Emilia Pérez is insulting, ignorant trash - it does not deserve Oscars

Sarah Carson writes:

If only more criminals knew that all it takes to wash away your sins and make the world a better place is to fake your own death, change gender, assume the identity of a long-lost aunt, move your widow and children back into your home, and start an NGO.

At least that is the bizarre, clumsy message of Emilia Pérez, the all-singing, all-dancing, Golden Globe-winning, Bafta-nominated, Oscar-baiting musical about a lawyer who engineers the disappearance and transition of a cartel boss and which features a number titled “La Vaginoplastia” set in a Bangkok gender reconstruction clinic that must have Rodgers and Hammerstein turning in their graves.

Emilia Pérez, directed by French auteur Jacques Audiard and streaming on Netflix, is this awards season’s unexpected success, and on Thursday earned 13 Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture, Best Actress (Karla Sofía Gascón as the eponymous Emilia), Best Supporting Actress (Zoe Saldaña), Best Director and Best Original Score. It is ambitious in scope, unpredictable in plot, earnest and weird and dark. It is also the worst film I have seen in years.

Emilia Pérez is an insult – to musicals, Mexicans, the trans community, and to the viewing public who generally consider films as a form of entertainment, rather than punishment. It trivialises cartel violence, delivers an apologist message for drug traffickers through its clumsy redemption narrative for an evil killer (antiheroes can be humanised – but good luck finding that kind of depth here).

It is a film of almost exclusively female characters, but they are written with no thought or strength of character and so the performances suffer. Saldaña is a charisma-devoid accomplice with no arc or motives of her own. Selena Gomez is a shallow mob wife only interested in money and sex.

Read more here: https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/emilia-perez-oscars-insulting-ignorant-trash-3498467