Film Journal 2024: Problemista
Directed by Julio Torres
Impressive for the ways it celebrates the simple virtues of authenticity and creativity. It defies categories, telling its story in a way only it can. What makes this work as well as it does though is the ways the filmmaker actively invites us as viewers into the process. It never operates at our expense, but rather seems to want us as viewers to find our place in the unconventional nature of its storytelling approach, offering us real moments of relatability and humanity amidst the experimentation. The real world issues it is exploring never feel clouded or lost, but rather they given a fresh, and often fun lens for us to see them through.
For a film that is about immigration and the challenges of the American capitalist agenda, there is something powerfully endearing about this films ability to the simple art of being human. It is the developing relationship between the two main characters that becomes the films heart and soul, with the social and economic concerns functioning as the contextual backdrop, and on this front the film offers an unexpected emotional punch. It doesn’t just want a system challenged and/or deconstructed, it wants these humans to find healing and success. Watching them find this in each other, a most unlikely friendship and pairing, is the true joy of this story.
The Stories of my Life 