What is Emilia Pérez about? Selena Gomez & Zoe Saldana’s new Netflix movie explained

If you’re somebody who thinks Netflix doesn’t have enough bombastic musicals to stream, you’re in luck. Emilia Pérez drops on the platform today… and boy, are you in for a ride.

Some huge titles have been picked up on the festival circuit this year, from Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice to Hugh Grant’s religion-fuelled horror Heretic.

However, Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez is probably one you didn’t see coming. Debuting at Cannes, the new movie is an odyssey into a complex gender transition, complete with its own musical soundtrack.

Now it’s landed on your Netflix home page, what is Emilia Pérez actually about – and should you even watch it in the first place?

Emilia Pérez’s plot is complicated

In the most boiled-down nutshell possible, Emilia Pérez follows Mexican drug lord Manitas transition into Emilia Pérez, with the help of lawyer Rita.

There’s a lot more at play here, though. Rita is a strung-out and overlooked lawyer, who’s boss has just won a huge national case off the back of her hard work. She gets a mysterious phone call from someone who sees this play out, and before she knows it, she’s kidnapped.

The perp? Manitas, who’s cornered Rita into helping her transition. For clarity, Manitas appears as male presenting but identifies as a woman, and has also had top surgery.

It’s not that straightforward – Manitas basically has to fake her own death because she’s got too many bounties on her head. Manitas’ young family also has to believe she’s died, meaning Emilia Pérez starts a new, free life.

Without spoiling too much, that’s basically what happens… through song. When Emilia and Rita cross paths again a few years later, she’s a do-gooder in the community and a stinking rich one at that.

Emilia’s got another job for her. This time, it’s to get her family back in Emilia’s care, under the guise of being Manitas’ long-lost cousin. Bonkers, yes. But it happens, with severe consequences.

In the midst of this, there are more kidnappings, severed fingers, a cheating scandal, a lot of missing people killed by drug cartels, and a lesbian lover b-plot. And the kitchen sink, as the saying goes.

It’s also worth noting the movie is in Spanish, with some infrequent English and French thrown in for good measure.

Who’s in it?

Karla Sofía Gascón leads the charge as Manitas/Emilia, joined by Zoe Saldaña as Rita and Selena Gomez as Manitas’ wife, Jessi.

Netflix

The full cast list looks something like this:

• Zoe Saldaña as Rita Mora Castro
• Karla Sofía Gascón as Emilia Pérez/Juan “Manitas” Del Monte
• Selena Gomez as Jessi Del Monte
• Adriana Paz as Epifanía Flores
• Mark Ivanir as Dr. Wasserman
• Édgar Ramírez as Gustavo Brun
• James Gerard as Simon
• Eduardo Aladro as Berlinger
• Daniel Velasco-Acosta as Edgar

Shiraz Tzarfati, Agathe Bokja, Lucas Varoclier, Marie-Elisabeth Robert, Eric Geynes, Anabel Lopez, Line Phé, Cyrus Khodaveisi, Yohan Levy, and Jonas Paz-Benavide make up the supporting cast.

If rumors are to be believed, Gascón could be the first openly trans woman to ever be nominated for an Academy Award.

“This just simply would not have been the same if you had had two different actors, an actor and an actress, a trans actor with a cis actress or cis actor,” she told NPR. “This was an opportunity and I pushed for it because this was something that had never been done… and this was perfectly constructed.”

Speaking on BBC Radio 1, Gomez said she was “the most nervous I’ve ever been for an audition,” adding “I knew I had to embody this other person. It all had to come from her. I couldn’t be the pop star, as cheesy as that sounds.”

It is a true story?

Unsurprisingly, no. According to Audiard, French novel Écoute inspired half of his script.

Netflix

During a talk with Guillermo del Toro, he explained “I have a friend, Boris Razon, who’s a novelist. I read his novels. I read [one], it’s called Écoute, and about halfway through the book, the central character, [who is] a lawyer, meets a gang leader who asks him to help him make a transition and change his gender.

“I turn the pages and then the author doesn’t follow through. I [was] very surprised. I called him the next day [to ask,] “Boris, do you have any plans for the character in the novel?” And Boris says, “No, no that’s it.” So, I stole the idea. I ran with it.”

Turning this into a musical came later for Audiard, adding this idea during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There’s very little contemporary opera repertoire, and I have sought to fill that by making Emilia.”

Is the Netflix movie worth watching?

Emilia Pérez is tough to describe – so expect a difficult watch. It’s going to be something you remember, even if you don’t necessarily like it.

Netflix

As I’ve already touched on, there’s so much happening in a two-hour window, and it’s probably because of this that the plot can run incredibly thin. There are 16 musical numbers trying to weave together all these different threads, making the overall picture convoluted and difficult to follow.

If I’m being completely honest, these musical numbers aren’t amazing either. In a similar way to an episode of Glee breaking out in song in the middle of a sentence, they’re not doing much to further what we do understand.

However, Gascón is astonishing in this. It’s clear this is the role of a lifetime for her, and she’s grasping the opportunity with both hands. Saldaña and Gomez are also meeting her where they need to, even if they do pale in comparison (it’s just very difficult not to).

To some, Manitas’ transition could be offensive. Look at what Emilia Pérez is associating with being your true self – crime, death, implosion, destruction, and just overall negativity. Is that the notion we want to be projected into mainstream media? No. Does the musical make enough sense for us to work that out? Probably not, either.

Emilia Pérez is streaming on Netflix now. For more, check out new movies streaming this month, alongside the best movies of the year so far.