The Best Movies Of 2024 So Far

A24 has garnered an incredible amount of prestige for a studio that’s only been around since 2012. What’s so great about it? Well, A24 has made many of the best films that have come out in the past ten years, including best picture winner «Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.» It has another slate of exciting films ready for 2024, and it kicked off the year with the brilliant «Problemista,» a new film from the mind of up-and-coming comedian Julio Torres. The film, which also stars Tilda Swinton, follows a young man named Alejandro (Torres). Alejandro grew up in El Salvador and moved to the United States, where he hoped to realize his dream of becoming a toy designer.

«Problemista» follows Alejandro as he deals with all of the struggles that come with immigration. He doesn’t have enough money to make a good start at anything and loses his job sponsorship almost as quickly as he obtains it. An eccentric woman named Elizabeth (Swinton) decides to employ Alejandro, asking for his help in putting together a gallery to celebrate her artist husband. Thanks to a whimsical, surrealist tone, a happy ending, and a particularly nuanced performance from Swinton (who humanizes the «Karen» archetype without providing false hope that such a self-obsessed person will have a real change of heart), «Problemista» manages to capture the desperation of poverty and unstable documentation status without leaving its audience bereft of hope.