Movie Review: Emilia Pérez

With thirteen Oscars nominations, a Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 72%, and a Golden Globes winner of multiple awards, you’d expect Emilia Pérez to be a great movie. You’d be unpleasantly surprised. After watching the
film, the 17% audience score makes sense. Emilia Pérez is a musical crime drama following the journey of Juan “Manitas” Del Monte aka Emilia Perez (played by Karla Sofía Gascón), a Mexican cartel leader who decides to go through with a gender-affirming surgery in order to escape her criminal past and then attempts to make up for the atrocities she committed while operating in the cartel. The film aims to explore themes related to redemption and identity in the midst of transitioning all while attempting to showcase
Mexican culture. However, all of these attempted feats go highly undone. The film does little to properly delve into these heavy subjects, leaving much to be desired, and it is as if they were only included to check a box rather than genuinely explore any of these subjects. The exploration of the trans-identity is lackluster, and it does not seem to delve seriously enough into the complicated nature of how a redemption arc is even possible for a former cartel leader. There is also the issue of the stereotypical depiction of Mexican culture, which has led to many Mexican actors and individuals boycotting the movie altogether or walking out of a viewing. So much so, that the major movie theater chain in Mexico, Cinépolis, had to clarify their policy from the sheer number of people requesting refunds due to their dissatisfaction. There is a decent amount of controversy surrounding this movie, not only concerning the general distaste towards the movie from the respective communities they attempt to tailor to. But the director himself is French, failed to cast any Mexican actors, and has made rather rude comments towards the Mexican and Spanish-speaking communities. Not only that but the main actress Karla Sofia has received major backlash for comments that she’s made. These only enhance the shallow way the film approaches its social themes.

Karla Sofia Gascón does alright playing Manitas/ Emilia. Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez also star in the movie. Zoe Saldana plays a lawyer trying to clear “Manitas” past and aiding in transitioning the main character. Meanwhile, Selena Gomez plays the main character’s ex-wife. Zoe Saldana does a decent job with the role she’s been given. Selena Gomez does seem to try her best here, but she is not fluent in Spanish and allegedly had minimal time to learn, so her dialogue’s cadence in the movie appears off, even to the un
trained ear. There is also the fact that this movie
is a musical. However, most of these musical numbers come off as poorly written and choreographed, with off key singing more often than not. It comes off as gimmicky at times and almost feels like an SNL skit of a musical
at some points rather than a serious film. Perhaps it would come off as more entertaining had it been made to be a comedy. Look up any of the
songs if you’d like to see for yourself. ‘El Mal’ or ‘La vaginoplastia’ will do. Perhaps a bigger blunder is that even with all the plot lines, music, and failed thematic exploration, the film begins to feel rather boring the longer it drags on, it becomes a struggle to even sit through one viewing. The overall filmmaking exudes a sense of being erratic. The writing comes off as surface-level and messy. So many plot threads come up that all just feel rather pointless in the end.