Starring: Julio Torres, Tilda Swinton, RZA, Greta Lee, Isabella Rossellini
Director: Julio Torres
Country: USA
UK Distributor: A24
You can do worse than attracting Tilda Swinton (We Need To Talk About Kevin, Chronicles Of Narnia) to star as the lead in your debut film, but SNL-writer Julio Torres has done exactly that. In this magic realism comedy, the new talent also stars opposite the acting juggernaut, performing a script that he wrote too. Quite the feat for a new face in Hollywood!
Torres stars as Alejandro, an El Salvadoran migrant trying to navigate the complexities of the US immigration system in order to follow his dream to work as a toy designer at Hasbro. However, as the company is continuing to reject his applications, he works instead for a cryogenics company. Looking after a chamber containing a frozen artist (RZA – American Gangster, Kill Bill) he discovers one day that it is somehow unplugged and his employment is swiftly terminated, leaving him only one month to find work and a sponsor to allow him to remain in the USA.
He aligns himself with Elizabeth (Swinton), the wife of the frozen artist and an erratic art critic in need of a personal assistant, trying to make himself indispensible to her. She is a volatile dragon, with irrational expectations and an enormously inflated sense of self-worth. Self-centred, brash and maniacal, Alejandro soon realises that he has set himself an exceptionally difficult task in trying to plant the seed in her that she should be the one to sponsor him.
The film is a scathing commentary on the complexities of the US immigration system, highlighting how rigid and difficult it is to navigate. But with real dramatic flair, Torres keeps the tone light by turning Alejandro’s moments of bureaucratic misery into magic realism. He becomes a knight battling fantastical forces, with the Bank Of America a foe that must be vanquished, Craigslist a glittering wizard guide and Elizabeth a Hydra-esque dragon whose heads keep growing back, more numerous than before.
Torres is very likeable as the meek and mild-mannered Queer lead. But, of course, Swinton
dominates this movie from the moment she appears on screen. Given free-reign to create a grotesque antagonist somewhere between Miranda Priestly and Gollum, Elizabeth is utterly infuriating. Argumentative, capricious and completely deluded, this is a role that is in equal parts utterly irritating and completely compelling. It might be a one-note role, but Swinton is revelling in a part that just lets her do what she does best; unleash her inner monster in the most absurdist manner possible.
The film might have borrowed heavily from other movies – Torres’ voice role in Queer fantasy Nimona has clearly had an influence here, while using Isabella Rossellini as a narrator has been lifted directly from Closet Monster – but this is an amusing comedy with a big heart, which really does have something to say. While at times it looks, smells and feels like The Tilda Swinton Show, this movie actually belongs to Julio Torres with his talented fingerprints all over this impressive debut. Silly, sweet and – at times – ridiculous, this surrealist comedy is undeniably greater than the sum of its parts.
UK Release: Out now to watch on VOD, released by A24
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