addressed are so true that they stay with you. Read
• 5.0 DeciderJohn Serba Granted, the method will work for those who can hang on and ride Torres’ offbeat wavelength. But for others – especially those who chafed at the similarly themed and styled nuttiness of Everything Everywhere All at Once – the film can be a bit much. Read
• 5.0 The Boston GlobeMark Feeney Torres keeps a lot of balls in the air. But he tends to downplay the most important one: Alejandro's immigration plight. Read
• 4.0 VarietyPeter Debruge For all his funny ideas, it doesn’t feel like Torres has a consistent world view, and the movie is poorly organized and unwieldy as a consequence. Read
• 4.0 The GuardianPeter Bradshaw It’s full of implausible cod-adorable happy-sad touches, the filmic equivalent of a decaf oat latte with a sprinkling of vegan gummy bears. Read
• 4.0 The ObserverWendy Ide Against all expectations, an odd-couple friendship develops. Or so this needy, Kaufmanesque indie would have us believe. In practice, however, Swinton is massively overblown and Torres too wispy and diffident to balance things out. Read
• 4.0 The Straits TimesWhang Yee Ling The whimsy is wearying and gets in the way of a real story on the surreal immigrant experience. Read
• 4.0 Financial TimesJonathan Romney Problemista is undeniably inventive, but it’s also rather joyless and ultimately infuriating. Like a Slinky that refuses to walk down stairs. Read
• 4.0 El antepenúltimo mohicanoYago Paris The results are different when it comes to playing with absurd humour and runaway creativity, which rarely overflows. There is a notable excess of histrionics, more attention-grabbing than genuinely striking. Read
• 4.0 Decine21José María Aresté A bizarre film, surely the golden dream of its director, writer, producer and star Julio Torres, who makes his debut behind the camera drawing partly on his own experience as an immigrant. Read
• 3.8 Slant MagazineEd Gonzalez Problemista swings so erratically for the fences that Torres doesn’t lock on a target long enough for the film to work up a head of steam as satire about the art world and how it thrives on nepotism, let alone one about the frustrations of the immigration process. Read