The movie opens by showing the main character, Alejandro, a boy from El Salvador whose mother is an artist. Alejandro had a vivid imagination as a child, and his mother encouraged his creativity. However, she was worried about him facing the dangers of the natural world on his own.
Alejandro’s Struggles in New York
As an adult, Alejandro immigrates to New York City, dreaming of becoming a world-famous toy designer. He applied for a job at a toy company but was rejected. To stay in the US, he gets a job at FreezeCorp, a cryogenics facility that caters to artists. There, he is assigned to the case of Bobby Asencio, an unknown painter who exclusively painted eggs.
Bobby and Elizabeth’s Love Story
Through flashbacks, we learn about Bobby’s relationship with his wife, Elizabeth, an art critic. They had an unlikely but strong bond – she appreciated his egg paintings when no one else did. When Bobby was diagnosed with terminal cancer, Elizabeth promised to keep his legacy alive. In a desperate act, Bobby chose to freeze himself in hopes of being revived in the future.
Alejandro’s Impossible Situation
Alejandro’s visa is dependent on his job at FreezeCorp. He gets fired when he accidentally unplugs a backup generator, putting Bobby at risk. His immigration lawyer informs him he has one month to find a new job to sponsor his visa, or he’ll have to leave the US. Unemployed and unable to earn money without a visa, Alejandro is stuck in an impossible maze of immigration bureaucracy.
Working for Elizabeth
Desperate, Alejandro starts doing freelance work for Elizabeth to catalog Bobby’s paintings, hoping she will sponsor his visa. Elizabeth is a demanding boss with perfectionist tendencies. She dreams of organizing a solo show of Bobby’s 13 egg paintings to fund keeping him frozen.
The Missing 13th Egg
To complete the show, they need to track down Bobby’s 13th egg painting, “Blue Egg on Yellow Satin,” which Bobby had gifted to his mistress and student, Dalia. Elizabeth writes Dalia an apology letter to get the painting back, revealing her remorse over weaponizing a cruel review of Dalia’s work out of jealousy over the affair.
Financial and Technical Difficulties
As Alejandro helps Elizabeth, his financial situation becomes dire. Overdraft fees eat up his bank account. To make some cash, he resorts to demeaning gigs from Craigslist, like letting a man watch him clean in his underwear.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth becomes obsessed with syncing the painting database correctly across devices. She has meltdowns over minor technical difficulties and berates Alejandro when the databases don’t match. Her entitled attitude causes public scenes.
The Nearly Show at Roosevelt Island
Elizabeth and Alejandro finally secure all 13 paintings and get a last-minute offer for a solo show at a gallery on Roosevelt Island. However, upon arrival, they need more space. Elizabeth refuses to compromise on displaying all 13 paintings. Though the show falls through, they sell the collection to interested buyers.
Elizabeth’s Sudden Departure
After the successful sale, Elizabeth suddenly joins Bobby in cryo-slumber, leaving Alejandro a voicemail with instructions. She thanked him for his help and for understanding her when no one else did. She says the money should be enough to keep them frozen and tasks Alejandro with maintaining Bobby’s estate and painting the database.
Alejandro Confronts Hasbro
Bolstered by Elizabeth’s final message encouraging him to demand what he wants, Alejandro marches into the Hasbro offices. He confronts an executive named Brian, accusing them of stealing a toy idea from his rejected application. He threatens to expose them unless they hire him and sponsor his visa. Intimidated, Brian agrees.
The Distant Future
In a flash-forward to the distant future, cryogenic freezing has been figured out. Bobby and Elizabeth are woken up in the “Center for the Recently Awoken” hundreds of years later, appearing not to have aged. Elizabeth immediately clashes with the robotic staff over trivial matters.
Alejandro’s Legacy
It’s revealed that Alejandro had a long, beautiful life and a successful career as a toy designer alongside his mother. He designed beloved toys like “My Little Problems.” Near the end of his life, he, too, was cryogenically frozen. The movie ends with him waking up in the distant future, standing outside the Center looking lovingly at Elizabeth, fulfilling a dream his mother had many years ago. He informs Elizabeth that the painting databases are finally complete – bringing a sense of order to their chaotic story.
Alejandro’s Psychological Journey
More profoundly, Problemista can be seen as a psychological portrait of Alejandro’s struggles with his insecurities and identity as an immigrant and artist. While quirky and imaginative, his toy ideas often revolve around themes of pessimism, anxiety, and the harsh realities of life – perhaps reflecting his internal state. For example, his idea for a Barbie doll with crossed fingers behind her back suggests a preoccupation with deception and mistrust. His “My Little Problems” dolls reflect a fixation on the dark side of everyday life.
Even in the face of repeated rejections, Alejandro’s dedication to these gloomy toy concepts could be seen as self-sabotage stemming from imposter syndrome or fear of success. He may feel undeserving of achieving his dreams, so he subconsciously torpedoes his chances by pitching ideas he knows are too depressing to be marketable. Only when he channels his frustrations into assertive action, storming into Hasbro to demand what he wants, does he finally make progress – suggesting he must conquer his self-doubt above all.
Allegorical Interpretations
Some reviewers have suggested that the movie’s more surreal and symbolic elements are open to allegorical interpretation. One possible interpretation is that the entire story of Elizabeth and Bobby is a figment of Alejandro’s imagination—a mythic tale he tells himself to make sense of his journey and find his inner resolve.
Elizabeth can be seen as representing Alejandro’s “inner critic” or the voice of his anxieties—relentlessly negative, neurotic, and never satisfied, she sends him on a wild goose chase for impossible perfection. Her obsession with resurrecting Bobby’s failed art career and preserving his corpse could be a metaphor for Alejandro’s unhealthy attachment to his past traumas and losses. By learning to stand up to Elizabeth’s unreasonable demands, he symbolically masters his inner saboteur.
In this interpretation, Bobby’s frozen egg paintings represent Alejandro’s unfulfilled creative potential, trapped under the weight of his fears and circumstances as an immigrant. The missing 13th egg is the “golden egg” of his talent, which he must quest and fight to reclaim from external and internal obstacles. His finally telling off the Hasbro executive is akin to an artist defiantly rejecting those who have exploited him and asserting the value of his voice.
The distant future scenes could be dream logic, symbolizing Alejandro’s subconscious hopes. His older self represents his wiser, more enlightened potential, looking back on this pivotal chapter of growth. His waking Elizabeth and Bobby represent him integrating his shadow selves and putting old ghosts to rest at last.
Of course, such readings are speculative and unconfirmed, as the film maintains an ambiguous, open-ended, and absurdist tone throughout. But it’s fun to theorize!
Torres’ Satirical Targets
While the reviews disagree on how successful the film is as a satire, Torres aims at several targets with his dark, surreal wit:
The kafkaesque nightmare of US immigration bureaucracy, which keeps applicants jumping through hoops in a rigged system designed to make them fail. Alejandro’s Catch-22 of needing to make money to get his visa but being allowed to make money once he has his visa sharply critiques the way the process exploits immigrants.
The crass commercialization of art and how capitalism stifles creativity in favor of hollow marketability. This is symbolized by Hasbro ripping off Alejandro’s idea without giving him credit and the cringe-inducing art world politics Elizabeth engages in.
The tragicomic indignities of the gig economy, as Alejandro debases himself with increasingly humiliating odd jobs to survive.
Narcissistic “Karen culture” and how those with privilege weaponize their entitlement against service workers. Elizabeth’s constant temper tantrums over minor inconveniences lambast the petty tyranny of customers who “need to speak to the manager.”
The irony of corporations commodifying social isolation, as seen in the cryogenics company rebranding itself as a service for the chronically lonely and misunderstood rather than simply a form of assisted suicide.
Easter Eggs and Hidden References
The film is nicely packed with easter eggs and hidden jokes that are easy to miss on first viewing. Here are some possible implied connections (though not explicitly confirmed by the filmmakers):
Alejandro’s mother, Dolores, shares a name with the android host from Westworld – perhaps hinting at the story’s theme of escaping pre-programmed loops to expand one’s reality.
The cryogenics company’s name, “FreezeCorp,” could refer to the real-life cryonics organization Alcor.
The posters at the Center for the Recently Awoken advertising dream vaccines reference the plot of Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep.
Elizabeth’s art world frenemy Celeste may be named after the star Celeste, who feuds with Madeline in the show Big Little Lies. Nicole Kidman starred in a very similar role to Tilda Swinton’s character.
A sign at Hasbro advertises an incubator program called “Excelsior,” which is likely a reference to Stan Lee’s famous catchphrase.
The robotic staff at the Center are sly parodies of soulless corporate language and may be spoofing a mashup of Siri, Alexa, and automated phone trees.
Elizabeth and Bobby’s last name, Asencio, could be an obscure pun – “Asencio sounds like “Ascencio,” which contains the Spanish word “cenizas,” meaning “ashes.” Ashes remain after eggs are burnt, which could symbolize the couple leaving behind the scorched earth of their mortal lives.
The character of conceptual artist Dalia Park is likely a parody of the controversial real artist Dahn Vo. Both have three-letter first names and two-syllable last names and make work dealing with immigration and found objects.
Again, these ideas are just fan theories and speculation rather than confirmed facts. But for those who want to go deeper down the rabbit hole, it’s interesting to examine the many layers of possible meaning and allusion lurking in the corners of Torres’ mad world. Let me know if you want me to unpack other aspects of the movie’s hidden dimensions!
Conclusion
Problemista is a quirky, surreal film filled with moments of dark humor and biting social commentary. Alejandro’s absurdist struggles highlight the maddening bureaucracy and dehumanizing hoops that immigrants must often jump through to chase their dreams in America. In parallel, it tells a poignant story of the lengths people will go to for love and to feel understood. Alejandro and Elizabeth are an unlikely duo bonded by their shared experience as misunderstood artists fighting tooth and nail to realize their visions in a world set up for them to fail. The movie’s fanciful take on cryogenics adds a touch of sci-fi while offering a metaphor for suspending and preserving hopes and dreams in the face of life’s harsh realities. Ultimately, Alejandro’s dogged persistence in overcoming countless obstacles is rewarded with a surreal full-circle reunion with his quirky kindred spirit, suggesting it’s never too late for second chances.