Emilia Perez Is One Of The Most Unique Films
As I walk through the theater, I started to miss my childhood. The giddiness of sneaking in to see multiple movies in a weekend because we did not have the money to see all 4 of our desired, competing blockbusters. Yet, now, despite being a critic, I can go WEEKS without going to the theater for fun. Still, it is not because I review films for a living. It genuinely is because, currently, the cinema does not serve a space for multiple, fascinating stories. If anything, it is a horror film, a kids film, and occasionally a funny or comic book one. Everything is at home on Netflix, like Emilia Perez, which is worth a cinematic trip.
Written and directed by Jacques Audiard, this musical is so good. Musically, its artful compositions are an elaboration for the inner world of each of its leads. Unlike most musicals, the songs flow into the story like a heartbreaking soliloquy, in which a character reveals their fears and untapped passions at living at the behest to a narco world. Karla Sofía Gascón stunningly plays Emilia Perez, and deserves an Oscar that, unfortunately, I doubt she would be nominated for. She is gorgeous and mesmerizing as a trans woman that decimates her links to her past life as Manitas: a violent cartel head whom had been quietly transitioning for years. Manitas was raised to be an awful man, but since childhood desired to be a soft woman, which is what Emilia is: soft, generous, strong, and slightly lost.
Selena Gomez is excellent as Jessi: Emilia’s ex wife that presumes she is Manitas´ aunt. Now that her husband is gone, she resents still being moved around by his ghost, to which Zoe Saldana´s Rita can feel like, at times. Sister, protector, and hostage are some of the terms that could be used to describe her bond with Emilia. These are women that do not forget Manitas´ power and though that man is gone: the people he killed, the lives he tormented, and the family/ friends he never treated right still fall strangely to his dead feet, including Emilia. Despite her efforts to rectify and inspire peace and empowering change, the past cannot be forgotten just because you, finally, embraced the future you always knew you were destined for.
Amidst perfectly filmed, cinematic numbers that prove Saldana is one of the most talented, underused Latina-Hollywood actresses of our TIME, the real under-bed of this film is its philosophical question: can becoming who you are, erase who you’ve been? Does that transformation absolve you from the karma you have gathered? Emilia Perez was a good woman, but Manitas was very evil man, and the film sings and dances over the struggle we all have to be the light want to be in a world that corrupts so many into their own unwanted darkness. The film is set to release on Netflix on November 1.
