You missed Problemista, be sure not to miss Monkey Man!
Two of the best movies of 2024 have already hit the theaters! Both to a lot less fanfare than they deserve, meaning a lot of audiences missed out on a chance to see them. They both boast directorial debuts, and tell stories that have historically been underinvited in Hollywood. I’m here to sing their praises and encourage you to watch them, in theaters if you still can, or keep an eye out for them on streaming.
Julio Torres was born and raised in El Salvador, immigrated to the US in hopes of pursuing a career in Hollywood, and brings those experiences to life in the whimsical and surrealist film Problemista. Torres is both the writer and director for the film, and he creates a wholly original world through this story.
Torres plays the main character, Alejandro, who grows up in a genuinely magical world his mother creates for him. But Alejandro immigrates to the United States on a work Visa in hopes of applying for a toy development program as Hasbro. Alejandro is bursting with original toy ideas, which are hilarious in how deeply confounding they are.
Alejandro gets fired from his job, which is where his work visa comes from. Giving him one month to find a new job, or be deported. In the world Torres creates an hourglass with Alejandro’s name on it is turned over, in a great hall filled from floor to ceiling with hourglasses. Further when the sand runs out of an immigrant’s hourglass, they dematerialize in a moment. Which is the brilliance of Torres’ film, his use of magical realism elements, fully realize the emotional world of Alejandro. After exactly 30 days his dream for his life in the US will simply disappear.
One of my favorite moments Torres explores through magical realism is when he looks on craigslist for work he can do that pays in cash, to try and stay afloat until he finds a new job. Craigslist is played by an actor, floating in a black nebulous space, his costume could also be an asteroid made of forgotten and discarded items. Alejandro has to navigate around the many strange objects to talk to Cragslist, who recites the different ads with malicious glee that I’ve only seen before in Ursula the Sea Witch. We the audience deeply feel how seedy this, Alejandro’s only current option for employment is. We feel the pull and the danger viscerally in a way literally showing Alejandro reacting the craigslist ads never would.
When Elizabeth; played expertly by Tilda Swinton, a volatile and entirely unpredictable woman, who’s incomprehension of the modern world frequently leads her to fly off the handle at whoever’s closest at hand (oftentimes service workers…); seems like she might hire Alejandro as an assistant, if he can just do a series of increasingly complicated tasks to her satisfaction, the movie truly takes off.
Unfortunately Problemista had a very short and underpublicized run in theaters, so keep your eyes peeled for its streaming debut.
Even if you don't’ know Dev Patel by name, you’ve seen his face. His first onscreen role in 2007 was in UK’s cult classic show for teens, Skins. He gained international attention for the leading roll in Slumdog Millionaire. Dev Patel has been working a working actor ever since. He consistently plays endearing characters, and has a special place in a lot of millennials. And his directorial debut, Monkey Man, is in theaters now.
Based off the trailers I went into Monkey Man, I was expected a visually stunning incredibly violent story of vengeance. And while I got that, is was so much more.
Patel plays Kid, who we quickly learn in the film lost his mother and his home as a child, when the Indian military violently took their community’s land. Driven by revenge Kid fights and loses as a “heel” in brutal cage fights, in a monkey mask, inspired by the deity he and his mother worshiped.
Foiled by his first plan to avenge his mother, Kid almost dies, but is saved by a group of trans women who have been pushed into a genderfluid hindu god. They nurse him back to health, but more importantly help him face his trauma, help him take the weight of his perceived failure to save his mother as a child off his shoulders, and make him understand that he cannot win if he doesn’t stay true to who he is. The connection this movie draws to a need for intersection struggle amongst all people, in this case represented by trans and indigenous communities, who facism and nationalism want to run out of existence, was done beautifully, and resonated deeply with me.
Another powerful piece of the film in it’s critique of hindu nationalism in particular is that the final boss wrapped himself in a peace loving guru identity, and was loved for it. I do not know enough about Indian history, politics, or culture to speak to this with great authority. But what I got from that portrayal was a criticism of leaders who use holy words, and their corresponding aesthetics to cover up and justify brutal violence against anyone outside their religion. Which while not the exact same flavor of religious nationalism we’re dealing with here, the similarities were impossible to miss.
Monkey man is still in theaters, but be sure to catch it soon, because it’s not going to stay for long.
If Patel and Torres are able to continue to keep making movies of this same caliber, they will be two of the greatest directors of our time. I can see the word auteur being attached to them both in the future. Be sure to see, support, and share their work with your friends and family. These are exactly the kind of stories I want to see put into the world!