Netflix subscribers are fiercely split over Selena Gomez’s latest musical thriller, Emilia Perez, which made its debut on the platform this week. In her new flick, Selena steps into the shoes of Jessi Del Monte, a wife and mother of two.
The film, Emilia Perez, inspired by Audiard’s opera libretto of the same title, charts the journey of a famed cartel boss who recruits a Mexican attorney to assist in fulfilling her aspiration to transition into a woman.
Directed by Jacques Audiard, Emilia Perez was tagged as the most controversial picture at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and has just started streaming on Netflix since November 13.
Since its release, audiences have flocked to social media to post their polarised opinions, with some slamming the movie as “insanely offensive” and “incredibly boring” while others have praised it as “phenomenal” and boasting some of the year’s best musical sequences.
The bulk of viewers have left harsh critiques of the movie, with numerous comments lambasting the storyline as dull, offensive, and poorly cast. A recent Reddit thread dedicated to discussing the movie included one critic’s comment: “I’m honestly baffled that this movie has gotten any love at all. The songs are laughably bad, literally laughed at most song scenes because they were so ridiculously out of place and horribly written.”
They remarked: “The tone was all over the place. During the non-musical parts I would get mildly intrigued, and then the musical parts would begin and completely rip me out of the movie with its insanely shallow, childish lyrics and music. Felt like watching a bad SNL skit in many parts.”
Another viewer expressed their disappointment: “This was genuinely maybe the worst movie of the year for me. Insanely offensive yes (it manages to windmill slam on every single bad trans movie trope, and that’s even before you get into the Mexican culture aspect of it all), but frankly the worst part of it was how incredibly boring everything was,” and they continued: “Almost every song was entirely tuneless and sang breathlessly and strained, the editing was somehow lifeless despite wanting to do everything all the time.”
Meanwhile, another critic concurred: “I felt the same way about it being kind of offensive. I can’t speak for either community but if I was Mexican I’d be pretty bothered by it, making some horrible drug lord out to suddenly be someone who cares combined with casting it of mostly non Mexican actors in the lead roles.”
Viewers were enthusiastically effusive about the film’s sensational cinematography, sound design, and acting skills. Fans expressed their affection with comments like one viewer who shared: “The scene of Rita meeting Manitas for the first time will forever be burned in my brain. Absolutely incredible sound design and performances, I get chills when I think about it. I found the movie to be phenomenal from the technical perspective all around, so glad I was able to see it on the big screen.”
Another added their praise saying: “I thought this was wonderful. I had the luck to see it in a theater and it was just such beautiful maximalist filmmaking. I’ve been describing it as Sicario meets The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and I was a bit of a mess for the whole thing. To me, this movie is about drastic change within yourself and how difficult it can be to get away from your old self, but also how freeing it can be to go through such change.”
A third fan exclaimed: “El Mal is genuinely the best musical number I’ve seen all year. I know Netflix is pushing for Mi Camino more but I’d totally give my vote for Original Song to this if I was in the Academy. This is easily Zoe Saldana’s Oscar clip and I totally see why she’s had frontrunner status for Supporting Actress.”
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