A deep dive into the controversy plaguing the internet and the movie that sparked it
How do you measure a film's success? Critics' approval? Awards? Or public opinion?
Emilia Pérez is the movie bringing these questions up. The Spanish language movie musical chronicles the story of a narco leader named Manitas del Monte who with the help of a lawyer named Rita (Zoe Saldaña) transitions into a woman, Emilia Pérez (Karla Sofía Gascón). Emilia then tries to atone for her violent past by setting up a nonprofit to help the families of victims of cartel violence while also trying to reconnect with her estranged wife, Jessie, (Selena Gomez), and children. The film first made waves at Cannes with 5 nominations under its belt including one for the prestigious Palme d’Or, then again at the Golden Globes when it won Best Motion Picture and later at the BAFTAS with its nomination for Best Picture. Oscar nominations in late January rebirthed the buzz around the film as it set the precedent of being the most nominated foreign film in Academy history and having the first out transgender actress nominated for the Best Leading Actress category. With 13 Oscar nominations, the film now stands with the likes of Forrest Gump (1994), Mary Poppins (1964) and Oppenheimer (2023)
Yet controversy arose when renowned Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez (known for Academy Award-winning CODA) first spoke out publicly regarding the movie’s failures and highlighted Selena Gomez’s acting by saying her Spanish and acting throughout the film is indefensibly bad. He added that most of the positive reviews for the film can be credited to non-Spanish speakers who don’t realize how bad Selena Gomez's Spanish is, a sentiment shared by social media users who used their platform to voice their own gripes with the film. Mexican actors and directors came to the film's defense. Renowned filmmaker Guillermo del Toro said “It is so great to see cinema. It’s so beautiful to see a movie that is cinema. And nobody says cinema like the French..” regarding Emilia Pérez. Even Eugenio Derbez retracted his statement after he faced harassment from Selena Gomez’s fans and even got called out by Selena Gomez. In a Tik Tok comment Selena said “I understand where you are coming from. I’m sorry I did the best I could with the time I was given. Doesn’t take away from how much work and heart I put into this movie. Also do not ever say my fans are the problem standing up, as you say, for me.” Following this statement, Eugenio Derbez apologized but it was too late as the fire of negative reviews for the film was spread by moviegoers who also noticed Selena’s lackluster acting. Social media users were further angered by Selena Gomez’s refusal to ask her fans to stop harassing Derbez which resulted in Selena Gomez herself coming under fire for not just her acting but her off-screen behavior as well. The criticisms continue to pour in for the film, not just for the acting but for the insensitivity in tackling the theme of cartel violence and failure to authentically cast Mexican actresses in the film.
Adriana Paz, one of the only Mexican actresses in Emilia Pérez, defended the film by sharing, “I was kidnapped 18 years ago, I am here because I take care of myself but it hurts me that people are interpreting this film in this manner and I am hurting because I don't find this film offensive.” Yet the film was considered so offensive that a few Mexican social media users decided to get together and make a satirical short film set in France that highlights and parodies the irony of Emila Perez’s offensive nature.
Further criticism for the film came from the transgender community which argued Emilia Pérez uses a transgender plot line as a way to show rebirth in an insensitive manner. This has been reflected most recently when, despite being the first transgender woman nominated for the best actress category at the Oscars, Karla Sofía Gascón failed to gain a nomination at the GLAAD awards. The film also got called out by GLAAD in an article titled Emilia Pérez is not good trans representation, which I highly encourage you to read as it analyzes the film from the point of view of transgender people.
The film has faced criticism for propagating harmful ideas of what being trans truly is. For example, Emilia is only considered a woman after she medically transitions which reinforces the idea that it is your anatomy that determines your gender identity, a belief that transgender activists constantly have to fight against as it invalidates transgender people who have not gotten gender-affirming surgery. This along with other concerns has fostered the belief that the film is preformative as it alleges it is uplifting transgender voices and experiences without putting any actual care into the portrayal of its transgender character. On the other hand, many have praised the film for platforming the first openly trans-Academy Award contender for Leading Actress and for hiring a trans actress to play the role.
These controversies have not been helped by the comments made by the cast and director of the film. Director Jacques Audiard has been criticized for his comments where he openly admits to not doing any research in preparation for the film and where he also says that the Spanish language is for modest third-world countries, Comments that were both extremely offensive and telling of the type of person and filmmaker Audiard is. Karla Sofía Gascón tweeted out a thank you to all the “good Mexicans” who appreciated the film which exploded on social media as users wondered what exactly she thought were the bad Mexicans? More recently Gascón came under fire for her racist and Islamophobic tweets that date back to 2022, as well as her false allegations against fellow Best Actress nominee Fernanda Torres of I’m Still Here, the latter of which could get her banned from receiving the Oscar. Her comments also managed to get her taken away from Netflix’s promotion of the movie which means if she plans on attending the Oscars she will have to finance her way there. Meanwhile, the film's only Mexican actress has been featured in a variety of interviews and panels in Mexico praising the film despite being excluded from panels abroad and having a relatively small role in the film. This has led many to believe she is simply being paraded around as an inclusivity token.
An additional point of contention was the film's use of Artificial intelligence. AI which was not only a huge discussion in the SAG AFTRA strikes but it has also been discussed recently thanks to films like Emilia Pérez and fellow Oscar contender The Brutalist which used AI to fix their actors' delivery of dialogue and/or song. In Emilia Pérez, AI was used to alter and improve Karla Sofía Gascón’s singing. Despite the controversy, there is actually nothing wrong in the eyes of the Academy with the use of AI if consent was given by Karla Sofía Gascón to do so (which it would appear is true considering she is still supportive of the film and has not commented against the use of AI to improve her voice). However, critics of the film have argued it is unfair to alter someone's performance and that casting should have ensured the lead of a movie musical could actually sing the part. After all, the casting director has outwardly stated that the reason why Karla and her co-stars got their roles over Mexican actresses was because they were the best fit for the role; but how can Karla Sofía Gascón be the best fit for the protagonist of a movie musical if she can’t even sing?
When I watched the film, I found myself laughing out loud at how appalling it was. First of all the dialogue was completely unnatural – in part because none of the actors are Mexican, so whenever they used slang it sounded extremely rehearsed and comically bad. Meanwhile, the songs did not only lack rhyme or sense but were also extremely forgettable and dull. In fact the songs were completely unnecessary and ended up taking away from the plot rather than adding to it as music is meant to in a musical. This was exaggerated by the fact the songs each sounded mismatched; one was a ballad, the next a techno-pop song that seemed more fitting for a club in Ibiza than the bedroom of a woman in Mexico City, and none of the songs connected to the rich musical history Mexico has to offer. Some of the best movie musicals lean into their environments’ music; Hairspray uses 60´s music, and In the Heights mixes Caribbean beats into its soundtrack but Emilia Pérez does not even try to disguise how separate the music is from the cultural context of the film. The lyrics of the songs are also extremely offensive and stereotypical. One song says that Emilia smells like mezcal, guacamole, and 'spicy, spicy food’ while another describes Emilia as a ‘half man half woman’.
Another major issue with the film is its racism, when Emilia Pérez is still Manitas her skin is much darker but as soon as she decides to leave that life behind and be ‘good’ her skin is lighter. I first saw this pointed out by social media users who argued the subliminal messaging of this choice was that skin color is somehow connected to the characters' morality and though I don't know if this was a purposeful choice from the director considering the comments made by Jacques Audiard I think it is safe to assume this could be rooted in racist ideology.
Equally disturbing was how the transgender experience was portrayed. Not only was the idea that gender-affirming procedures easily accessible and done all at once blatantly incorrect but the film also spreads the idea that transitioning changes a person's whole self. In the film Manitas and Emilia are considered completely separate by Rita, our protagonist/hero, where Emilia has no fault for the violence she committed as a cartel leader because she no longer ‘is’ that person when in reality the trans rights movement argues that transitioning does not absolve you of the crimes you committed prior to the transition as you are still the same person.
As for the most hated aspect of the film, Selena Gomez’s acting, the criticisms are true; Selena’s Spanish was in fact tremendously muddled and I could not understand why Selena wasn’t simply allowed to speak English. Selena Gomez’s character, Jessie, is American so she could have easily spoken English, especially considering all the other characters spoke English throughout the film anyway. There were also huge aspects of the plot that made no sense, for instance, why after growing up in Switzerland and with Jessie, who barely speaks Spanish, do the children of Emilia and Jessie have the best Spanish in the film? Yet the most disturbing plot hole was at the beginning of the film when Rita agrees to meet Manitas after an ominous phone call from him. Rita, who starts the movie singing about how horrible the violence is in Mexico City is acutely aware of the dangers a woman faces at night, so why would she agree to meet up with a random man she does not know and who sounds threatening? I also think this feeds into another major issue with the film which is how clueless the characters are to the unsafe environment they live in while actively being involved with this violence themselves. For instance, Emilia Pérez, a former cartel leader, is in utter shock as she discovers how many people have been killed by cartel violence, which is ridiculous since she was the one in charge of these murders in the first place. This shock launches us into the second arc of the film as Emilia decides to start a foundation where ‘repenting’ narcos can tell her where they have hidden their victims with this information Emilia is able to reconnect the remains of said victims with their family members. Though this is a nice thought it is completely unrealistic as there is no way narcos recall all their victims but there is also no redemption possible for Emilia and other former narcos as they literally killed hundreds of people.
On the bright side, the idea for the film is incredibly creative and has a ton of potential to tackle social taboos such as transphobia, cartel violence, and the intersectionality of being Hispanic and LGBTQ+. However the lack of sensitivity for these topics led to its ultimate failure.
Zoe Saldaña also stood out as a decent actress and singer in comparison to her co-stars despite her clearly Dominican accent throughout her line delivery (when her character was meant to have grown up in Mexico) and lack of force while singing. However, I will cut Zoe some slack on her accent considering none of the actresses could quite emulate a Mexican accent with Karla Sofía Gascón’s Spanish accent being particularly noticeable in her singing though I doubt anyone noticed Gascón’s accent in her singing because the singing itself was abhorrent. The best part of the film by far was the cinematography, the vivid colors, lighting, and camera movements were incredibly polished despite the stereotypical over-saturation used to show that the characters were in fact in Mexico (which might also have been done as a way to compensate the fact that the movie was filmed in France.) The cinematography must be the major reason why Emilia Pérez is nominated for so many awards. Considering most members of the Academy don’t understand Spanish so they either see the film with subtitles or English translations which saves their ears from the horrid songs and dialogue throughout the film. Additionally, most voting members aren't a part of the trans or Mexican communities meaning they wouldn't see how offensive this movie truly is.
So would I recommend this movie? Well if you enjoy watching silent films and are open to muting the film, absolutely but if you plan on genuinely hearing the dialogue and music then absolutely not.
So why is Emilia Pérez winning all these awards? Is Hollywood that out of touch with its consumers? Well, this isn't anything new Hollywood often overlooks the Latin American perspective and still doesn't know how to effectively portray transgender storylines so it is unsurprising that a film discussing these topics is immediately viewed as a positive representation without accounting for what the actual represented communities say about it. It is shocking to see how this film outranked other movies from 2024 which shared common themes and are genuine respectful representations, a clear example being I'm still Here. In my opinion, the reason Emilia Pérez has been so celebrated by Award shows is that the film is seen as a push forward for the film industry, amidst our current political landscape a movie that explores not only the story of a trans woman but a Mexican trans woman is extremely progressive as a concept — where the movie fails is in the director’s arrogance and refusal to put genuine thought and consideration to the communities the film depicts— but critics fail to notice this. Emilia Peréz is not just another horrible movie musical, it is the worst film of 2024.