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 organically from spoken dialogue, flowing so smoothly within the context of the story. They aren’t overproduced, sticking to the film’s grittier tone and muted colour palette. The camera work during these sequences is mesmerizing, with plenty of bold movement that adds punctuation to the lyrics. Even if the songs themselves aren’t incredibly memorable, the rhythm and performances had me hooked.
Zoe Saldana and Karla Sofia Gascón both dazzle with award worthy performances, deserving of the Oscar buzz surrounding them. Saldana’s expressiveness, especially during her musical numbers, is fantastic, injecting so much passion into the role. Gascón, on the other hand, gives a more subdued performance, but is able to capture so much of Emilia’s turmoil and broken heartedness in quieter moments. Selena Gomez has been receiving a lot of praise as well, and while she does a good job, I don’t think she’s able to match the magic the other two leads bring to this film.
Emilia Pérez is as daring as it is hollow, making for a film that looks and sounds a lot better than it is. Still, even though the thin gender and cultural stereotypes feel a bit icky, this is worth watching for the two exceptional lead performances and invigorating musical numbers.
3.5/5
Review by: Benjamin Garrett