Emilia Pérez | Review by: Benjamin Garrett
Emilia Pérez takes bold swings with its structure and themes, delivering an in-your-face musical that doesn’t feel anything like your typical musical. It also struggles with developing characters beyond thin cultural and gender stereotypes, resulting in an overall hollow, yet impressively audacious film. The film strives to explore what it means to shed old identities—both externally and internally. However, the execution of this core theme is a bit uneven, particularly when it comes to the portrayal of certain communities and characters. On one hand, I love the idea of this story, as I’ve never seen anything quite like it. On the other, it’s very apparent that these characters were written by a man unfamiliar with Mexican culture or the Trans community. Obviously, I’m not an expert, but watching this movie, I couldn’t help but feel like everything was just a bit… off. Where the writing and characters underwhelm, the musical numbers do anything but. They explode organ...
