Emilia Pérez may be the most audacious film of 2024, and certainly the most divisive. Jacques Audiard’s French-language, Spanish-sung musical about a Mexican drug lord’s gender transition is the kind of swing you take once — and whether it lands depends entirely on your tolerance for gleeful tonal whiplash.
The film works best as a showcase for its extraordinary cast. Zoe Saldaña is magnetic as lawyer Rita Mora Castro, and Karla Sofía Gascón makes history as the first trans actress to win the Palme d’Or jury prize. Their scenes together crackle with chemistry and subtext.
Audiard’s musical numbers are inventive, even revelatory. The film has a genuine visual imagination that keeps it compelling even when the narrative strains credulity. Camille’s songs range from operatic to playful, and the production design transforms Mexico City into a vivid, heightened reality.
Its flaws are real — the cultural politics are complicated, and some plot threads don’t pay off. But cinema this bold and strange deserves engagement on its own terms.
