Movie: Problemista (2024) — IN THEATERS NOW
Writer and Director: Julio Torres
Starring: Julio Torres, Tilda Swinton, RZA, Isabella Rosselini (narrator)
Dear Julio,
The light and the dark—these two energies constantly dancing in the universe. Isn’t it marvelous?
How can we know resilience and power, truth and goodness, if we don’t also experience treachery and violence and stagnancy?
I can tell you, as a mother, I sure did want to protect my children from everything when they were born. My son most of all, because he was my first-born.
I was listening to an interview recently with the actress Sally Field (on the podcast Wiser than Me) and Sally said that when she had her first son, she was surprised by the fierceness that came through her in her efforts to love and protect her son. It was an energy unlike anything else she had ever felt. She would be ferocious if she had to. This is a divine energy of forceful femininity, don’t you think? What mother could we trust, if she was not ferocious in protecting her babies?
Julio, do you think that women are made to be ferocious in certain circumstances?
I loved your movie, Problemista. I love that tapestry of light and the dark, the coming-of-age-hero’s journey, the experience of systemic disenfranchisement, all through the eyes of a beautiful Latino man with a dream. Alejandro’s eyes are so sweet and innocent. Determined, yet unassuming. Knowing. Resourceful.
Contrary to him is this creature of feminine ferocity, Elizabeth, played by Tilda Swinton. Red and black and magenta and always angry. She also, strangely, embodies generosity and love and sure-footedness. No one can stop her. Everything buckles under her force. It is so grand!
As humans, we have the opportunity to acknowledge the flaws and hurdles of any systems we encounter…and simultaneously, we are also endowed with adaptability, creativity, and the continual pulsing renewal of the human heart. You manifested gold here. You parsed up the riff and the raff. And your character Alejandro did not have to stand with a gun, or cheat people, or debase human beings to get to his destination.
We are in an era now, as humans, where we are being shaken up so we can each uncover our true purpose, our true destiny. Our paths are not materialistic, however, and this is why so many people get lost. Our true destiny is finding one another in the deep well of love, lighting our candles of hope in dark places, wrestling with monsters and demons to find true power, and uniting in dignity. This means that when just one person becomes alight and steps into the bold, graceful, golden path, she or he becomes the harbinger of the better way.
What loveliness, hope, and inspiration you have established!
While many of us want to avoid the dark, or protect our children from it, the paradox is that the darkness can also contain the seeds and ripening of love. The fabric of our true and universal system—love—is always present, in every moment of our breath. When we have friends and believers who are rooting for us, we get to the other side of our rivers, eventually. Just one person believing can cause the tides to shift, the mountains to move, the sun to take a backseat to the moon.
There are two women who believe in Alejandro, this hero of Problemista. One is his mother, who dreams with him, and who also wants to protect him from harm. The other is Elizabeth, who is not nurturing. Her belief and love in him is like lightning walking. Her love is to challenge, to exacerbate, to amplify, to help him get refined in his own space and time. Through watching her persevere, and also seeing how useful his own energy can be to assist in getting something accomplished, he finds the spark he needs to stand up to the hierarchy in his own personal way. If this red-demon-woman didn’t simultaneously test his muster and encourage him to be great, who knows where Alejandro would end up? Probably filing papers into an aluminum cabinet made in 1965.
Wouldn’t it be lovely if all men had the courage to face the red eyes of intensity, head on, like Alejandro does? To keep their calm in the face of chaos? To walk determinedly forward, and weave the tapestries of collaboration? To take initiative and leadership to get something accomplished, and also fall deeply in love at the same time? To cherish their own perfect souls and uniqueness?
That’s the path of wisdom, I’ll bet.
J’adore Problemista.
Blessings,
Ms. Wonderful