EMILIA PÉREZ Review: A Pop Crime Musical Fantasia, Dominated by Women

Jacques Audiard’s latest film, Emilia Pérez, has been gaining attention alongside Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance.

This year appears to mark a notable moment for French cinema as it transitions from the festival circuit into the mainstream. Both films premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where they garnered awards and sparked ongoing discussions.

Despite being set on different continents, both are characterized by genre-blending narratives, striking visuals, and star-studded casts—all while being shot in France. Audiard’s film is one of those works that might appear unconvincing when reduced to paper. Its genre-blending premise, combining elements of crime, telenovela, lesbian romance, and musical, all wrapped in a Cinderella-like fable, seems unlikely to form a cohesive, seamless whole. 

Rita (Zoe Saldaña), a lawyer accustomed to working in the shadows, has grown disillusioned with her role, successfully defending perpetrators of high-profile femicides while remaining unseen and underappreciated. When presented with an offer promising unimaginable wealth, she hesitantly considers the opportunity, only to discover that the job lies far outside the legal world. Her task: to find the world’s best surgeon for a gender-affirmation procedure.

What follows is a globe-trotting assignment, with Rita flying first class, impeccably dressed, as she profiles top specialists capable of performing the operation. Her client is Manitas del Monte (Karla Sofía Gascón), a feared narco kingpin determined to embrace a life that aligns with their true identity. The search culminates in an unexpected and memorable musical sequence, a vibrant song-and-dance number about vaginoplasty.

For Audiard, who has built his career on genre exploration, Emilia Pérez, which he also wrote (with credited contributions from Thomas Bidegain, Léa Mysius, Nicolas Livecchi, and inspired by a novel by Boris Razon, and co-produced by the Dardenne brothers)—feels familiar. His previous works, such as A Prophet and Rust and Bone , revealed his fascination with liminality: characters navigating moral ambiguity, personal redemption, and social constraints. The structure of Emilia Pérez, rooted in the operatic tradition, reflects Audiard’s ongoing interest in challenging storytelling conventions, as he balances grandiose, archetypal elements with intimate, character-driven drama.

When the right doctor is found in Tel Aviv, Manitas embarks on a transformative journey, first under the knife, then through life itself. His wife, Jessi (Selena Gomez), and their two sons are relocated to a hideaway in Lausanne, Switzerland, while Manitas stages his own death.

They re-emerge as the titular Emilia Pérez, portrayed by Karla Sofía Gascón with remarkable gusto. Gascón’s performance anchors the film, embodying a cartel leader reclaiming her identity and serving as its emotional linchpin.

Despite the hyperbolized plot, however, the narrative at this point shifts further into fable territory. The former narco-kingpin, whose bottomless bank account hints at a trail of countless bodies, begins to find a spark of humanity as Emilia Pérez.

She launches an NGO dedicated to uncovering—quite literally—victims of the drug wars, with former sicarios revealing long-buried truths. Rita, having completed the deal she was paid for, finds herself drawn back into the fold, helping to run the NGO. What follows is a deepening bond between the two women, a “womance”, as both undergo transformations, leaving behind the lives they once knew.

The romanticism of a new life proves short-lived after Emilia arranges for her children to return to Mexico, posing as their aunt. While Emilia finds a romantic connection with Epifania (Adriana Paz)—a woman she once helped locate the body of her abusive husband—Jessi reconnects with Gustavo (Edgar Ramírez), her former lover with whom she had cheated on Manitas.

The telenovela-like twist of a looming custody threat, where Emilia risks losing her children, sends her into a downward spiral. This culminates in a violent, old-school turf war shootout, a stark return to the world she thought she had left behind.

While the story is primarily character-driven by Emilia and Rita—whom Emilia refers to as her "soul sister"—the musical sequences are largely dominated by Saldaña’s Rita. These numbers, featuring songs by Camille Dalmais and Clément Ducol with choreography by Damien Jalet, function as inner monologue fantasies for Rita, giving Saldaña moments to shine. Less extravagant performances come from Karla Sofía Gascón and Selena Gomez, with Gomez seamlessly switching between Spanish and English.

Alongside Saldaña’s memorable performance, Emmanuelle Duplay’s (Anatomy of a Fall) thoughtful, aesthetic, and functional set design contributes significantly. Paul Guilhaume’s (The Five Devils) kinetic cinematography, enhanced by Juliette Welfling’s (A Prophet, Rust and Bone) precise editing, forms a choreography of its own within the soundstage scenes. The film’s musical register leans predominantly toward pop-infused chants, interspersed with occasional rap-rock sequences and Gascón’s melancholic, whisper-singing.

At 130 minutes, Emilia Pérez maintains a dynamic pace as Audiard blends pop sensibilities with social drama in a genre-bending exploration of personal transformation. The journeys of the lead characters, Rita and Emilia, as well as the supporting roles of Jessi and Epifania, inject a distinctly feminine perspective into the hyper-masculine world of Mexican drug cartels and their ruthless lifestyle. While Emilia Pérez may not be as radical in its genre-bending as The Substance, its exuberant visual spectacle and fable-like qualities make it more accessible to mainstream audiences. 

Emilia Pérez picked up five awards at the 37th European Film Awards. It is now streaming on Netflix.