Image // Netflix
MUY TRISTE. Actress Karla Sofía Gascón represents audiences everywhere watching “Emilia Pérez”.
By: Sam Simons
Media Writer
I thought that the chaos that came with “It Ends With Us” was bad, but the release of “Emilia Pérez” is a nuclear bomb in comparison. The film was released back in November on Netflix, and it has been brought back into the light after receiving a whopping 13 Oscar nominations. While it may seem like a huge accomplishment, the contents of the film have caused muchas problemas.
To give a brief synopsis of the film, a Mexican cartel kingpin played by Karla Sofía Gascón undergoes gender-affirming surgery to become Emilia Pérez and then tries to build a new life with the help of lawyer Rita Mora Castro, played by Zoe Saldaña. The film as a whole covers topics like Mexican drug cartels, illegal immigration and transgender visibility. Additionally, the majority of the film is in Spanish, and…it’s a musical.
The scene of the crime begins with the film’s director Jacques Audiard, who is French, making a film about Mexican culture. Now this would have been fine if Audiard, despite his background, did his research. For example, was James Cameron on the Titanic? No, but he at least did extensive research about the real-life Titanic before making his film. Audiard, on the other hand, blatantly said in an interview, “I don’t need to study any of this, I already know what I need to know.”
The film misrepresents Mexican culture, which Audiard completely ignored. For starters, the film is supposed to take place in Mexico, but the entirety of it was filmed in France. Also, the film enforces many harmful stereotypes by portraying drug cartels as the most significant aspect of Mexican culture.
The Spanish in the film is also not fully accurate and understandable to native speakers. In fact, none of the actors in the film except for Adriana Paz were born in Mexico. Some actors, such as Selena Gomez allegedly only had a few weeks to learn Spanish, and one might wonder: why bother making actors learn a new language when you could just cast someone who already speaks it? This is all made worse by comments from the film’s casting director, suggesting that there were not enough talented Mexican actors to star in the film.
The film also doesn’t do anything in terms of trans awareness. Rather, gender-affirming surgery is presented as a sketchy, underground industry that is more like plastic surgery, and it is generally trivialized. And of course, this is a musical, so what better way to discuss this topic than in song? If you want to challenge your sanity, give “La Vaginoplastia” a listen.
Overall, the issues presented in the film feel like they were addressed half-heartedly or even without any heart at all. Those who have endured the film have also called out its inaccurate portrayals. You know you’re doing something wrong when you have the LGBTQ+, Mexican and musical theater communities all hating on you.
With all these problems, the million-dollar question is, why does it have so many Oscar nominations? There are many different theories about this, including that it could be “Oscar Bait,” meaning it was solely made to be nominated. Was the film made just to cause a stir?
When it comes to translating diverse characters and stories onto the big screen, it should be done with the right intentions. While “Emilia Pérez” on the surface embodies principles of diversity and inclusion, it does so in the most offensive way possible. Diversity should be about lifting everyone up, rather than reducing groups to their most basic stereotypes. Additionally, a film should at least be focused on telling a good story. “Emilia Pérez” fails at all of the above.
Overall, it’s nice to see ourselves and our experiences represented on the big screen. However, “Emilia Pérez” just shows what is wrong with society, and it moves us backward rather than forward. But hey, that’s just a theory, a film theory.
Voting for the Oscars began Feb. 11, and the fate of “Emilia Pérez” will be determined during March. But if any film should have gotten 13 nominations it should have been “Johanne Sacreblu” (look it up, trust me).