Emilia Pérez (2024)

Amy called this movie "fearlessly weird" and we both loved it, a crazy Spanish language musical about a lawyer who is hired to facilitate the disappearance and gender reassignment of a Mexican cartel leader; and then more stuff happens. It has 69 wins and 187 nominations as of this writing, including many for Zoe Saldana as the lawyer Rita, Karla Sofía Gascón as the crime boss/Emilia, Selena Gomez as the boss's wife Jessi, and director/writer Jacques Audiard. Other notable cast members are Adriana Paz as Epifania, Mark Ivanir as Wasserman, and Edgar Ramirez as Gustavo. Amy, who is fluent in Spanish, noticed that Gomez's accent and delivery are not great. Gomez admitted this and that's why it was decided to make Jessi's character American instead of Mexican.

Audiard, who is French, speaks no Spanish, and had apparently spent no time in Mexico, had originally loosely adapted Boris Razon's 2018 novel Écoute (it's French for the word listen) into an opera. For this movie he shares writing credits with Thomas Bidegain for scenario collaboration and Léa Mysius and Nicolas Livecchi for [plain] collaboration.

Not everyone loved this by any means.. I'll quote one item of the plentiful imdb trivia: "The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) called the film a 'profoundly retrograde portrayal of a trans woman' that 'recycles the trans stereotypes, tropes, and clichés of the not-so-distant past.' The Latino community, especially Mexicans, also expressed their discontent over the film's stereotypical portrayal of Mexico and its people and for romanticizing the cartel and disrespecting its victims." However, see above for the awards and nominations. 

The songs, including the catchy tune La Vaginoplastia, are written by Camille and/or Clément Ducol and/or Audiard.

Saldana was last blogged for Amsterdam, Gomez for A Rainy Day in New York, Audiard for Rust and Bone, and Ivanir for A Late Quartet. Before her real life transition, Gascón had an acting career from 1995-2016 under the names of Juan Carlos Gascón and Carlos Gascón. Since then she has acted in two TV series and this is her first feature as a woman. Paz has acted in many projects––I haven't seen any––but Ramirez is quite familiar because of his work on Joy and the season of American Crime Story in which he played Gianni Versace.

Bidegain has dozens of credits, including Rust and Bone, others directed by Audiard, and the movie on which CODA was based. Mysius is new to me and Livecchi collaborated with Audiard on another feature. This is Camille's sixth time scoring a feature and Ducol's ninth.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are somewhat neutral, averaging 76%, while its audiences are downright opposed at 38. We watched it on Netflix on December 29.