Welcome back to the blog readers. As you all know, Oscar nominations have come out and this film has gotten an astounding (for one reason or another) 13 nominations. I had only seen people mocking this film for being terrible and not Oscar-worthy and I am on my expedition to watch every film nominated for Best Picture, so here we are. Would I agree with the masses that this film is a total disaster? Stick around to find out as I watch film 6 in my Best Picture Expedition.
Emilia Pérez was written and directed by Jacques Audiard, based on Audiard's opera libretto of the same name, which is in turn based on the novel Écoute by Boris Razon. The film stars Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, Édgar Ramírez, and Mark Ivanir. In the film, the leader of a drug cartel enlists the help of a down-on-her-luck lawyer to assist in transitioning into a woman.
The other wrinkle in this story as you know is that I am not the biggest fan of musicals. There are certain ones that I enjoy, such as Wicked (2024), tick, tick... BOOM! (2021), and The Greatest Showman (2017). And knowing this film was being mocked to all hell did not do any favors to me in terms of being excited for this film at all. And I definitely have thoughts about this film, not many of them good. The two things I did like about this film are the two leads in Zoe Saldaña and Karla Sofía Gascón.
The first performance I want to praise is that of Karla Sofía Gascón. Now I will not sit here and pretend that I had any idea who this woman was before all the award hype started coming out, but hearing she is the first openly trans woman to be nominated for Best Actress is something that makes my heart smile. And although she was not really given the best material to work with (something I will discuss later on), she absolutely makes the most of what she has, giving me a brutally honest and reflective performance that in my mind is deserving of all the credit she is getting for it. I found myself gravitating towards her character and the endearing journey she goes on, all because of Gascón's amazing role. She is still not my pick to win the award, but I would not be upset if she did get it.
Zoe Saldaña is one of my favorite actors working today because of the range she has. She also happens to be in the three highest-grossing films of all time: Avatar (2009), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Avatar: The Way of Water (2022). Long story short, she is loaded and does not have to take too many big roles. Hence her taking on the role of Rita Mora Castro. Like the performance of Gascón, Saldaña does not have the best material to work with, but she definitely makes the most of it in a performance for the ages. She definitely deserves that Supporting Actress nomination as she takes on corruption in a way that can only be described as powerful and vulnerable.
Unfortunately, this is where the positives with this film end. The first thing I need to point out is how painfully simple and convenient the script for this film is. Some of the decisions that are made in the film are pretty cringe-inducing and I don't really think Jacques Audiard really understood what he was writing. He knows nothing of the issues this film tries to present (and not even those and handled with the grace and respect they deserve because they are sensitive after all), and it does not help that a Frenchman is allowed to write a film about Mexico and Mexican characters without not doing any research or even shooting on location (the damn film was shot in France for crying out loud). This was a tone-deaf effort to press a few buttons, and they absolutely were pressed for a lot of people.
Speaking of those issues presented, we gotta talk about it. The first issue this film presents is the main one: someone is wanting to transition from male to female, but the idea here is basically dumbed down for the audience and really explained in a way that makes it painfully obvious and not relatable at all. The actors do their best to work with what they are given (as I have spoken about), but I think this idea is handles very poorly. It feels very one-sided and not treated with respect. The other issue I have with the issues is the fact that the film basically does a 180 and now all of a sudden our lead character is remorseful for what they did and is a hero amongst the people. This creative decision is absolutely frustrating and really devalues what the film is trying to say, and it really made me not want to see this film again in my opinion.
Finally, I have to talk about the god-awful music in this film. I read that the composer for this film, Clément Ducol, worked with French musician Camille to write the original songs, and Camille (who is FRENCH by the way) wrote the lyrics in Spanish with the help of a Mexican translator. This is just another reason this film was treated with such little respect and care, because wouldn't you get someone from Mexico??? Then add on the fact that the actual songs themselves are just bland, forgettable, and, in the case of "La vaginoplastia," memeable to all hell. The only song that I somewhat decently liked was "El mal," and not even that one is as catchy as its Best Original Song nomination suggests. Holy shit, man.
In conclusion, Emilia Pérez is a lazy and tone-deaf look at some hot-button issues that tries to get the best out of its performers with bland material. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.
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