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EMILIA PÉREZ

(The 2024 Middleburg Film Festival runs October 17-20. Check our Chris Reed’s Emilia Pérez movie review. Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.)

There’s something deeply alluring about big, ambitious artistic swings, even if the result is less home run than messy triple with a slide into the bag to just beat the throw. French director Jacques Audiard (Paris, 13th District) delivers just such a play with his Emilia Pérez—adapted from Boris Razon’s 2018 novel Ecoute—a vibrant musical set in the world of Mexican cartels, with gender-affirming surgery at the heart of the plot. Unique in all kinds of delightful ways, the movie proves engaging throughout, even if some its narrative details and songs are less effective than others.

The revelation of the movie is transgender actress Karla Sofía Gascón, who plays both the pre- and post-operation protagonist, Manitas Del Monte/Emilia Pérez. She lights up the screen with her presence and singing voice. Every scene in which she features is a stunner. She beautifully incarnates someone whose identity crisis has fueled much of her vicious actions and who, that crisis resolved, wishes to make amends.

As Manitas, she is a ruthless Mexican cartel leader who contacts an underpaid and under-celebrated lawyer, Rita Moro Castro (Zoe Saldaña, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3), for help in her transition (which needs to be done on the very down-low), promising her quite the payday if all goes well. At first reluctant (and very scared), Rita manages to pull everything off, even moving Manitas’ wife, Jessi (Selena Gomez, Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building series), and the couple’s two kids to Switzerland. There, they will be out of danger from rival cartels, oblivious to what has happened, since Manitas fakes his own death.

Flash forward 4 years, and Manitas is now Emilia. Rita has done quite well for herself in the time since she completed her task, probably thinking her work is over. But at a London dinner, the two women meet once more, Rita taking a moment to recognize her once and future employer. Emilia has no ill intent, but needs Rita’s assistance yet again. She wishes to return to Mexico, with her children. The question of how this will be accomplished is left to Rita.

And so everyone moves to Mexico City, with Emilia posing as a long-lost aunt. Jessi is suspicious, especially given the effusive love the strange, heretofore unknown relative lavishes upon the kids. This seed of discontent will later have disastrous consequences, but for now Jessi makes do, even taking a lover (or taking an old lover anew, rather), one Gustavo (Edgar Ramírez, Yes Day). For a while, this family arrangement works, until it doesn’t.

Married composers Clément Ducol and Camille Dalmais (as in, the brilliant French singer Camille) have written a score and a series of songs that advance the narrative through evocative anthems and set pieces. The styles vary from ballads to full-throated choral pieces to raps, everyone demonstrating terrific vocal range. No doubt each viewer will have their own personal favorite. Mine is “Aquí estoy,” a powerful paean to survival and resistance in the face of violence.

For never, at any point, do we forget how we got here. Emilia has all the money she now has because of her past life as a brutal drug dealer and killer. With Rita’s encouragement, she tries to right previous wrongs by creating a foundation to recover the missing bodies of cartel victims. “Aquí estoy,” with its haunting lyrics and poignant melody, attests to the need for such healing efforts. Other songs land less intensely, but the overall effect of the score is one of musical intoxication.

Despite its considerable strengths, Emilia Pérez goes a little off the dramatic rails at the end, though this wild finish is perhaps nothing less than it should be, given the improbability of so much of the script. The performances are passionate, often bridging the gap between fantasy and possibility. Swing—or in this case, sing—for the fences, and it’s a joy just to watch the ball in the air, no matter the final score.

– Christopher Llewellyn Reed (@ChrisReedFilm)

2024 Middleburg Film Festival; Jacques Audiard; Emilia Pérez

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Christopher Llewellyn Reed is a film critic, filmmaker, and educator. A member of both the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA) and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, he is: lead film critic at Hammer to Nail; editor at Film Festival Today; formerly the host of the award-winning Reel Talk with Christopher Llewellyn Reed, from Dragon Digital Media; and the author of Film Editing: Theory and Practice. In addition, he is one of the founders and former cohosts of The Fog of Truth, a podcast devoted to documentary cinema.

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