Warning: Spoilers ahead for Emilia Pérez
Following the release of the 97th Academy Awards nominations, I finally decided to sit down and bite the bullet, by watching the 2024 Netflix film Emilia Pérez.
Starring Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldana, and Selena Gomez, the movie led the way in this season’s Oscar nominations with a staggering 13. While reading this article, I want you to keep in mind that’s more award nominations than iconic movies such as The Godfather, Citizen Kane, Shawshank Redemption, and Pulp Fiction.
In fact, Emilia Peréz is tied for second place for the most Academy Award nominations of all time.
Let me tell you, the movie did absolutely nothing to deserve that honor. I wanted to turn it off within the first 15 minutes, but somehow, I found the strength to persevere.
The premise of the movie is a Mexican cartel leader named Manitas Del Monte hires a lawyer to facilitate a sex change and create a new identity, becoming Emilia Peréz. All of this was within the first half of the movie.
The second half takes place four years later, when Emilia finds the lawyer again and asks to see her ex-wife and two kids, who she sent away after the operation. The lawyer grabs the kids and the ex-wife from Switzerland where they had been staying, and they go to live with Emilia in Mexico. They’re told that Emilia is a cousin of the presumed deceased Manitas, and a Mrs. Doubtfire-esque situation occurs.
From here, the plot somehow devolves into Emilia creating an organization to find missing people, falling in love, getting kidnapped and ransomed by her ex-wife, and then dying in a fiery car crash with said ex-wife and her ex-wife’s lover. All of this happened within a runtime of a little over two hours.
The cherry on top? It was a musical.
It was honestly horrifying to witness. The whole movie felt like an absolute fever dream of horrible singing and an indecisive color palette.
Most of the acting was subpar at best, although I will concede that the actors didn’t have much to work within the script.
The music was flat. The lyrics were bland, insulting, and, for the most part, just plain confusing. The production team has already admitted to using some sort of AI-voice cloning tool to fix some of the vocals, and I honestly can’t help but wonder if they used it for the lyrics too. Because seriously. It was laughable.
Now, I bet you’re wondering why they even had to use AI in the first place. It’s because they didn’t hire singers. Besides Gomez, the entire cast had absolutely no vocal ability. And even then, Gomez didn’t actually sing. It was more of a rap/singing style. I got the impression they were trying to recreate Hamilton in parts. FYI, they didn’t.
It honestly seemed like the director was trying to flaunt his artistic ability by including musical sequences. That clearly fell short. It was more tacky and awkward than anything else.
Speaking of the director, Jacques Audiard, the man is clearly a moron. He’s a cisgender white man from France, who had absolutely no business making this film. It’s almost like he’s playing dress-up with the culture of others.
The movie has already been deemed a “profoundly retrograde portrayal of a trans woman” and “a step backward for trans representation” by the LGBTQ+ rights alliance.
Mexican audiences were outraged, with complaints about the usage of Spanish accents in Mexico, horrible translations, and the stereotypical portrayal of cartels and drug violence.
Audiard actually admitted that he did no research prior to filming, stating, “I didn’t study much. What I needed to know I already knew a little bit.”
Yes, we can tell you ‘didn’t study much’. Did you also accidentally use the first draft of your script? The writing was about as clear as mud, and the pacing felt like being thrown in a washing machine. The run time was far too short for the plot, but somehow it felt like eons.
Many, many painful eons.
For some unfathomable reason, the movie also can’t decide what language it wants to be in? Almost the entire first half is in Spanish, but after, it’s like they just gave up. English is the primary language from then on, with brief switches for musical numbers.
The ‘character arcs’ felt more like character zig-zags. When Emilia began to feel guilty for her role in the cartel, she started a non-profit organization to find missing people.
Which makes sense, given she probably knew where half of them were.
She never faces any sort of justice or repercussions for the drugs she sold, and the countless number of lives she ended. Instead, she’s remembered as a local hero.
In the end, when Emilia, her ex-wife, and her ex-wife’s lover died, I almost shed tears of joy. I was so relieved that the film was finally coming to an end.
The only bright spot throughout the film was Zoe Saldana, who played the lawyer. Despite the absolute dumpster fire of a script she was given, she electrified every second of her screen time. In ‘El Mal’, a musical performance about government corruption, Saldana is a literal ball of energy (side note, the song’s topic is never addressed again). Her dancing is magnetic, and her acting is incredibly expressive.
Saldana was nominated for ‘Best Supporting Actress’, and I wouldn’t actually have any real objections to her winning. Her laurels are long overdue, although I do shudder at the thought of her potential Oscar win being tied to this movie. That poor, poor woman.
Circling back to the Oscars, I have a bone to pick with them as well. Out of 13 nominations, there are maybe two that the film actually deserves. And that’s just the nomination, I’m not even going to talk about whether or not it earned the win.
I’ve already discussed Saldana’s nod for ‘Best Supporting Actress’, but I’m also of the opinion that it deserved the nomination for ‘Best Cinematography’. Visually speaking, the film was well-done. That is to say, if I couldn’t hear and had no comprehension of language, I would probably have thoroughly enjoyed it.
But, you know the phrase ‘lipstick on a pig’? No amount of bright colors and unique camera angles can make up for a lack of substance.
And if I, a high schooler, can see it, it’s mind-boggling to me that a group of individuals at the peak of cinema critique cannot.
The movie was bad.
Movies that are made and marketed for the express purpose of winning Academy Awards are often referred to as ‘Oscar bait’, and I will quite literally eat my own foot if The Academy didn’t fall for it with Emilia Peréz.
See, there’s certain categories that ‘Oscar bait’ movies tend to fall under.
Looks like it was made by a film student who just figured out that there’s more than one camera angle? Check.
Progressive yet still offensive? Check.
Relatively ‘foreign’? Check.
A tragedy that attempts to also be a social commentary? Double check.
The fact of the matter is, The Academy clearly can’t spot a sycophant when they see one. Netflix sucked up to a bunch of film buffs, and instead of actually viewing the movie with a critical eye, Emilia Peréz was instead nominated for 13 Oscars, becoming a mockery of both culture and inclusion.
