Displaying items by tag: Juio Tores

PROBLEMISTA

US, 2023, 105 minutes, Colour.

Julio Tores, Tilda Swinton, RZA, Isabella Rossellini, Catalina Saavedfa, James Scully, Greta Lee.

Directed by Julio Tores.

What is a problemista?

Writer, director, actor, Julio Tores, born in El Salvador, with his strong career in television background, popular in the US, dramatises an answer.

Anybody looking at the cast before watching the film will be quite surprised to find Tilda Swinton and Isabella Rossellini in the cast as well as rapper RZA.

Tores plays Aleyandro, dreaming of being an artist, to design toys, applying for a job with Hasbro, rejected, then connecting with a cryogenic company – and a mission to recover 13 paintings by an artist who is being frozen, the commission from his haughty wife, played by Tilda Swinton, another very different performance. (If one wanted to see a haughty woman, imperiously impatient, continually demanding, momentarily relenting, then Tilda Swinton’s performance is well worth catching.)

All kinds of problems and complications, a range of characters and undermining Aleyandro – but his support from his mother and a reassurance at the end that his dreams well worthwhile.

1. Julio Tores, writing, acting, directing? His career and background?
2. The title, the tone, creative word? Aleyandro and his life and career?
3. The El Salvador background, Aleyandro and his mother, her fostering him, his art, the dream of the cave?
4. The surrealist comedy? Realism and fantasy? American style, Latin American style?
5. The New York locations, the apartments, business offices, the Freeze Corporation and cryogenics, the art world and galleries, the affluent world, immigration officers? The musical score? Aleyandro, as a child in El Salvador, the relationship with his mother, her fostering his art? The move to New York, his aim, toy design, the Hasbro models, his applications, internship?
6. Bobby, the dead artist, the nature of his art, cryogenics, the large paintings, 13 eggs? Aleyandro and the accident and the freezing? 30 days to deporting?
7. Elizabeth, Bobby’s wife, her character, sharp, demanding, angry, petulant behaviour? Aleyandro assisting her, planning the exhibition, his migrant status and no pay, subletting his room, Craigslist jobs?
8. The character of Bingham, hostile, undermining Elizabeth? The quest for the paintings, finding 12 of the 13, Dalia, past student, Bobby’s affair with her, Elizabeth’s jealousy and harsh review, Aleyandro’s apologetic letter? Dalia giving the 13^th painting?
9. Disputes with Elizabeth, Aleyandro and the filing system, the bitter phone call and argument, the imagining the dragon in the fights at the cave? Demands for copies, the freight issues and expenses, Aleyandro and his sex work? And the Hasbro development of one of his toys?
10. Paralegal, the immigration officer, the development of the show, the dragon dream and Elizabeth? On the cable car? Arriving late, all the paintings sold?
11. Aleyandro, reconciliation with his mother?
12. Elizabeth, the decision to be frozen, her giving him the name of the Hasbro exploiter of his invention?
13. The transition to the future, or reunited, Aleyandro is an old man, his success as a toy designer?