Emilia Pérez is the Clear Example of Why not Everyone Should do Movies

Undefeated in the courtroom, Rita (Zoe Saldana), a Mexico City defence attorney, is enlisted to tend to the affairs of a notorious drug lord (Karla Sofía Gascón) who has grown contrite and is now completing gender affirmation surgery.

As someone who grew up in Mexico City, I was highly anticipating this film; the idea of Saldana playing a character in my home city made me extremely curious. I must say, I was devastated when I could not get my hands on a ticket for the screening of this movie at this year's VIFF (Vancouver International Film Festival). Today I finally saw ‘Emilia Pérez', the new movie from French director Jaques Audiard (Rust and Bone), and I wish I hadn't.

Jacques Audiard is a French director who has won eleven Cesar Awards, two BAFTAs, and four prizes from Cannes Film Festival. This gives the man somewhat of a prestige as a filmmaker; I mean, no everyone wins four prizes at Cannes. But after seeing his latest work, I might reconsider my last sentence.

‘Emilia Perez’ is the first movie that Mr. Audiard has written by himself (and I dare to say, it shows). The movie follows the story of a lawyer in Mexico City, Rita (Zoe Saldana), who gets hired by the head of a Mexican Cartel, Manitas (Karla Sofía Gascón), to help them get a gender affirmation surgery and later to fix their life. Additionally, the movie features the performances of Selena Gomez , Adriana Paz , and Edgar Ramírez . Did I mention the movie is a musical? The songs were made by Camille, a french singer, and the music was made by Clément Ducol, another french artist. Nothing against french people, french art, and french cinema, but in this case, they should have not made this movie. Here is why.

Casting.

As this movie is set in Mexico City, it is crucial that the cast speaks Spanish (if one will make the entire movie entirely in Spanish). Which leads me to ask: Why on earth were all these actors casted on this film?! They are incredible performers, don't get me wrong, but none of them speaks the language fluently (Saldana's Spanish is better than Gomez's tho), let alone have a Mexican Accent. Since the first dialogue of Saldana, I knew there was a problem As someone who grew up in Mexico, the accent (and horrible pronunciation of Gomez), kept avoiding me from immersing in the movie. I do know that Gascón is Spanish, but she does master the Mexican accent (as she has lived in the country for many years). In fact, I enjoyed Gascón's perfomance the most. For those who do not know who she is, you might know her from her role as Peter Pintado in ‘Nosotros los Nobles’ (the highest grossing film in Mexican history).

Story and Direction

Story is king. A sentence that should be engraved in every single filmmaker in the world. This movie lacks story. It felt superficial. The idea was good, it was just not explored in depth. Furthermore, why is a French filmmaker making a movie about Mexico's problems with drug dealers and the consequences it has on the Mexican people? Who gave him the right to tell (or try to tell) the story that millions of people live every singe day in Mexico? I do not only think that Mr. Audiard had no right to tell how life is in Mexico regarding the was against drug dealers, he did it in a way that is disrespectful to the country and the people living in it. A french man will never understand what it is like to see on the news names of people you know and are reported missing, or the fear of walking alone (specially at night), or how in Mexico if you raise your voice against what is happening in the country you will get killed. If this was not enough, it is clear that the movie had not a single person checking for authenticity, as most of the words used in the film are not said in Mexico. This movie feels like the director went to Mexico City for a day, stayed in the nicest part of the city, and left after hearing a thing or two. It is as if I, a Mexican Woman, made a movie about what it is like to live in Ukraine as a soldier. Do you see how wrong that is?

Music

If the miscasting, the terrible direction, and lack of knowledge in the movie were not enough to make it bad, the movie is also a musical… or at least it tried to be. As previously mentioned, the songs in the movie were written by a French singer named Camille (is she actually a good singer???). The songs in the movie were basic, beatless, and not memorable. There is not a single song in the movie that stuck in my brain (which is ultimately what a musical should do). After some research, I learned that the songs were translated from french to Spanish, which may be why they sound so horrible and do not rhyme. Again, if you are going to make a movie in Spanish and about Mexico, why not make the songs in the language they are supposed to be singed in? If the lyrics of the songs were not reason enough to take them out of the movie, the performance of the actors should be, most of them were out of tune. Disgraceful.

Editing

Do they know how to edit? Who's idea was to put the 3 screen divider? Horrible! This is supposed to be a movie worthy of a Canned nomination, not a movie done with editing techniques of youtube videos.

Production Design

Nevertheless, the only thing that I do applaud to the movie is it's production design. The movie was filmed in France, but was able to represent the Mexican street markets ‘tianguis’ in a way that I completely thought it was shot in Mexico. This could be the only piece or research that was done for the movie: the markets.

I strongly encourage not to watch this movie, specially if you are not Mexican, as it is a misrepresentation of the country's situation and its culture. Furthermore, it is a movie that does not bring anything new or worthy to the table or the craft of filmmaking. I am deeply disappointed by it.

note: the movie also talks about transitioning to a woman, but I do not feel I have the right to talk about the representation of the trans community as I myself am not part of it. However, I do think that the movie should also focus more on the challenges (in all of their forms) that trans people face after transitioning.