‘Emilia Pérez’: Should You Watch Netflix’s New Oscar Contender?

Premiering at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival ahead of its Fall Film Festival run, Emilia Pérez is the brainchild of writer/director Jacques Audiard (Paris, 13th District; Rust and Bone), who was inspired by a transgender Mexican drug dealer character in Boris Razon’s novel “Écoute” enough to create an opera libretto around such a character before adapting it for the screen.

Set largely in Mexico, the story is set into motion with the meeting of underappreciated lawyer Rita Mora Castro (Zoe Saldaña) and her new potential client, cartel kingpin Juan “Manitas” Del Monte (Karla Sofía Gascón), who expresses the desire to covertly undergo gender affirming surgery and begin a new, authentic life.

After having successfully transitioned to her new beginnings as Emilia Pérez & staging the death of her past kingpin life, she seeks out Rita once again to help her reunite with her family under one roof back in Mexico. Posing as a distant cousin of “Manitas”, Emilia gets her wish as she gets to live alongside her children and her “widow” Jessi (Selena Gomez).

With everything seemingly moving in the right direction, Emilia can finally look forward to the future; But, at every turn, she finds she must reckon with her criminal & romantic past and try to figure out how to move on before it all comes crashing down.

As you can imagine by the prior description, Emilia Pérez is A LOT of movie. Musical. Drama. Comedy. Action. Crime thriller. The genre explosion knows no bounds. While that may sound like chaos, the brilliance of its script & corresponding production is the balance of all those tangled emotions captured scene by scene with incredibly adept actors in lock step with a visionary director.

This movie knows what it is even when the audience (Read: Me) may be lagging behind in the early going. Honestly, I don’t understand how the average cinema goer wouldn’t be quite frankly; the story starts with Zoe Saldaña’s Rita and her career aspirations for quite a while before helping “Manitas,” then it’s a race to get surgery for a drug cartel leader, and we come out the other side with what feels like a short film completed. Did I mention songs ranging from a full-throated, city-sprawling moral quandary to a whisper-tone conversation about gender affirmation surgery?

But don’t let ANY of that dissuade you from the multi-layered, theme-crushing unicorn that lies ahead. While transgender inclusion may lead you to believe it’s a pure and simple story about identity (and partially it is), it’s WAY more than that. It’s a tragic story of regret, what we can and cannot live without, the choices we make in life, and reckoning with our pasts no matter the changes we make for our futures.

The film is destined for several Oscar nominations and a couple potential wins, especially on the strength of the 4 incredible women who kicked off their awards campaign in Cannes with a Best Actress win as an ensemble: Karla Sofìa Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, & Adriana Paz.

Gascòn pops off the screen with her dual identity role giving such power & grace knowing when to kill us with delicacy or explosiveness. She seems to be a surefire Best Actress nomination. For what will probably be listed as a supporting performance, Saldaña bookends the film remarkably with a couple truly athletic musical numbers and tons of screen time mixed in. Gomez is a firecracker who oozes sex appeal and truly nails the final, tragic moments. And, Adriana Paz pairs so well with Gascón’s Emilia and breathes such life into the story of Emilia’s turnaround.

For more nominations, I can see possibilities in original song & adapted screenplay with a strong case for editing as it must have been a Herculean effort to reign in all the big swings, dance choreography, & action set pieces that the movie has to offer. Past Oscar nominee & frequent Audiard collaborator Juliette Welfling (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; A Prophet) deserves to make her return to the big show.

For some, including myself, the only knock on the film may come from the songs themselves as not all of them work in their moments in the story. While some songs really pack an emotional punch (like Emilia’s songs to her children or Saldaña’s opening number), some push lesser agendas or don’t register as well, like Saldaña’s more aggressive political song later in the film. Movie musical enthusiasts may also brush back against some of the more conversational, low-key entries and the limited number of more brashy & flashy scenes in total.

But let’s face it. The best part about Emilia Perez is that there is nothing quite like Emilia Perez. Always engaging, full of life, tragedy, and a genre flex or impressive set piece around every turn. Strong performances from the Fab 5 (tossing in an interesting Edgar Ramirez performance for dessert) with flowers to the production values on a very modest budget. It is the best Netflix film of the year so far and the best chance for an acting win at the Oscars since Laura Dern won back in 2020.

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Watch Emilia Pérez If You Liked

• I’m No Longer Here
• All About My Mother
• A Prophet

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MVP of Emilia Pérez

Karla Sofía Gascón as Emilia Perez / Manitas Del Monte

Let the campaign begin!

Being the titular character in an award contending film can be a daunting endeavor for anyone; now, add being your first feature film in a decade in a career largely set in television, then add being asked to play a transgender character before and after gender affirming surgery while you yourself have only started taking female roles in the past couple years yourself. Combine all that and go toe-to-toe with extremely popular veteran actors while a sizable percentage of your lines are musical numbers. Did I mention you have to be convincing as the head of a violent drug cartel AND a loving maternal figure to your own children? Gascón has to do all of this and more in a performance that convincingly expresses the massive range of emotions and genre characteristics that this uniquely framed movie demands. This is not only a performance that will be hard to top this year, but also a story worth celebrating.

Powered by larger-than-life lead performances with big ideas from a genre-bending script, Emilia Perez will stick with you long after it’s over.