November 16, 2024
FILM: EMILIA PEREZ
DIRECTED BY: JACQUES AUDIARD
STARRING: ZOE SANDANA, KARLA SOFIA GASCON, SELENA GOMEZ
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
Earlier this year the three leads of Emilia Perez won a joint Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival. At the time, it seemed like an odd and unprecedented move but now having watched the film, I can see why it would have been hard to separate these three very good performances. Zoe Saldana plays the first of the characters we meet. She is a lawyer named Rita who looks a bit hardened and weary. Then Rita is rather suddenly thrown into the world of drug cartels when she meets Manitas, a drug lord who wants Rita to help him with his transition to become a woman, the title character Emilia. Manitas is married to Jessi, played by Selena Gomez, and they have two small children. Through a series of events the transition occurs fairly early in the narrative but connections continue between all three women.
Director Jacques Audiard (Rust and Bone, A Prophet) co-wrote the script which is filled with a number of intriguing twists and turns. You may have heard that the film is also partially a musical. Early scenes show numbers in the dark streets and even one in a hospital where transition surgeries are taking place. This latter one may be the most “musical” of all of the sung sequences. It’s rather light and airy and has some interesting choreography. However, if you’re looking for a traditional musical in any other way, Emilia Perez is not it. While there are moments when characters begin to sing seemingly out of nowhere, there are other scenes when the style is more talk singing. Both Saldana and Gomez have at least one significant number they perform but the style is grittier than what one might expect. Roving cameras make the productions feel slightly like music videos but without as many scenic changes or overly fast-paced editing. There are even points when one might forget that the element of singing is even a part of the film. I asked myself a few times, “are these numbers even necessary?” They ultimately do work though as there is a performative aspect to what the characters are doing at various points in the film. As such, these scenes are never overdone or overly long.
Thematically the film explores something we’ve seen in other films which questions if demons and violence are part of one’s inner being or if they can be dispersed with after hormonal or other physical changes to a body. Emilia, for much of the film, becomes a do-gooder, trying to help families find their missing loved ones. Is she “playing” this part or has she truly changed? Did she really want to transition because she felt she was always a woman or does she do it to hide from authorities and other criminals? Neither of these questions are ever really answered so I guess it is up to individual viewers to make that call. Clearly, the direction Emilia goes as a public figure and when posing as a relative of Manitas is risky considering she wants people to assume that Manitas is dead.
Karla Sofia Gascon is very good as Emilia. Perhaps it is even more impressive that she chose to play Manitas in the earlier sequences of the film. That character has a gruff appearance and deeper, gravel-sounding voice. The transition is quite effectively captured on screen. A sweetness and warmth arrives, and only later are there brief traces of who she was thanks to Gascon’s skillful use of her voice and physical body.
Zoe Saldana is also quite strong as Rita, showing some subtle transitions in her own complex character. I’ve never been a big fan of Selena Gomez on Only Murders in the Building. I find her performance in the series to be one note and her speaking voice comes across as flat and frankly, a little annoying. However, she’s a revelation to me here. She does more in this film than she’s been able to do in several seasons on that series. Her physicality is much more on display and of course her singing voice is given a chance to enter the spotlight. She also must demonstrate a pretty wide set of emotions which she handles very well suggesting she really can act!
There’s been some negative attention given to Gomez and, in particular, to the depiction of a crime-involved transgender character. I don’t think I’m the best to speak on either of those issues and I welcome other perspectives. For me, the film was very involving and original. You’re not going to see many films that take some of the risks that this one does.
Emilia Perez is playing in limited theatrical release and is now available to stream on Netflix.
FILM: EMILIA PEREZ
DIRECTED BY: JACQUES AUDIARD
STARRING: ZOE SANDANA, KARLA SOFIA GASCON, SELENA GOMEZ
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
Earlier this year the three leads of Emilia Perez won a joint Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival. At the time, it seemed like an odd and unprecedented move but now having watched the film, I can see why it would have been hard to separate these three very good performances. Zoe Saldana plays the first of the characters we meet. She is a lawyer named Rita who looks a bit hardened and weary. Then Rita is rather suddenly thrown into the world of drug cartels when she meets Manitas, a drug lord who wants Rita to help him with his transition to become a woman, the title character Emilia. Manitas is married to Jessi, played by Selena Gomez, and they have two small children. Through a series of events the transition occurs fairly early in the narrative but connections continue between all three women.
Director Jacques Audiard (Rust and Bone, A Prophet) co-wrote the script which is filled with a number of intriguing twists and turns. You may have heard that the film is also partially a musical. Early scenes show numbers in the dark streets and even one in a hospital where transition surgeries are taking place. This latter one may be the most “musical” of all of the sung sequences. It’s rather light and airy and has some interesting choreography. However, if you’re looking for a traditional musical in any other way, Emilia Perez is not it. While there are moments when characters begin to sing seemingly out of nowhere, there are other scenes when the style is more talk singing. Both Saldana and Gomez have at least one significant number they perform but the style is grittier than what one might expect. Roving cameras make the productions feel slightly like music videos but without as many scenic changes or overly fast-paced editing. There are even points when one might forget that the element of singing is even a part of the film. I asked myself a few times, “are these numbers even necessary?” They ultimately do work though as there is a performative aspect to what the characters are doing at various points in the film. As such, these scenes are never overdone or overly long.
Thematically the film explores something we’ve seen in other films which questions if demons and violence are part of one’s inner being or if they can be dispersed with after hormonal or other physical changes to a body. Emilia, for much of the film, becomes a do-gooder, trying to help families find their missing loved ones. Is she “playing” this part or has she truly changed? Did she really want to transition because she felt she was always a woman or does she do it to hide from authorities and other criminals? Neither of these questions are ever really answered so I guess it is up to individual viewers to make that call. Clearly, the direction Emilia goes as a public figure and when posing as a relative of Manitas is risky considering she wants people to assume that Manitas is dead.
Karla Sofia Gascon is very good as Emilia. Perhaps it is even more impressive that she chose to play Manitas in the earlier sequences of the film. That character has a gruff appearance and deeper, gravel-sounding voice. The transition is quite effectively captured on screen. A sweetness and warmth arrives, and only later are there brief traces of who she was thanks to Gascon’s skillful use of her voice and physical body.
Zoe Saldana is also quite strong as Rita, showing some subtle transitions in her own complex character. I’ve never been a big fan of Selena Gomez on Only Murders in the Building. I find her performance in the series to be one note and her speaking voice comes across as flat and frankly, a little annoying. However, she’s a revelation to me here. She does more in this film than she’s been able to do in several seasons on that series. Her physicality is much more on display and of course her singing voice is given a chance to enter the spotlight. She also must demonstrate a pretty wide set of emotions which she handles very well suggesting she really can act!
There’s been some negative attention given to Gomez and, in particular, to the depiction of a crime-involved transgender character. I don’t think I’m the best to speak on either of those issues and I welcome other perspectives. For me, the film was very involving and original. You’re not going to see many films that take some of the risks that this one does.
Emilia Perez is playing in limited theatrical release and is now available to stream on Netflix.