Emilia Perez

Movie: Emilia Perez

Running Time: 2:10

Nominated for: Best Picture, International Feature, Director, Actress, Supporting Actress, Cinematography, Score, Original Song (Twice), Editing, Sound, Make Up & Hair, Adapted Screenplay

How I watched: Netflix

When it had me: Some of the mystery

When it lost me: Melodrama

What systems does it challenge: I don't really know what to say

I've mentioned before that the french film makers and I are not seeing eye to eye, and here is another reason.

Remember when everyone loved Crash and then right after the Oscars they suddenly did not love Crash at all anymore? This movie feels like that. It will be interesting to see if I'm right. I saw another reviewer say that the movie felt tone deaf and I agree with that though it's really hard to put my finger on.

So what's good? Karla Sofia Gascon is really good. I liked Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez as well but their performances were more connected to the melodramatic tone of the movie. Karla felt like the solid core of it all. Ironically, I enjoyed the Production Design and that's one of the only nominations it didn't get. 

Speaking of that. Thirteen nominations? Why was it nominated for Sound? Granted, I watched it on a laptop so how would I know? But I don't even see what the sound elements were that caught their attention.

I sort of liked the melodramatic tonal approach to the film. It's a musical so it makes sense that emotions would be amped up. It's a strange musical, though. There's a song about sex change operations which felt really dry, exposition oriented and off putting. All of Gen Z has already roasted it all over the internet I think. But there are also songs about the emotional aspects of grief and self expression that work really well. The melodrama mostly seems like it serves the story but it also felt inconsistent with some scenes reading more realistic. It's hard to balance authenticity with melodrama (oof, I'm thinking about you, Wicked). Parts of the third act really started to feel like it was working but it's too bad I didn't get that feeling throughout.

There were aspects of the trans experience that felt like they were treated too broadly or from left field and I felt uncomfortable. I think knowing the film maker is also not trans made me wonder if the story was in the right hands. It sure feels like a no?

So what is the movie about? Is it about the transgender experience? Is it about drug cartels? Is it about atonement? Is it about family stuff? Is the main character really Emilia Perez or is it Zoe Saldana's character? I really feel like the focus wasn't there for me to know how to answer these questions. Which is why the lavish number of nominations is so confusing. And I'm willing to be wrong. If loads of people loved this film and it becomes a classic then I guess I just missed something. This movie displaced a lot of other films that might have received nominations, so I hope it doesn't Crash.