Emilia Pérez

As a Spanish native speaker i found this movie disrespectful and childish. The spanish speakers characters can barely pronounce two words, turning the whole script into an uncomfortable caricature. Although disguised as a modern production, they fall into the same errors of typecast Latinos into same old stereotypes. The only valuable thing is the attempt to offer something different by mixing a Spanish language film with a musical, however its execution becomes irritating to watch. I'm sure any positive reviews must come from someone totally unfamiliar with the Spanish language, as this is a determining factor in making this film totally inedible and a endless meme material.

I will start out by saying I am not a fan of operas. However this film was not what I had expected. The main characters were mostly unlikable. The plot was rather ridiculous. Certain actors were very miscast. Selena Gomez needed Spanish lessons. I am sure that anyone who lives in Mexico will hate this movie. The director isn't Mexican. I saw all the awards at the Golden Globes and that is the ony reason I decided to watch it. If you like any of the actors, you may want to give it a try. However I would have to say watch at your own risk. It is one of the worst films I have seen in the recent past.

This movie is considered one of the best motion pictures of the past year? How? What a miserable experience. Why is this movie a musical? WHY? None of the songs do anything to advance the plot or tell us more about the characters, in fact the awful songwriting makes every scene with a song feel like instead of getting a deeper understanding of anything through song, the song is being used to tell us things that we can already see on screen and would be way more effectively communicated through better visual storytelling. The songs also don't really have any structure to them, they don't go anywhere. It genuinely feels like it was translated by Duolingo and the awful delivery of the lines (especially from Selena Gomez) doesn't help matters at all. Karla Gascón is fine...but not that fine to be nominated for an Oscar.

Sorry, I've got to say it. EMILIA PEREZ IS NOT A GOOD MOVIE. It's not a Razzie film by any stretch, but it's practically incoherent narrative flow, at times excruciating dialog and lack of internal logic leave it as a mediocre straight-to Netflix commoner in the movie space. I'll give you an example of its bad script, in the movie the characther says "Bienvenido" which means Welcome, but in the context of the conversation she means to say "Your Welcome", "De nada" in Spanish. It seems they did the writing in French and use google for translation. Yes, it covers some important themes and issues, but that doesn't make your movie good. You still have to build a fundamentally good film around the issues or it's just noise. And that's Emilia Perez... just noise.

I once heard that one of the great elements that should not be missing in a good script is emotionality, the construction of emotions and a good dose of sentimentality, so that the audience is hooked either to the characters, to the situations or to both. Of course, it's an element that must be combined with several others and mixed in the right and necessary quantities so that we can have a good story to see and tell. Well, Emilia Pérez has none of that. Zero. Nothing. There is no emotional construction of any character. The audience is bombarded with very direct situations that seem to be simulating a reality that seems, from its foundation, implausible. All this is done in a serious and apparently respectful manner, but it's like paying tribute to something abstract and indefinite.

The performances don't help. This is the worst Selena Gomez I have ever seen. Full of melodramatic exaggerations in a niche she doesn't belong in, and making it seem like she was acting reluctantly and forcefully. Even their songs in the movie are horribly performed. None of the songs are good, in any case. The rest of the cast has very discreet performances with the exception of Zoe Saldaña, who is the best in the film, however, I don't think it's enough for her to star in the awards season.

I empathize with the Mexican audience who has complained about all the cultural inaccuracies. I agree with everything that has already been mentioned before. This is a story about Mexico, made by people who are not Mexican and who didn't even care to look Mexican.

Regarding the gender identity part of the story, I think it's a mockery. It's an extreme situation that is very difficult to believe. An attempt is made to be inclusive with a delicate topic to end up being disastrously offensive with another ultra-sensitive topic such as the victims of extreme violence due to drug trafficking and gangs. It's thus a story without a head or tail, which was attempted to be put together to purposely polemicize and nothing else. It's really a shame that such poorly planned projects are given space, perhaps leaving out much better ones.

I don't want to close this review without first saying that the global film industry is very wrong if they believe that this is being inclusive, because this is a joke in very bad taste. It's a scandal that a film like this is celebrated with so many nominations and awards. Absolutely an aberration.