33/31
Emilia Perez follows four remarkable women in Mexico, each pursuing their own happiness. Cartel leader Emilia enlists Rita, an unappreciated lawyer, to help fake her death so she can finally live authentically as her true self. s film, and about the two extremes of her own personality that she had to play as Emilia and Manitas.. Jacques Audiard said he became inspired for the idea of the musical from a chapter in a novel about a drug trafficker who yearns to change his identity.. The French title card misspells the Indian city as "Dehli".. Wasserman: So. Does your client have a name?. Featured in Latino Slant: La Bamba Remake, Tarantino – The Spice of Jenna & Selena Shocks! (2024). The AllegationWritten by Camille (as C. Dalmais), Clement Ducol and Jacques AudiardPerformed by Zoe Saldana. Enjoyable enough movie with two demanding leading roles and two supporting roles requiring excellent performers. The first two are played by Zoe Saldaña and Karla Sofia Gascon, while the second two are played by Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz. This quartet shared the Best Actress award at Cannes 2024. They deserved it. Saldaña in particular is a revelation.Of writer-director Jacques Audiard's previous films, I've seen four (The Beat That My Heart Skipped, A Prophet, Rust and Bone, and The Sisters Brothers), each memorable in their different ways. None of them prepared me for this one, so hats off to him for not getting stuck in a genre rut. When the singing is paired with Damien Jalet's incisive choreography, the effect is thrilling. Otherwise, the songs drag the movie down. They are musical-theatre lite, don't dig deep, so are not up to the dramatic demands put upon them. They're at their best in the rap-inclined numbers, where rhythm is the most important element.The moral of Emilia Perez seems to be that we can never slough off the past, change who we are or what we want. It's a strangely bleak vision to present in a musical.