I watched EMILIA PÉREZ before the Golden Globes, because it was the movie with the most nominations. I figured that was a Globes-specific Netflix-is-good-at-marketing situation, because I’d only ever seen it trashed online, and not a single non-critic I talked to had even heard of it, even though it had been available on Netflix for months. But this morning the Oscar nominations were announced and it’s in the lead with 13 nominations, tying OPPENHEIMER, among others. Only ALL ABOUT EVE, TITANIC and LA LA LAND ever got 14. So oh jesus, I better finish this review and get it over with before The Discourse™ gets even dicier.

See, this is a touchy subject because it has made history by earning its star Karla Sofía Gascón a Best Actress nomination – the first ever for a trans woman – so I imagine as we speak word is spreading among bigots that they have always cared deeply about the fairness of women’s arts awards. And yet much of the criticism I’ve heard comes from trans critics. Note that it also tied most movies throughout history for the least GLAAD Awards nominations (zero).

There’s more. I’ve read that it went over poorly in Mexico, where it’s set, because they find some of the translations and accents laughable, and I don’t think they like seeing a French production about Mexicans with a Spaniard and two Americans as the leads. Also, it’s a musical, and some of us don’t really prefer musicals, while the people who do have real specific opinions about how they should be done. I’m sure there are also many critics who genuinely think it’s the worst shit ever for other reasons. So I feel a little nervous popping my head up to say okay, yeah, insane movie, but it’s got some stuff going for it though, doesn’t? I admire the crazed audacity of it. For the love of God don’t tell anyone but… uh… _{I definitely found it way more interesting than the other musical nominated for best picture. Sorry.}

Okay, so what the fuck even is EMILIA PÉREZ? It’s told through the point of view of Rita Mora Castro (Zoe Saldaña, THE TERMINAL), a lawyer unhappily working for horrible people. The first song is her walking around quietly practicing how she’ll convince a jury that a man who murdered his wife actually just failed to stop her from committing suicide. The successful defense attracts the attention of another potential client, the type who has guys put a bag over your head before driving you to the meeting.

Juan “Manitas” Del Monte (Gascón) is an infamous cartel leader offering Rita a life-changing amount of money to find a discrete surgeon and facilitate starting life over with a new identity. But this would not be a disguise, this would be Manitas finally living her authentic life as a woman.

Rita checks out different gender-affirmation clinics around the world. The part where I most thought writer/director Jacques Audiard had lost his mind (in a bad way) was the musical number “Vaginoplasty” inside a Bangkok clinic that seems to just have dozens of people coming in and casually changing their gender all day. The one in DESPERATE LIVING seemed more believable. But she settles on Dr. Wasserman (Mark Ivanir – Gaga from UNDISPUTED II and III), who is much more thoughtful about it and goes through the bag-over-the-head treatment to meet with Manitas and hear about her experience with gender dysphoria before taking the money.

The part that’s harder to justify, though, is that Rita helps fake the assassination of Manitas and, without telling them the truth, relocates Manitas’ wife Jessi (Selena Gomez, GETAWAY) and children to Switzerland, against their wishes.

Four years later Rita gets into a conversation with a lady named Emilia Pérez at a charity dinner in London and suddenly realizes who she is. She hires Rita to bring her family to live with her in her fancy-ass villa in Mexico City, but she pretends to be a distant cousin of Manitas wanting to help look after the children as their auntie.

Part of the appeal of the movie is how nice things are for a while, with this former man of violence now living a much happier and more productive life, having a sisterly friendship with Jessi in place of a once rocky marriage, spending more time with the kids, and finding a purpose in running a charity to help families locate the remains of loved ones killed by cartels. But obviously she has built this life on an unsustainable foundation of dishonesty. I think the plot is meant to be soapy and over-the-top like a telenovela – we also have a love rectangle or whatever going on here with Jessi rekindling an old affair with gangster Gustavo (Édgar Ramírez, POINT BREAK remake) and Emilia falling in love with a woman she meets through the charity named Epifanía (Adriana Paz, ELYSIUM).

I won’t try to speak for trans critics, but my understanding is that one of the complaints is this ridiculous notion of Emilia lying to Jessi about who she is. Of course she shouldn’t and likely wouldn’t really do this, this is some MRS. DOUBTFIRE shit, not representative of a common trans experience. But I think it might be one of those things that wouldn’t bother people as much if there was a larger body of high profile trans movies. In the story she’s supposed to be an unlikely person to exist, and it’s supposed to be a terrible choice, an extreme behavior, a sign that this in many ways great person is still very flawed and headed for disaster. And I think it’s pretty clear in the end that honesty would’ve worked. If the character wasn’t burdened with the weight of representing a minority currently under attack, maybe more people would agree with me that being such a mess makes her a more interesting character. (But I might just have bad taste.)

I’ve seen three of writer/director Jacques Audiard’s previous movies – A PROPHET, RUST AND BONE and DHEEPAN – all very raw, almost documentary-like crime dramas. This one largely takes that same realistic style except when the musical numbers kick in. So it’s an unusual mix of tones.

An obvious question: why is it a musical? I wondered if it was to help people accept the outrageous premise and operatic twists and turns, but then I remembered that my favorite movie I’ve seen from Audiard is RUST AND BONE, a very serious movie about the relationship between an underground fighter and a lady who got her legs bit off by an orca, and that one didn’t have to be a musical. The only real hint I’ve come across is that he first wrote it as an operetta, so he must’ve stayed attached to that idea when he decided to do it as a movie instead. The songs are by the French singer Camille, who also co-composed the score with her partner Clément Ducol.

I definitely would’ve liked it better without songs, so I’m glad it’s not the type of musical where they’re singing most or all of the time. That said, I can respect the peculiarity of the choice, and certain other aspects. It’s cool that Saldaña gets to return to the dancing skills she showed off in her first movie, CENTER STAGE. I like the scene where Jessi and Gustavo do karaoke together, shot on cell phones. For a minute I was impressed how well the lyrics of the song they chose fit the situation; just because they presented it as karaoke I believed it was a pre-existing song, not a musical number. And I actually did like the last song, a (spoiler) funeral march. But otherwise this is very much not my shit. I did not need to see Saldaña rap, for example.

For that reason it’s kind of hard for me to think of this as one of the great Saldaña performances, even if it’s a higher degree of difficulty. Gascón is indeed totally captivating playing a unique character, lovable despite her scary undercurrents. Gomez is the one lead who didn’t get a nomination, but I thought she was great, a sad and layered performance of this woman who makes some bad choices and is kind of a brat but you get where she’s coming from because she’s been put in a really unfair position and she’s trying to stand up for herself. Gomez plays it very natural, in contrast to the artificiality of the format and the plot contrivances.

I have to agree with the people who say EMILIA PÉREZ doesn’t work. But for me it’s mostly the musical aspects – I enjoyed the unlikely crime world melodrama part of it. When I realized it was gonna be about a cartel leader transitioning I thought jesus christ, are they serious, is this really what this is about? And then when they committed to it I couldn’t help but respect it. It’s a big swing, as wobbly and reckless as Leatherface lobbing his chain saw around in the sun, and I’m always gonna have some appreciation for that kind of spirit. I defer to any trans or Mexican people’s objections, but I think it’s a big-hearted, weird movie and I tend to be forgiving of big-hearted weirdos, even when they’re causing a scene.