Third movie in preparation for the Oscars, Emilia Pérez. This will contain spoilers for the film!
Emilia Pérez
Summary
The movie takes place mainly in Spain and focuses on the journey of Emilia Pérez (Karla Sofía Gascón), starting back when she was a cartel leader and hadn't yet transitioned. She recruits a lawyer, Rita (Zoe Saldaña), to help her fake her death and transition. Once, Rita sets that up, she helps Emilia fake her death and escort Emilia's wife, Jessi, (Selena Gomez) and kids to a safe house in a different country. Of course, Jessi now believes she is a widow and all alone.
A few years later, Rita runs into Emilia in London who tells Rita that she wants her family back. So Rita goes and gets them and tells Jessi it is safe to return to Spain and that they will live with her dead husband's never before heard of sister, Emilia. Now that Emilia's family is back with her, she decides that her next journey is to help give closure to families whose members have gone missing and are cartel related. Emilia then falls in love with a woman after they connect when Emilia tells her that they found her dead husband.
Jessi is going crazy, and it comes out that she was cheating on Emilia their entire marriage. Jessi is going to run off with him and take the kids. Emilia is not happy about this, so she cuts Jessi off, taking away all the money Jessi thought her dead husband left her. In return Jessi's affair partner kidnaps Emilia. Rita tries but fails to get Emilia back and Jessi, her new partner, and Emilia drive away. Until Jessi has a change of mind once she finds out that Emilia is her dead husband and tries to take control of the car, driving them off a cliff, killing all three of them. Rita is left to take care of the kids. Also, most of this was told through song, as it's a musical.
Rating
Rating: 0/10
I think this is easily one of the worst movies I've ever watched.
My Thoughts
I have temporarily renamed this category because there was nothing about this film for me to zero in on and say, "wow these details really made me like the film". However, I have a lot of thoughts about this film. Starting with the plot. Why were there so many events? I think it meant to show the life story of Emilia Pérez, but it just didn't translate that way for me because half of the events didn't make sense. I started to lose the point when Emilia and Rita reconnected then I lost it completely once the cartel came back into play.
A lot of people found this movie offense as it gives in to stereotypes, I am definitely one of these people. When Emilia expressed her desire to transition, I thought "awesome a film with main characters who are LGBTQ" but I stopped thinking that once Emilia killed herself off. I understood because she's a cartel leader and I believe transitioning would not be openly accepted but shipping off her family and not telling them completely lost me. It's not that they didn't accept Emilia, but they were never given that chance. I thought that really played into some harmful stereotypes. Then all the sudden Emilia wanted her family back and that annoyed me because she could've had them the whole time. It was obvious to me that Jessi changed her mind because she realized that she had once loved Emilia. I fully believe that anyone who counts this representation as progress is unfortunately very mistaken.
Though I do want to note one place where I thought people who disliked the movie were wrong. That's about Selena Gomez's character, Jessi. A lot of people I've seen online have criticized her for her Spanish accent. For that I would like to put in my two cents, her character's first language was English. She mentions a sister in the US multiple times, it seemed to me that she wasn't meant to speak perfect Spanish with a perfect accent.
A Positive
Usually this is where I put my favorite characters, but let's be honest I didn't have one and I don't think anyone else did either, unless you want to count Emilia's kids because they were innocent bystanders to this mess.
I would though, like to talk about the reason I didn't turn this movie off halfway through, and that was Zoe Saldaña. While her character had some moments and lines where I went "OH, no thanks", she did her best. I didn't mind her singing, and she did good with what she was given, I blame the script. There was one song that I almost enjoyed and that was "El Mal". For the first minute of the song, I was impressed I liked the choreography, the lyrics, the vibes but then Emilia Pérez joined in on the song and that immediately ruined it for me. Usually, I love a good song where two characters have overlapping lyrics and harmonies, but it did not go well in this song. If someone asked me who carried me through this film, I'd say it was Zoe Saldaña no hesitation.
A Playlist?
So, there's not a playlist for this one mainly because I can't bring myself to associate songs I like with this musical, after the Oscars are over, I hope to never give this musical a second thought. I usually like to listen to the official playlist while I write this, but I couldn't do that to myself either.
Oscar Nominations
How did this get nominated so many times? We'll never know.
Best Picture - I think the academy and I watched different films
Best Director - I haven't even touched upon the fact that the director is French and directing a movie primarily in Spanish
Best Actress - It is really sad that I can't be happy that this is the first time an openly trans person has been nominated for an Oscar. Not even just for how bad the character was but also because of the things she has posted online. I'm surprised they have not completely revoked the nomination.
Best Supporting Actress - At the award shows, Zoe Saldaña has swept the category so far, though I have other favorites in this category, if this film is to win one category, I'm glad that it's this one.
Best Adapted Screenplay - I don't even want to know what this was adapted from.
Best International Film - I was weary but hopeful when I first watched because it was a French film that takes place in Spain, and I was right to be suspicious of it.
Best Original Score - I tried to think of something to say about this but all I could come up with was: No comment.
Best Editing - My notes say, "I've never hated transitions more" and the technical aspect of this film was just not it either.
Best Hairstyle and Makeup - I didn't really note any hairstyle or makeup, it wasn't standout for me and that's good considering everything else.
Best Original Song - There is not one, but TWO SONGS nominated for this category, and I really don't get how. If either one of these is going to win, I hope it's "El Mal" because that one I can sort of understand.
Best Cinematography- I think transitions also are attributed to cinematography so it shares blame with editing.
Best Sound - I didn't note the sound either so I guess it was okay
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