Review: Emilia Perez

Official synopsis: Emilia Pérez follows four remarkable women in Mexico, each pursuing their own happiness. Cartel leader Emilia (Karla Sofía Gascón) enlists Rita (Zoe Saldaña), an unappreciated lawyer, to help fake her death so that she can finally live authentically as her true self.

When Emilia Perez started making waves at Cannes, I was not expecting this to be a musical about a drug kingpin getting gender affirming healthcare. You really have to hand it to director Jacques Audiard and his writing team for being this bold. Granted I've only seen a few of his other films, but none of them were as out there as this. 

Does it work as a musical? Honestly, I'm not sure, but I appreciated the camp in it. It does function as a very fascinating story. Zoe Saldaña gives the best performance of her career. It sounds like she's going to be campaigned in Supporting Actress for this upcoming Oscar season, which is category fraud at its finest. Saldaña is absolutely the lead and she shines. The film is largely told from her perspective, she gets all the best musical numbers and easily gives the best vocal performance as well. This is her movie.

Karla Sofía Gascón plays Emilia both pre and post transition. I can't think of another film where I saw a trans actor do both, so that did feel very different to me. Vocally, she isn't as strong as Saldaña but her acting his phenomenal. Selena Gomez gets props from me for going outside of her comfort zone. She might not exactly succeed at all of it, but I'm just glad she's doing something other than dead pan delivery.

One thing that absolutely did not work for me was the ending. It doesn't completely ruin the film, but it does tank it quite a bit. The screenplay is kind of messy throughout, but I was giving it grace for its originality, but I just did not like how it all ended. There were better ways they could've taken this story.

I'm glad Saldaña is going to get her flowers. She's been integral to so many big franchises and you know she's been waiting for a role like this. I'm also very interested in what Karla Sofía Gascón does next. I know she has a thriving Spanish career, but this is my introduction to her and she's wonderful.

Grade: C+