By Trey Voegtlin
Netflix’s “Emilia Perez,” directed by Jaques Audiard, is a musical-thriller following former drug cartel leader, Juan “Manitas” Del Monte, and his journey to a new life. Zoe Saldana, best known for playing Gamora in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, portrays Rita Mora Castro, a hustling lawyer in modern day New Mexico, who is bribed to help Manitas find a surgeon to perform sex change operations and plastic surgery. For little over a half hour, the plot flows through questionable musical numbers, leading up to the day that Rita and Emilia Perez, played by Karla Sofia Gascon, meet once again. Emilia Perez is the alias that Manitas now goes by, after faking their death to live a new life in Mexico. From there on, the movie progresses with Emilia reconnecting with her former wife, Jessi, played by Selena Gomez, and her two sons, posing as their aunt.
Overall, the movie isn’t as terrible as social media users tend to lead on, but it is far from good. The unbearable musical numbers mixed with the terrible stereotyping of Latino people and the trans and queer community, the movie has its issues. To add, the movie isn’t available in English without audio description, limiting the accessibility for Netflix’s other audiences. In short, the movie isn’t really Oscar-worthy. The acting was alright, but the film had so many critiques and controversies, that it shouldn’t even be able to qualify. This year, it was nominated for the following awards: Best Picture, Best Director (Jaques Audiard), Best Cinematography, Best Actress (Karla Sofia Gascon), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best International Feature Film, Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Supporting Actress (Zoe Saldana), Best Makeup and Hairstyling, a total of 13 nominations at the Oscars. To put it in perspective, this movie had the same number of nominations as films like “Gone With the Wind,” “Oppenheimer,” “Shakespeare in Love,” “Forrest Gump,” “Chicago,” and “Mary Poppins.” In my opinion, you would have had to do something extraordinary to stand with some of these films, and I think “Emilia Perez” simply didn’t do that. Was the movie terrible? No, but did it deserve its nominations? Not by a long shot. (★☆☆☆☆) [⅕]
Despite its praise in the nominations, “Emilia Perez” has had a scandalous fright that may change their chances of winning. Recently, racist and islamophobic tweets by their lead actress, Karla Sofia Gascon have resurfaced, amid award season. After deactivating her twitter account, she released a statement saying that she would remain in the race, but was deeply sorry for those she hurt. The question has remained if it will alter the way that the academy chooses their winner this year. Along with the scandal, social media users have been review-bombing the movie after the nominations were revealed. Faced with the harsh criticism, this has inspired others to watch the movie, leading to more hatred spread across platforms like TikTok, X and Instagram. Between the scandals, the review-bombing and the harsh critiques the film is faced with, its chances of winning have become slimmer by the minute. As for its fate, we will have to wait and see on March 2, 2025, if the academy looks past the controversies, and goes with the original opinions.
