Problemista (2023)

Hasbro passes on a pitch for Cabbage Patch Kids with smartphones early in Problemista, and honestly, Hasbro blew it. That pitch is the whole movie in miniature: odd, sweet and a little in love with its own quirks. Julio Torres writes, directs and stars as Alejandro, a would-be toy designer from El Salvador who’s fired from his job watching over a frozen painter named Bobby (RZA) after one unplugged generator. Now he has 30 days to find a visa sponsor. Enter Bobby’s wife Elizabeth, an art critic Tilda Swinton plays like a storm system with a cell phone, who promises sponsorship if he helps mount a show of Bobby’s egg paintings. Torres turns paperwork into fairy tale, picturing his boss as a dragon. The jokes at banks, overdraft fees and the immigration maze are precise. Some stretches feel like whimsical sketches stapled together. It holds an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. A 7.3 because Swinton is a force and the bureaucracy satire stings. $20.27 says you spot a fee in your bank app this week and picture it breathing fire.

What works: Tilda Swinton is ferocious and funny as Elizabeth, and Torres’s jokes about banks, fees and the immigration system are sharp and specific.

What doesn’t: The heavy stylization sometimes smothers the story, and parts of it feel like a string of whimsical bits instead of one connected film.

Who it’s for: Anyone who has fought a bank over a fee, filled out an endless government form, or worked for a boss who changes the rules daily.