No sooner had the first week passed since the start of the Cannes Film Festival than the first contender for the category “longest standing ovation of the Côte d’Azur” appeared. The musical “Emilia Perez” gave the audience a standing ovation for 9 minutes. The director and screenwriter Jacques Audiard thanked the audience quite discreetly. After the man finished, again sounded two-minute ovation. At this point, the actresses who played the main roles, Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez, could not contain emotions and simply cried.
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In general, to call the musical a simple genre, the language will not turn. It is quite logical that it causes discussions among movie critics. What is the movie “Emilia Perez” about? It tells the story of the formidable boss of the Mexican cartel Haua Del Monte, who decided to leave the criminal business and disappear forever. However, everything is not so simple, because for this he will have to change sex. And to help him should be a qualified lawyer named Rita, who works in a large Mexican company engaged in money laundering criminals.
It would seem that the plot does not hint at the musical genre at all. That’s probably why IndieWire journalists called the movie “a fiasco that is hard to forget”. According to their critics, “Emilia Perez” lacked psychological depth and complexity. However, Variety reporters disagreed with this – they say that the tape turned out to be “dazzling”. “Emilia Perez” appears as a powerful, unfiltered portrait of a man who defies several stereotypes at once”, – say the reporters.
But Deadline critics couldn’t help but note the musical component – in such movies, it plays an almost pivotal role. “It may be too early to talk about the Palme d’Or, as the Cannes Film Festival is still a week away, but ‘Emilia Perez’ looks like a winner,” they argue. According to these critics, the songs were skillfully woven into the narrative and Selena Gomez “brought a Disney twist.”
Interestingly, reporters from the publication Vanity Fair were also quite delighted. First, they noted Audiard’s reluctance to make a comedy out of such a story. Instead, the musical keeps the viewer in suspense all the time, because until the very last moments it is not clear whether we are waiting for an uplifting story of redemption or inevitable tragedy.
Moreover, on the other side of the law, the former head of the Mexican cartel begins to realize how much evil actually happened solely because of his connivance. Once on the side of “good”, he is horrified by what he has done before.
“The movie balances on a fine line between audacity and ridiculousness, unlike other films that have been a big hit at Cannes this year. Emilia Perez stays on the side of good. A criminal’s heart ends up in the right place,” Vanity Fair summarized their review.
