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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Peter Bradshaw

Problemista review – quirky hipster comedy lets Tilda Swinton go for the laughs

Julio Torres and Tilda Swinton in Problemista
‘In Driving Miss Daisy mode’ … Julio Torres and Tilda Swinton in Problemista. Photograph: Jon Pack/Jon Pack/A24

An explosion of pass-agg hipster quirkiness is what’s offered here, an everything-everywhere-all-at-onceuniverse of cutesy vulnerability and pseudo-childlike ersatz charm. Salvadorian-American comic and SNL alumnus Julio Torres, 37, writes, directs, co-produces and stars as Alejandro, an immigrant Salvadorian kid in the US, desperately trying to keep his visa and follow his dream of being a toy designer.

Incarnating a kind of offbeat creativity, gentle and innocent Alejandro walks with a weird marionette-bobbing motion and wears his backpack while indoors. His life changes when he gets a sort-of assistant job to the imperious and impossibly demanding Elizabeth (Tilda Swinton), whose artist husband, Bobby (RZA), has just submitted to cryogenic freezing, leaving her with the job of guarding his legacy and curating his first quasi-posthumous solo show.

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