the magical, silly and gay world of julio torres
from los espookys to fantasmas
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The first time I became aware of Julio Torres was from watching Shrill. The Hulu TV show based off of Lindy West’s (RIP Jezebel, but also it’s back??) book, Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman. He was only in three episodes, but his character left a lasting impression. Other notable roles include: The Other Two, Together Together and Search Party. From there, I began to closely monitor all his creative projects and hopped on the magical, silly and gay world of Julio Torres.
Torres was born in El Salvador and moved to New York City to attend The New School on a scholarship majoring in English lit. He’s written for Saturday Night Live, wrote a children’s book about disregarded objects (an analogy for self-acceptance) and wrote, directed and starred in A24’s semi-autobiographical Problemista.
His work spans over a decade and it isn’t until he writes, produces and acts where his world is fully realized. Let’s start with Los Espookys. A criminally underrated Spanish language comedic show about a group of friends who are in the business of designing and executing tricks on behalf of their delusional clients. The final result doesn’t look polished or professional, silly at best, but they’re left feeling proud and accomplished after each assignment. Like a freak of the week.
Problemista is probably his most widely known and successful project. The semi-autobiographical film where Alejandro (Julio Torres) must find someone to co-sign his visa or he must leave the country. He knows someone, Elizabeth (Tilda Swinton), an eccentric art critic. Alejandro is hired to help with the exhibition and he’s hopeful she’ll co-sign even though every task is unnecessarily cumbersome and excruciatingly bureaucratic.
His latest work, Fantasmas, a narrative-cum-sketch show about living in a draconian world where "proof of existence” is required for every transaction. Think of it as a government ID. Akin to Problemista, there’s the recurring theme of the immigrant experience in America. Torres often enlists friends to star in small and major roles, but because this is HBO Max (or is it just MAX now??) and Emma Stone is co-executive producer, we have some major (huge) and emerging names in the show. Bowen Yang, Natasha Lyonne, James Scully (real life boyfriend and star in the hit broadway show Oh Mary!), Cole Escola (creator and star of Oh Mary!), Kim Petras, Jaboukie Young-White, Spike Einbinder (sibling to Hannah Einbinder from Hacks), Kate Berlant, Alexa Demie, Ziwe, Aidy Bryant, Rosie Perez, there’s more, you get it! Go watch it.
In Torres’s cinematic universe, everything is surrealism, magical, irreverent, playful, colourful, peculiar, off-center and unapologetically queer. His work is fascinating and compelling because he hates main character energy. Julio and his characters are often never the star of the show. Everyone is deserving of their own storyline. Here at LoG, we also don’t endorse main character energy unless it’s Buffy. He draws attention to characters that are generally overlooked. Championing the underdog and fringes of society.
Homework:
Julio Torres On Surrealistic Comedy
Julio Torres & Patti Harrison Pitch "Straight Pride Parade" Floats for Pride Month
Julio Torres on Creating Objects and Environments that Have Something to Say
I would like to note that we are both born in 1987, both gay (obviously) and are both vegan and this is not an indicator of a parasocial relationship or otherwise. That would be crazy. Crazy. Really.
The iconic write up of the iconic star we’ve all been waiting for