Emilia Pérez?
13 Oscar nominations. What happened?
I would love to start this newsletter by telling you that Emilia Pérez is good.
I’m well aware that I have a very specific taste that can come off as film nerdy, pretentious and depressing. I get it. I apologize. I don’t play into it or heighten my takes for effect, but I can’t say it’s not fun sometimes to love something off the beaten track or hate something that’s everywhere (as long as it deserves it).
Anyway, it’d be a fun bit to like Emilia Pérez, but I can’t. It’s bad. It’s really bad. It’s actively irritating and ridiculous and transphobic and features some god-awful acting and it’s a slog to get through and it’s kinda racist. And did I say bad? I think I did, but just to be clear … it’s not good.
If we’re going through my 2024 year-end movie list, it’s No. 100. Yes, triple digits. And that’s out of 105 movies. I’m sure you have the list committed to memory, but just in case you don’t, the only things under it are the following:
101. Joker: Folie à Deux: A snoozefest and gratuitously violent piece of garbage that is a middle finger to audiences.
102. Argylle: If AI was told to write the most dull and nonsensical action movie imaginable. Also, make sure the twist is infuriatingly dumb.
103. Mufasa: The Lion King: An anti-art proposition by one of the biggest corporations in the world that has nothing to say and says it in as slow a way as possible.
104. Origin: A movie in which the ghost of Trayvon Martin gives a nod of appreciation to someone covering his story.
105. Unfrosted: Jerry Seinfeld’s magnum opus (derogatory).
Anyway, those were the five movies worse than Emilia Pérez. However, the reason we’re giving Emilia Pérez its own post is because it just recently earned(?) 13 Oscar nominations and is the frontrunner(?) for Best Picture. So, now we have to talk about it and plead to the voters out there to vote for something else. Anything else. Even Wicked if you have to.
Emilia Pérez for those of you who haven’t seen it (god bless you) is, umm, a lot. It’s an operatic crime thriller but also a family drama but also a trans saga but also a globetrotting action romp but also a comedy (at least according to its IMDb page). It’s better classified as an ill-begotten mess, which is ostensibly set in Mexico without having any Mexican bonafides (it was also filmed in France) and tells a trans story that feels more counterproductive and cruel than anything else.
The basic premise is that a Mexican cartel leader hires a lawyer to help her disappear so that she can transition into a woman but then *light spoilers* she decides that she wants to repent for her dastardly past and also she wants to reignite the life that she once had with her wife and children. It’s directed by Jacques Audiard and stars Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez1.
Now, I could tell you why I don’t like it—boring despite nonstop movement, poorly structured, ridiculously irresponsible—but it makes more sense to read and listen to those rightfully offended and disgusted by its plot:
I don’t demand total realism from every film that I see …. But I expect that a filmmaker so taken by the concept of transitioning, one who’s displayed a certain level of conscious sensitivity in his previous efforts to depict lives unlike his own, to at least display an informed understanding of what that concept actually looks like in practice. -The Cut
Is it not strange to set your film about Mexicans in Mexico and not even ensure that the Spanish being spoken is intelligible to a Spanish-speaking audience who is presumably watching without subtitles? I thought it was strange. And yet it is not surprising when you consider the fact that the movie, available in France in August and in the United States in November of 2024, will not be released in Mexico until late January 2025 (and only in theaters, not Netflix as is the case in the States). It stands to reason that the movie benefiting from stereotypes of Mexico and its woes was not intended for a Mexican audience. -Hmm That’s Interesting
A trans woman has created a parody film in response to French-made cartel movie Emilia Pérez, which has been criticised for disregarding Mexican screenwriters and actors and “being a Eurocentric production.”
Camila Aurora and screenwriter Héctor Guillén created a tongue-in-cheek musical titled Johanne Sacrebleu – a film about France made in Mexico, and only starring Mexican performers.
It tells the story of a trans woman who is an heiress to the biggest baguette producer in France and who falls in love with Agtugo Ratatouille, the trans heir to the biggest croissant company in France. -PinkNews
As these write-ups show, there are many shoddily thought-out ideas in Emilia Pérez from its evil-to-good trans plotline to its sidelining of Mexican stories in favor of an outsider’s perspective, and the filmmaking and writing are just as bad as its ideas. For example:
Now, I can’t imagine watching this scene and many (MANY) others like it and think this needs to be Oscar-nominated but enough people out there did. It’s got 13 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay and quite a few others. And you may be wondering, as I am, why?
I’m not in the Academy2, but I have a few theories on how this all came together.
International Voting
The Academy Awards have been trying to push a more global voting body over the last few decades, which mostly comes down to its voting body. Back in 2020, a Hollywood Reporter piece mentioned that 39 percent of new Oscar voters hail from outside of the United States, which has led to more diverse nominees and even historic wins like Parasite back in 2020. Last year’s Anatomy of a Fall screenplay win plus surprise noms over the last few years like The Worst Person in the World in Original Screenplay, The Zone of Interest getting a Best Picture nom last year and even the out-of-nowhere I’m Still Here Best Picture and Best Actress nominees this year all back up the idea that the international branch is making their ideas known.
A big, global effort from an illustrious French filmmaker filmed overseas with a wide array of actors (despite minimal Mexican representation) is something an international voter might lean towards, even if the movie itself is lacking.
A movie this BIG stands out amongst a crowded field and in a year without any real standout (think Oppenheimer or Nomadland which cemented their victories early on through precursors), due to the strikes, COVID residue and corporations acquiring and merging and going through changes, an “important” movie like Emilia Pérez stands out from the pack.
Awards-Baity Subjects
The term Oscarbait has become a bit of a catch-all for movies that general audiences don’t particularly like. I’m not going to describe a throw-everything-at-the-wall multilingual musical Oscarbaity, because it’s far from it, but simultaneously, the subjects it’s attempting (and failing) to hit on are big, important stories that voters love to reward.
Although I would say that it doesn’t say much of anything, Emilia Pérez features a trans actress and allows her to take over much of the story, focusing on international crime and do-goodery with haughty themes and questions at its center, such as “Does helping others eliminate your past?” and “Who is a person at their core?” That’s pure, old-school generic Oscarbait.
The Green Book Effect
Someone out there liked Green Book, I think. I mean, it won Best Picture and everything. But I do think part of the reason why it won was a “fuck you” vote from the older, more experienced Academy members sick of the ever-changing and shifting ideology of the voting body. Just two years after Moonlight shocked the world and a year after an out-of-left-field monster picture like The Shape of Water won Best Picture, Green Book (a 21st-century Driving Miss Daisy) felt like a push against where the awards were heading.
Although a bit more out there than Green Book, Emilia Pérez has the core of a 1900s Oscar winner, especially when you consider that it features big stars going for it, a famous (at least among the Directors Branch) director and what appears to be transgressive politics when in actuality it’s looking backward more than forwards. It’s a real middle finger to more interesting fare like Anora, The Brutalist, Nickel Boys and The Substance.
Netflix
I’ve just given you a bunch of reasons for the Emilia Pérez success, but the most obvious reason might be the main answer: Netflix. Unlike in years past, Emilia Pérez is Netflix’s big Oscar play this season with only Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, Maria and The Six Triple Eight getting any other noms. Netflix has money, sway in the Academy and their team is damn good at getting people to watch the streaming service’s movies. When they only have one movie that they need people to watch, you better be sure, they can get that done.
Despite much better movies over its prestige run, Netflix has been stonewalled when it comes to Best Picture. The Power of the Dog, Roma, Marriage Story, The Irishman, Don’t Look Up and Mank all got somewhere between very to decently close to winning the horserace, and now they have another shot with the very-well-nominated Emilia Pérez. If it wins, congrats. Netflix did it … but at what cost?
Anyway, that’s a lot of words to ultimately say that you don’t need to watch Emilia Pérez. However, I’d love it if you do, because I have no one to talk to about how not good it is. As they sing in Emilia Pérez, “A man to woman/A woman to man/A man to woman/A woman to man/A man to woman (Vaginoplasty makes this macho stand).”
Now, I usually like Gomez and it’s not like she’s given anything of substance to work with in this one, but she gives one of the worst performances of the year in Emilia Pérez.
Always open to an invitation!