Daniel's Productions’s review published on Letterboxd:
Do you ever see a movie and tell several dumb discourses will come from it?
This film released on Netflix today and it was certainly something I have a lot to say about. While well acclaimed in it's festivel run, it had a somewhat mixed responce. I wanted to be on the positive side since I really like musicals in unique genres but this was just a mess. It had a good concept but is executed as a jumble of ideas that don't come together well. I personally wouldn't call it bad but also wouldn't disagree with those who do. To start with the musical element with songs mostly in another language. There's a few in English but those were often the worse songs. I feel some disconnect to the language barrier making them harder to feel or remember. This is a me problem, but lyrics are the way I most remember and connect to musicals. With that said, I still found most songs good. The beat of the songs are easy to get into and they make some really fun sequences. This uses that to explore character emotion and thought tracks in some really strong ways. There's a great feel and the chrorography and visuals were done really well. I think this visually suffers from having too dark lighting a lot of the movie. However, there was some scenes that really experimented and looked really cool. The cinematography is generally really good even, if standard at certain points. Anyway, this movie can't really decide what it wants to be or focus on. I like Rita and find her the best character in the movie. I found her start as a conflicted lawyer and struggles in life well told, especially through this business relationship growing into a friendship. However, this narrative set her up as the main character only to not be despite still feeling like one at points. There was a way to still have her screentime but introduce other characters earlier and position her as a joint main character. This narrative is all over the place and the pacing makes the first act feel like nothing. There's some potentially impactful emotion beats and decisions here but they are glanced over. Having someone in disguise meet their family is nice and the second act works the best when it's just this. However, these scenes are missing so much impact by the way this narrative was paced and overstuffed. I want to use less comparisons in reviews, but this ones is to funny an observation to not mention. The Boss Baby Family Business unironically does this family thing better and was stronger emotionally. This really struggles to juggle through tones and sideplots. During the middle, there's a business related sideplot happening that is really forgettable and not clear. I also wonder what genre this was meant to be. There's moments meant to be comedic but this barely tries to be a comedy. This doesn't work as drama by how overdramatised parts are and the crime thriller aspect was especially bad. This mainly just wanted a climatic third act but this attempt at being intense didn't work and just felt out of place. That whole ending was so nothing and solidified how average this was. The thing is, the idea here is really clever. Might go in to some kind of spoilers but revealed in the first 15 minutes territory. Combining the criminal tropes of having to relocate and leave your old life behind with the trans experience of abadoning your societal expectations to be yourself sounds great. It's just execution wise not much is done with the identity being explored and the crime aspects being boring. While I think we should be above the point of judging queer media by how to non-queer audiences will see it, I doubt this story would look the best. Not only is it originally treated as kind of a joke and subversion, but I see the crime double meaning going over a lot of people's heads. Emilia has actions that can be questioned like with her past and abadoning her family, but I can see how some transphobic people will hide behind that argument. Like I said at the opener, the discussion of this movie will likely turn into a bigger mess than the movie itself was. Emilia Pérez is a film I'm disappointed I didn't like. The acting and songs are good that I see why they would recieve Oscar recoginition, but this story is very unfocused and not satisfying. Good for those who managed to like it, but I didn't and see the film's general reception ending up on the negative side.
