I loved the imaginative and quirky but heartfelt approach to Problemista, which is both a comedy and a drama but with a dash of magical realism and science fiction thrown in. The story follows Alejandro (played by a delightful Torres), who is living as an undocumented immigrant in New York City, pursuing his dream of becoming a toy designer (his toy ideas are startling and wonderful). He's trapped in the impossibly circular immigration system, and his only path to survival may be through Tilda Swinton's character, Elizabeth, the eccentric and capricious art critic and the wife of a dead artist. Elizabeth wants to put together a show of her dead husband's art (art that nobody wants -- it features eggs) to honor his life and work, and she needs an assistant to help her do it. Alejandro, as an immigrant, needs a sponsor, and Elizabeth agrees to be his sponsor -- if he successfully helps her book her husband’s show. Nothing with Elizabeth is straight-forward, however, including her passion for her husband’s art-eggs, and Alejandro’s connection to her may be his salvation or his demise.   

The film isn't quite like anything else I've seen: it’s tonally complex, not shying away from the brutal realities of gig work and immigrant life in America, but also often warm and gentle, and ultimately hopeful.  Problemista also feels a bit like something from Michel Gondry (a la The Science of Sleep, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), or a less cynical Charlie Kaufmann project, or maybe a Spike Jonze film -- but also not quite any of them. It is beautifully unique and nothing short of a glorious feature film debut for Torres.  The cast is also brilliant: Torres himself, Swinton (in a bonkers, over-the-top marvelous performance), Greta Lee (from Past Lives!), Isabella Rosselini (as narrator), and RZA, among others.

I’d also highly recommend Terry Gross’s interview with Torres on Fresh Air; it is an absolute joy.

Finally, I have been looking for many weeks now for a film to play that might acknowledge the desperate situation in Gaza, and so we are grateful to be able to screen the 2019 documentary Gaza, in partnership with the Bellingham Human Rights Film Festival (BHRFF), who is sponsoring the film screening. With such support from BHRFF, we are able to donate the total proceeds of the box office to two aid organizations who are working in support of the desperate needs so many Palestinians currently face: Doctors Without Borders and Save the Children.   

Directed by Irish filmmakers, Garry Keane and Andrew McConnell, Gaza premiered at Sundance in 2019 and was Ireland's submission to the Oscars that year. It's a powerful and illuminating slice-of-life film, covering a period in the Gaza Strip between 2014-2018, following the lives of various, ordinary Palestinians as they navigate life under Israeli occupation, living in an "open-air" prison, as many have called it. We follow the lives of a taxi driver, fishermen, several children, a young cellist, an ambulance driver, surfers, an actor, and others, their lives offering viewers a sense of the rhythm of their days, the constant threat of violence, the rolling blackouts, the arrests, the longing for freedom, the ordinary joys and beauty of their communities. It’s a film that provides much-needed context, humanizing insights into life in Gaza even prior October of 2023. 

See you at the movies, friends. 

Melissa