EMILIA PEREZ

A musical unlike any you’ll have seen, Emilia Pérez has a ballsy narrative, thematic ambition and visual delights, with a spellbinding tour-de-force by actress Karla Sofia Gascón as the cherry on top.

Transformation is the name of the game in Jacques Audiard’s immersive, engaging gangster-musical hybrid, as we witness the personal voyage a ruthless Mexican gangster is willing to go on to complete gender surgery and start a new life, only to discover that past transgressions will haunt his future.

From the first minute to the last Audiard swings for the fences in Emilia Pérez, not only pushing the envelope in terms of how much you can dismantle the tropes of the musical genre but doing the same with the gangster movie. It’s a risky bet, that on paper must have sounded bonkers, but the picture somehow pulls it off ebulliently.

The unabashedly operatic approach – with big characters, big emotions and big narrative and thematic arcs – suits the picture perfectly, as you are drawn in by exciting visuals, exquisite editing and transfixing songs, that might not be easily hummable but propel Emilia Pérez forward with unstoppable energy.

The biggest impetus in the picture is provided by the actors though: it’s no coincidence that the cast won a special ensemble award at the 2024 Cannes film festival. Zoë Saldaña and Selena Gomez both give career-defining performances, but it’s Spanish transgender actor Karla Sofia Gascón who shines brightest in the lead role, finding heart and soul in a fascinating, nuanced, ever surprising character.

Emilia Pérez doesn’t always sustain the human and narrative tension, and at times favours style over substance, but that doesn’t dilute the audacity and conviction the picture oozes, crafting it into one of the most superb films I have seen so far this year.

release: 2024

director: Jacques Audiard

starring: Karla Sofia Gascón, Zoë Saldaña, Selena Gomez, Edgar Ramirez