“Emilia Pérez” — a captivating, heartbreaking and oftentimes bizarre tale of the consequences of cartel violence in Mexico — is a peculiar film. While the film’s characters are generally well-written, it botches its representation of cartel violence and the transgender community.
When it premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, critics lauded the film, awarding it with a standing ovation over nine minutes long. But after its Netflix release on Nov. 13, “Emilia Pérez” received mixed reactions from general audiences — and it’s clear why.
The film begins with attorney Rita Mora Castro (Zoe Saldaña) begrudgingly assisting with the cover-up of a high-profile murder, framing it as a suicide. After winning the case, Rita is abducted by two men who take her to meet a notorious cartel kingpin, Manitas (Karla Sofía Gascón). In the meeting, Manitas expresses his desire to undergo gender-affirming surgery and start a new life, and Rita agrees to help.
After a few international flights — and painful musical numbers — Rita finally finds a doctor (Mark Ivanir) who agrees to perform the surgery. Manitas is able to finally achieve happiness through gender-affirming surgery and gives herself a new name: Emilia Pérez.
To conceal her new identity, Pérez orders her wife, Jessi (Selena Gomez), and her two children to be sent to Switzerland. From there, the story weaves through a series of unpredictable plot points before reaching a predictable ending, as Peréz attempts to reconnect with her family years later, finds new love and deals with the effects of cartel violence.
The performances of the lead actresses — Gascón, Gomez, Saldaña and Adriana Paz — have been deservedly praised by critics. The four women were honored with the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival, and Gascón, Gomez and Saldaña have been nominated for numerous acting awards. Their portrayals compellingly depict the emotional turbulence encountered by their characters as they deal with difficulties arising from their connections to crime.
Gascón — who is nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards — has a standout performance. She perfectly illuminates Pérez’s transformation throughout the film, from her remorse for her past actions to the violent jealousy that leads to her demise. Pérez’s development throughout the film would not be as compelling without Gascón.
But beyond acting, “Emilia Pérez” has little to offer to the casual moviegoer. Despite being marketed as a musical, the film suffers from a lack of entertaining or even listenable songs. Many of the numbers seem like afterthoughts — conversational dialogue hastily converted into songs consisting of characters singing monotonously over instrumentals.
Saldaña, featured on the Oscar-nominated song “El Mal,” saves much of the soundtrack with her singing, though she does occasionally slip into her native American accent when singing in English. Interestingly, many of the songs sound better on Spotify than they did in the film, the opposite problem that “Wicked” — another 2024 movie-musical — has.
Several media outlets have critiqued the film’s portrayal of the transgender community as harmfully stereotypical and unrealistic, in part for promoting the notion that people can easily change their entire life and start anew via changing their gender. In the film, both the central character’s connections to her family and the cartel are erased post-transition, allowing her to easily become an altruistic philanthropist without truly experiencing the consequences of her past actions as a drug lord.
In fact, director Jacques Audiard has come under fire for his representation of both transgender people and Mexico after the film won best film, comedy or musical, at the Golden Globes earlier this year. Audiard, who is credited as the film’s sole writer, does not speak Spanish and is not Mexican himself. The cinematography also suffers from its subtle, yet noticeable use of the infamous sepia “Mexico filter.”
At the upcoming Academy Awards, “Emilia Pérez” leads the field with 13 nominations — the most for a foreign film in Oscars history. As the general public increasingly scrutinizes the film for its falsehoods and inaccuracies, the Academy is left with a choice: Will they award a well-respected director such as Audiard or vote for a more deserving, better-written film?
Manav is a junior from Indiana, concentrating in International and Public Affairs. In his free time, he likes attempting the daily Connections puzzle or falling down Wikipedia rabbit holes.
