EMILIA PERÉZ
FOUR AND A HALF STARS A vicious gangster wants out, Rita is charged with helping her live her true life
DRAMA MUSICAL FRANCE Spanish/English/subtitles #EMILIAPEREZ Starring Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña
EMILIA PÉREZ simply shouldn’t work. It is overflowing with so many ideas and influences from latin gangster through telenovela to teary drama, comedy and beyond that it’s impossible to imagine how these disparate elements could possibly become a coherent whole. Yet they do. Winningly.
Sincerity is the key. Directer Jaques Audiard (RUST AND BONE) confidently deploys all of the genres he’s engaged - crime thriller, soap opera and musical (yes) among others - but always treats them seriously. There’s plenty of opportunity to lean into the absurd but he doesn’t succumb to temptation and turns the material for a fever dream into something genuine, compelling, authentic and frequently amazing.
Loosely based on Boris Razon’s Écoute, the action starts in Mexico City. Zoë Saldaña is a frustrated defence attorney whose job description is ‘let the boss take credit for your work’. Yet her talent has caught the attention of a ruthless cartel leader, a man with an offer Rita can’t refuse. He (Karla Sofía Gascón) wants a new life away far from violence, but with many more enemies than friends, he’s developed an audacious plan to escape. It’s a plan a terrified Rita is charged with executing, one that will allow him to live his authentic self.
For the sweaty, scruffy and violent criminal with a mouthful of gold teeth has been receiving female hormone therapy. He’s ready to complete the gender-affirming process and Rita is tasked with finding the best surgeon while maintaining absolute discretion. Not even his wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) or kids can know.
Audiard has always been an adventurous filmmaker, capable of switching genres with nimble assurance, and no more so than in his ballsy tenth feature. He argues that the movie musical is the only genre to contain all this. The soundtrack by French artist Camille is ambient and anthemic, intimate and defiant with suitably eclectic choreography bringing it home. You know you’re in exciting territory when a film features a song called La Vaginoplastia.
EMILIA PÉREZ may begin as a drama about criminality and redemption, but soon turns into an exploration of gender identity, liberation, truth and belonging. Making that palatable is Audiard’s unforced current of Almodóvarian humor that binds melodrama, noir, social realism, a hint of telenovela camp and a climactic tragedy. All the good stuff.
It’s also a story about family. There are those who flock to Emilia the social activist, those like Rita whom Emilia pulls into her orbit, and those who’ve been there all along - her children, and Jessi. This new order is threatened when Jessi’s new love, the shady Gustavo, starts pulling at the threads of Emilia’s home life. The story takes another dark turn.
For some, EMILIA PERÉZ is too changeable, too chaotic to be cohesive. And there’s certainly a lot to digest. Yet with Audiard’s firm grip on the wheel, Saldaña’s compelling presence and Gascón’s truly commanding performance, this soars like the once-in-a-generation experience it is.
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