Emilia Pérez

10/16/2024

"Rita" (Zoe Saldana) is a lawyer in Mexico who finds her professionalism attracting the attention of the powerful drug lord "Manitas". He spends his time heavily guarded and constantly on the move as he pretty much controls the synthetic drug trade in and out of his country. What does he want with "Rita" though? Well tempted by a great deal of money, she makes the perilous trip to meet him and find out. Suffice to say she gets quite a shock when she discovers that he is determined to become a woman. "Rita" is now charged with the ultra-discrete task of finding a surgeon who can turn "Manitas" into "Emilia". Not only is this highly dangerous for the lawyer, but it's also no walk in the park for the gangster or his family who will need to be relocated and convinced that dad is no more. What

12/22/2024

It generally takes tremendous courage to stand up and proclaim that the Emperor is indeed naked, especially in the face of a crowd of willfully blind onlookers who contend otherwise. Nevertheless, there are times when this truly needs to be said in light of an inexplicably misguided view to the contrary. And that’s certainly the case with the latest from often-overrated writer-director Jacques Audiard. This jumbled mess of a film can’t make up its mind if it wants to be an edgy musical (given its forgettable songs and original score), a quasi-campy comedy (despite its palpable lack of bona fide humor but with a narrative that’s admittedly frequently laughable), a crime thriller (one that feebly grows ever more pretentious, meandering, implausible and uncompelling with each passing frame) o

1/22/2025

Is _Emilia Pérez_ the riskiest movie in years? A Spanish-language musical from a French director, about gendered violence and corruption, starring a transgender actress as a Mexican cartel boss who abandons his family, vanishes into hiding and transitions to become a woman. It's A LOT. And yes, the film has drawn some criticism. But it’s obvious that the soul of _Emilia Pérez_ beats with the daring of a curious artist who prizes emotional authenticity above all else. Could you give up your own family to live as your true self? How much can a person change at their core? Does the 'wolf' remain a wolf? While director Jacques Audiard doesn’t claim to have the answers, what’s clear is the film's unquestionable passion. _Emilia Pérez_ is a pure force; designed to grab us by the hearts

2/4/2025

How is it a white Irish-American can speak better Spanish than the Spanish speakers in this train wreck? And.... a musical with "penis" and "vagina" as the lyrics as it pushes gender transitions? What we have is an insult to Spanish speakers, an insult that pushes the Latinx concept that most Latino's reject, and then pushes the they/them that lost Kamala the race... so of course it has 13 Academy Award nominations. But the nominations don't mean it's any good. It's crap, it's a really bad movie and I feel horrible for the native Spanish speakers that this movie mocks and belittles. But of course it's going to get a boatload of nominations, it's woke AF. So woke, it's another box office bomb.

3/1/2025

<em>'Emilia Pérez'</em> is a film that I feel like shouldn't work, yet I did actually have a positive two hours+ viewing it. The musical pieces do take some getting used to and I'm not entirely convinced by most of them, but again somehow it didn't overly bother me whilst watching. There's no doubt, for me, that the greatest part of this is Zoe Saldaña. I've seen her in many roles before and I love her in those, especially <em>'Avatar'</em> and even in a tiny <em>'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl'</em> role, but I'd say this is her best performance from the 11 movies that I've seen from her. Outstanding! I also enjoyed those behind Saldaña, namely Karla Sofía Gascón and Selena Gomez; I watched the latter in 2012's <em>'Spring Breakers'</em> a few weeks back, her