Where did it all go wrong for Emilia Perez?

Where did it all go wrong for Emilia Perez?
Share:
Where did it all go wrong for Emilia Perez?
Published: Feb, 12 2025 13:38

At the start of awards season, Emilia Perez looked like it could come away as one of this year's big success stories. First there was a slew of gongs at the Golden Globes, including best comedy or musical film, and then came the Oscar nominations - it leads the race with 13 nods, and broke the record to become the most nominated non-English language film in the history of the awards. At the BAFTAs this weekend, it is shortlisted for 11 prizes; just pipped by papal thriller Conclave, which has 12. And star Karla Sofia Gascon has made history as a trans woman nominated for best actress at both ceremonies.

Set in Mexico but mostly filmed in France, Emilia Perez is an operatic Spanish-language musical which tells the story of a Mexican drug lord who undergoes gender affirmation surgery. In May last year, it won the Cannes Film Festival jury prize, setting it on its trajectory to 2025 awards season success. The film's acknowledgement seemingly reflected the more progressive attitudes of voters in recent years - but as its profile rose, so did the scrutiny.

US LGBTQ+ advocacy and cultural change group GLAAD has described Emilia Perez as a "step backward for trans representation", and highlighted reviews by transgender critics who "understand how inauthentic portrayals of trans people are offensive and even dangerous". The film has also come under fire for stereotypical depictions of Mexico and an apparent minimal inclusion of Mexican people among the main cast and crew. Of its main stars, Gascon is Spanish, US actress Zoe Saldana is of Dominican Republic and Puerto Rican descent, and Selena Gomez is American, though her father was of Mexican descent. Adriana Paz is Mexican.

In a post on X in January viewed more than 2.7m times, Mexican screenwriter Héctor Guillén shared a mock-up poster saying: "Mexico hates Emilia Pérez/ Racist Euro Centrist Mockery/ Almost 500K dead and France decides to do a musical/ No Mexicans in their cast or crew.". While stories about "narco" crime in Latin America have long been depicted on screen, Emilia Perez has been particularly criticised for its handling of the subject. Since 2006, a bloody war between Mexican authorities and the drug cartels has raged, claiming the lives of more than 400,000 people, according to government data. More than 100,000 have gone missing.

Read more:Mexico: Women at warThe city ravaged by a brutal and deadly drugs gang war. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player. Offensive? Or a 'crazy marvel'?. General audiences appear to have made their thoughts clear. On film database site IMDB, Emilia Perez gets 5.5 out of 10, while its nine competitors in the running for best picture at the Oscars rate between 7.3, for The Substance, and 8.8 for I'm Still Here.

On review site Rotten Tomatoes, Emilia Perez gets a 72% from critics, but just 17% from audiences; again, the rest of its Oscars competitors range from Wicked's 88% critics' score to I'm Still Here's 96%, or Nickel Boy's 65% audience score to I'm Still Here's 99%. The two takeways? The gap is clear whichever way you look at it; watch I'm Still Here. That's not to say Emilia Perez does not have its supporters. Speaking after a screening in October, Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro said it was "so beautiful to see a movie that is cinema", and hailed director Jacques Audiard as "one of the most amazing filmmakers alive".

A review in US entertainment outlet Deadline in May during Cannes last year was headlined, "Jacques Audiard's musical is crazy, but also a marvel", with the writer saying the "sparkle never outshines the essential seriousness of the subject". In Variety, another US entertainment publication, the headline praised Gascon's electrifying performance. Paz, who shared the Cannes best actress prize with her co-stars last year, has questioned the criticism about the film being "offensive" to Mexico, saying: "I really want to know why, because I didn't feel that way.".

Carlos Aguilar, a film critic originally from Mexico City who writes for the Roger Ebert film website, was generally positive in his review, giving the film three out of four stars. However, he highlights that Emilia Perez is "not a Mexican film" and notes "Mexican audiences have grown accustomed to American perspectives exploiting narco-related afflictions for narratives unconcerned with addressing its root causes".

Questioning intentions behind these productions is valid, he says, "but to decry Audiard for partaking in the common filmmaking practice of telling stories away from what's immediately familiar to him would seem an overly simplistic assessment". Karla Sofia Gascon's resurfaced tweets. But the criticism from some trans people and some Mexicans is not a good look for a supposedly progressive film about a trans woman in Mexico. All publicity is good publicity does not apply here.

Share:

More for You

Top Followed