As the 97th Academy Awards approach, set for the evening of Sunday, March 2nd, people have been discussing the many nominees and predicting which films will take home awards. The film generating the most discourse is Emilia Perez, a musical thriller directed by French filmmaker Jacques Audiard, which was released on November 1, 2024. While many critics have praised the movie, audiences have had a much harsher response. Despite being nominated for thirteen Oscars, Emilia Perez has a 72% critic’s score on Rotten Tomatoes, while the audience score is a mere 16%, highlighting the stark contrast in people’s opinions of this movie.
The film begins with Rita, a Mexican lawyer who is offered a job by notorious cartel leader Juan “Manitas” Del Monte, who asks her to help him retire from a life of crime and transition into a woman. Rita accepts this job, and the sex-change surgery is successful, with Manitas becoming Emilia Perez. However, this causes complications with her former wife and children. The rest of the film follows Perez as she attempts to atone for her violent past and accept her authentic self. Many have criticized the film for its lack of cultural authenticity and its stereotypical portrayal of transgender women, raising concerns that it may perpetuate negative tropes about the trans community.
After watching the movie myself, I can say that while Emilia Perez has a strong message and solid acting, it is ultimately weighed down by a dysfunctional mess of musical elements and overly ambitious efforts. To start, my biggest complaint about the film is the music. Emilia Perez is a musical, but I fail to understand why. The music in the film is, for lack of a better word, absolutely atrocious. None of the songs have melodies, and the lyrics are clunky and poorly written. While one could argue that the lyrics sound strange due to the movie being in Spanish, the problem doesn’t improve with the few songs in English. Almost all of the musical numbers sound flat-out bad.
Another recurring issue is that many songs abruptly end right before their climax. I noticed this as early as the second song of the film, where it ended suddenly and cut into the next scene so quickly that I was left confused. I hoped this would just be a one-time thing, but it persisted throughout the film. It almost feels like whoever composed the songs has never written music before.
My biggest complaint, however, is that the music feels completely out of place. It seems like the songs were thrown into ordinary scenes on a whim, making the film awkward. The lyrics sound like dialogue being sung for no reason, and many of the scenes would have been better without being sung.
It is also strange, and perhaps disrespectful, to focus on serious real-world issues like Mexican cartel violence and turn them into a musical. I believe the movie would be vastly improved if it wasn’t a musical and instead leaned into its melodramatic tone.
Aside from its music, many Mexican viewers have recently called out Emilia Perez for its poor representation of both the Spanish language and Mexican culture itself. While I can’t personally speak on this, many have complained that the actors do not speak natural Spanish, suggesting that they don’t really understand the language very well. Some Spanish-speaking viewers have even said that some scenes are outright comical because of how disoriented the Spanish is in the film.
Additionally, many have complained about the director, Jacques Audiard’s misunderstanding of Mexican culture as a whole. Audiard is a French director, and despite the film being set in Mexico, it was almost entirely filmed in France. Another strange thing that people have pointed out is the fact that none of the main lead actors in the film are Mexican. Audiard has been accused by Mexicans of a stereotypical, lazy portrayal of Mexican culture, one that clearly was poorly researched.
While again, I can’t personally speak on this, many trans people have also criticized the movie for an inaccurate representation of being trans. The biggest complaint seems to be that the film portrays Perez’s personality as split into two sides: one being her old, masculine self and the other being her current, motherly self. The problem arises when the difference becomes too distinct, with Perez switching between the two like a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde situation.
While I didn’t particularly enjoy this movie, I do think that there are some positive elements. Firstly, I think that both Karla Sofia Gascon and Zoe Saldana, who played Perez and Rita, did a very good job acting here. Both of them created convincing characters and did their best to deliver the poorly written lines. Karla Sofia Gascon (Perez), especially, being a trans woman in real life, did an excellent job creating a sympathetic yet troubled character going through an emotional time in her life. Secondly, the cinematography and the choreography for some of the songs were actually pretty good, albeit not perfect. Finally, the message this movie aims to deliver is a good one: it is okay to accept yourself for who you are, despite the challenges.
Overall, I think that Emilia Perez’s intended message is valuable. Right now, trans representation is important, and the fact that Karla Sofia Gascon is the first openly trans actress to be nominated for an Oscar is a huge achievement. But Emilia Perez, a movie with good acting and interesting concepts, is undermined by out-of-place music and a seemingly disrespectful nature toward both the Mexican and trans communities. I don’t believe the movie is really worth your time unless you want to form your own opinion about it, though many people do enjoy it, which is perfectly okay. I certainly do not think it deserves thirteen Oscar nominees, but we will soon see how well it actually performs.
