--- title: "Emilia Pérez" year: 2024 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/emilia-perez" fi1m_id: "emilia-perez" imdb_id: "tt20221436" tmdb_id: 974950 wikidata_id: "Q123928072" fi1m_score: 58 critics_score: 68 critics_reviews: 18 published: "2026-09-09" updated: "2026-09-18T08:37:58.724327+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Emilia Pérez (2024) Directed by Jacques Audiard · 2h 12m · MPA R · Drama, Thriller ## Identity Emilia Pérez - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/emilia-perez - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** emilia-perez - **IMDb ID:** tt20221436 - **TMDB ID:** 974950 - **Wikidata ID:** Q123928072 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt20221436/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/974950, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q123928072 **Fi1m score: 58** · Critics 68 from 18 reviews *In a sentence:* The surgeons sing the menu of operations in the first half hour and nothing after it tops them > Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical about a cartel boss who changes her body and her life is alive for an hour and then turns into the telenovela it had been mocking. Zoe Saldaña and Karla Sofía Gascón keep it watchable; the songs mostly do not. ## Synopsis In Mexico City, a cartel boss known as Manitas (Karla Sofía Gascón) wants to leave the cartel and to live as a woman, and hires Rita (Zoe Saldaña), a lawyer, to arrange it quietly. Rita takes the money and goes to work. Selena Gomez plays Jessi, Manitas’s wife. Jacques Audiard directs, in Spanish, from a novel by Boris Razon, and the story is told partly in song, with music by Clément Ducol and Camille. Adriana Paz and Edgar Ramírez also appear. The film is billed as a drama and a thriller; it is also a musical. It runs 132 minutes and carries a 15 certificate. ## Review Jacques Audiard has made a Spanish-language musical about a Mexican cartel boss who wants a new body and a new life, and hires a lawyer to arrange both. That is the pitch, and it is also the problem. For an hour *Emilia Pérez* is nervy, odd and alive; then it settles into the telenovela it had been winking at, and the wink goes. There is a great deal to look at, two performances worth the evening, and not enough underneath them. Zoe Saldaña carries the first act and a good deal of what follows. She plays Rita tired to the bone, and angry in a way she has trained herself to keep off her face. When the film gives her a number she does not sing it so much as spit it; the rest is in her shoulders and hands. A late black-tie dinner, in which she moves between the tables of men she despises and tells them what they are, is the one sequence where song, anger and camera all want the same thing. Karla Sofía Gascón plays both Manitas and Emilia, and the double role is the film’s best idea. As Manitas she is hunched and heavy, with a voice like gravel and a threat in every pause; as Emilia she is warm, expansive, quick to laugh. The early scenes between her and Saldaña, two people negotiating over a body across a table, have a strangeness the rest of the film cannot match. Selena Gomez has the thinner part as Jessi and does what she can with it; she is at her best at a karaoke machine and at her worst when asked to hold a long dramatic scene in Spanish. Paul Guilhaume shoots Mexico City in sodium orange and the clinics in surgical white, and the hospital number, in which surgeons and nurses sing the options for a new face and a new body, is the best staged sequence in the film. It arrives early. Emmanuelle Duplay’s sets are a shade too tidy, so the city looks like a stage even when nobody is singing, and Virginie Montel dresses Emilia in the reds and golds of a woman making up for lost time. Juliette Welfling cuts hard and often, and the first hour has the jolt of a thriller. The songs are the weak point. Clément Ducol and Camille write half-sung, half-spoken numbers that tell us what the characters are thinking and rarely find a melody to carry it, and by the third we were listening for a tune. There was not one. We laughed at the clinic number, out loud and with pleasure, because the film had turned a medical consultation into a chorus line without sneering at the woman on the other end of it. About ninety minutes in, watching grief played at full volume with strings underneath, we realised we no longer believed anyone on screen, and that the film had stopped noticing the difference between a big feeling and a loud one. What the film thinks about its subject is harder to say. Audiard, working from a novel by Boris Razon, treats transition mainly as a mechanism for the plot. A surgeon (Mark Ivanir) asks early on whether changing the body changes the soul, and the film never returns to the question. Cartel violence is wallpaper for most of the running time, and when the second half turns to the families of the disappeared, a real and continuing horror, it does so in the same key as the karaoke. We were uncomfortable, and not in the way the film intended. Against Audiard’s own record this is the odd one. [*A Prophet*](https://film.one/film/a-prophet) (2009) built a criminal from the ground up and never once told us how to feel about him. *Dheepan* (2015) put a stranger somewhere he did not understand and let the discomfort do the work. *Emilia Pérez* is busier than both and thinks less. Reviews have split down the middle, and we understand both halves. See it for Saldaña, for Gascón and for the first hour, and do not expect the rest to be about anything for long. It runs 132 minutes and carries a 15. *Fi1m score 58, published 9 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The critics split widely on Emilia Pérez. Praise clusters on Karla Sofía Gascón’s lead performance, which nearly every review singles out, with Zoe Saldaña close behind, and on Jacques Audiard’s nerve in yoking a cartel thriller to a musical. Most reviews reach for words like audacious or bold; the disagreement is over whether the boldness lands. The warmest notices treat it as an inventive reworking of the musical with heartfelt songs. The middle group, which is large, finds it exuberant but uneven: too many ideas, a third act that loses its shape, songs of varying quality. The reservations cluster on depth. Several critics feel it never gets beneath its glossy surfaces, and its handling of trans experience and of Mexican cartel violence draws specific complaint; Film Comment calls its thinking crudely essentialist, and The Guardian asks whether it trivialises a national tragedy. The spread runs from five stars to outright dismissal, with the harshest voices coming from the American film press. ## Straight answers **Is Emilia Pérez worth watching?** *Emilia Pérez* is worth watching for Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón and its nervy first hour, and we scored it 58. Jacques Audiard's Spanish-language musical about a cartel boss who changes her body and her life is alive early on, then settles into the telenovela it had been mocking. The songs, half-sung and half-spoken, rarely find a tune. **How long is Emilia Pérez, and what is it rated?** *Emilia Pérez* runs 2h 12m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is a drama and thriller film. **Where can I watch Emilia Pérez in the US?** *Emilia Pérez* is streaming on Netflix in the US. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is Emilia Pérez, and is it suitable for children?** *Emilia Pérez* carries a 15 certificate in the UK and is not for children. Cartel violence sits in the background for most of its 132 minutes, and the second half turns to the families of the disappeared, played loudly and with strings underneath. There is little to frighten adults, but the themes of surgery, crime and grief suit teenagers and older viewers only. **How does Emilia Pérez compare to A Prophet?** *Emilia Pérez* is Jacques Audiard's odd one out, and [*A Prophet*](https://film.one/film/a-prophet) is the better film. The earlier prison drama builds a criminal from nothing, has no songs and never tells us how to feel about him; *Emilia Pérez* is busier and thinks less. Choose the musical for Saldaña and Gascón, and the prison film for a story that holds together to the end. **Is Emilia Pérez based on a true story or a book?** *Emilia Pérez* is based on a novel by Boris Razon, not on a true story. Audiard uses the book's premise, a cartel boss who wants to leave the cartel and live as a woman, mainly as a mechanism for the plot, and we cannot say how closely he follows it. You do not need to have read the novel to follow the film. **What should I watch after Emilia Pérez?** After *Emilia Pérez*, try [*A Prophet*](https://film.one/film/a-prophet) (2009, Fi1m 86): Audiard at his best: a criminal built from nothing, no songs, no shrug. Then [*Dancer in the Dark*](https://film.one/film/dancer-in-the-dark) (2000, Fi1m 71): Von Trier’s musical about a woman in trouble; the songs hurt and are meant to; and [*All About My Mother*](https://film.one/film/all-about-my-mother) (1999, Fi1m 88): Almodóvar on women, transition and grief, with a lighter hand and a better ear. ### Reviews we read (26) - **Evening Standard**, Nick Howells (5/5): The critic describes it as a gloriously original, hip-swaggering work of weird brilliance with a hearty message about loving yourself and living your true path. The performances from the four leads and Audiard’s sensitive handling of the material are singled out for praise. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/emilia-perez-review-selena-gomez-zoe-saldana-b1187408.html) - **Radio Times**, James Mottram (★★★★★): The critic hails it as a wondrously inventive musical that redefines the genre, praising the score, choreography, and standout performances by the female leads, particularly Gascón's dual role. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/app/emilia-perez-review-a-musical-that-redefines-whats-possible-in-the-genre/) - **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★★★★): The critic calls it one of the year’s best films, praising its audacious direction, exquisite and heartbreaking songs, and trophy-bait performances in an extravagant Mexican noir musical. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/emilia-perez-film-review-zoe-saldana-selena-gomez-ksk9fr008) - **Total Film**, James Mottram (90/100, inferred): The review calls it a miraculous movie that reframes the musical in fascinating and surprising ways. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/crime-movies/emilia-perez-review/) - **Empire**, John Nugent (70/100, inferred): The critic finds Jacques Audiard’s outlandish musical thriller a little jumbled and misjudged in its treatment of characters, particularly trans ones, but praises its uniqueness and audaciousness. The cast, especially Karla Sofía Gascón, is highlighted for extraordinary performances. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/emilia-perez/) - **The AV Club**, Natalia Keogan (C+): The critic finds the divisive trans musical audacious and transfixing in its spectacle but lacking cohesion, nuance, and strong songs or social insight. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/emilia-perez-review) - **Time Out**, Phil de Semlyen (3/5): The critic sees it as an exuberant but uneven mix of cartel thriller and musical with a trans twist, praising Gascón's performance and some numbers but noting structural issues in the third act. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/emilia-perez-review-2024) - **IndieWire**, Ryan Lattanzio (40/100, inferred): The review deems the wild trans musical a memorable debacle that lacks psychological depth. It commends the bold swings despite frequent misfires. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/emilia-perez-review-selena-gomez-jacques-audiard-musical-1235006275/) - **The New Yorker**, Richard Brody (30/100, inferred): The critic calls the film an incurious musical that never gets beyond splashy surfaces, with performances by Gascón and Saldaña providing energy but the story lacking depth or substance in its characterizations and musical numbers. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/emilia-perez-is-an-incurious-musical-about-a-trans-drug-lord) - **Film Comment**, Beatrice Loayza (20/100, inferred): The critic calls the film a ludicrously misjudged narco-musical rooted in crude essentialism and cheap theatricality. It is a tonally disjunctive epic with plastic emotions that ultimately treats the central plight as a grand, lurid spiritual venture that curdles into abjection. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/cannes-2024-gimme-shock-treatment/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Robert Abele: The critic praises Audiard’s full-bodied, colorful epic musical about transformation and redemption, highlighting its danger, boldness, and imaginative song-and-dance sequences, with standout work from Saldaña. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2024-11-01/emilia-perez-review-zoe-saldana-karla-sofia-gascon-selena-gomez-musical) - **Screen Daily**: The critic describes it as a stylish, sensitive Spanish-language musical melodrama that poses intriguing questions about transformation and violence, praising Gascon's performance and the visual style. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/emilia-perez-cannes-review/5193701.article) - **Sight and Sound**: The critic finds the film bold and ambitious despite its genre mix and tonal shifts, praising its heartfelt look at gender transition and strong performances, especially Gascón's, while noting some musical numbers falter. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/emilia-perez-jacques-audiards-outlandish-telenovela-style-musical-shouldnt-work-it-does) - **The Guardian**, Wendy Ide: The critic is conflicted about the film, finding it a gloriously trashy and flamboyant potboiler with standout performances but questioning whether its handling of cartel violence trivialises a serious national tragedy in Mexico. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/oct/27/emilia-perez-review-jacques-audiard-zoe-saldana-karla-sofia-gascon-selena-gomez-netflix-riotously-entertaining-trans-mexican-cartel-musical) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney: The critic praises Audiard's ambitious genre-blending crime musical for its vitality and originality. The standout is Karla Sofia Gascón's magnificent, authentic performance as the title character. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/emilia-perez-review-zoe-saldana-selena-gomez-jacques-audiard-1235903402/) - **The New York Times**, Manohla Dargis: The critic finds Audiard’s showy musical about a trans Mexican drug lord diverting and off-kilter, with Karla Sofía Gascón’s performance adding soul and real stakes to the melodrama while Zoe Saldaña also shines. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/13/movies/emilia-perez-review.html) - **Variety**, Peter Debruge: The critic hails the film as a daring, exhilarating Spanish-language pop opera about a cartel boss’s transformation and redemption, electrified by Gascón’s lead performance and Audiard’s audacity. [Read](https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/emilia-perez-review-selena-gomez-zoe-saldana-1236008567/) - **Vulture**, Bilge Ebiri: The critic calls the film fearless in its ridiculousness as an ambitious musical crime drama. It highlights the cast's strong work, especially Gascón and Saldaña, in bringing the tonal mix to life. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/movie-review-emilia-perez-selena-gomez.html) - **Deadline**, Stephanie Bunbury (90/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a crazy but marvelous musical that works despite its outlandish premise. Audiard's direction is singled out for making the impossible conjuring trick succeed through strong performances and an eccentric tone. [Read](https://deadline.com/2024/05/emilia-perez-review-jacques-audiard-selena-gomez-zoe-saldana-1235922122/) - **The Wrap** (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the film a startling and delightful gonzo telenovela musical that hits a home run with its big swing. Zoe Saldaña's performance and the film's bold musical form are singled out for praise amid its over-the-top melodrama. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/emilia-perez-review-jacques-audiard-cannes/) - **Eye for Film**, Richard Mowe (75/100, inferred): Audiard pulls off the unlikely premise of a Spanish-language musical about Mexican drug cartels and gender transition with frenetic energy that bludgeons the viewer into submission. The high-voltage score, dazzling technical trickery and remarkable ensemble of actors, especially Karla Sofía Gascón, stand out. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/emilia-perez-2024-film-review-by-richard-mowe) - **Digital Spy**, Mireia Mullor (65/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a love-it-or-hate-it audacious musical that is always fresh, daring and visually exciting despite major flaws and ridiculous moments. Outstanding performances by Zoe Saldaña and Karla Sofía Gascón help ground the story even as the high ambitions lead to some loss of control. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a62828425/emilia-perez-review/) - **Paste**, Jesse Hassenger (6.3/10): The jagged musical numbers provide bursts of energy and showcase strong performances, but the film sputters as the drama takes over and fails to explore its provocative premise meaningfully. It delivers something technically unique yet ultimately shallow. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/jacques-audiard/emilia-perez-review-zoe-saldana-jacques-audiard-musical-crime-movie) - **Collider**, Ross Bonaime (6/10): The film boasts three strong lead performances but is held back by its overabundance of ideas and lack of cohesion. Audiard’s ambitious genre-blending musical melodrama about a cartel leader’s transition ultimately spreads itself too thin. [Read](https://collider.com/emilia-perez-review/) - **NME**, Sophie Butcher (3/5): The critic sees the film as a frenzied, inconsistent experience whose blend of influences makes it unique but exhausting. The committed performances of the three leading ladies provide enough energy and emotion to make viewers somewhat glad they watched, though the twisting plot and schmaltzy sentimentality bog it down. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/film-reviews/emilia-perez-review-zoe-saldana-selena-gomez-flawed-musical-melodrama-3805570) - **/Film**, Jeremy Mathai (5/10): The film is a big swing that fails to connect as an audacious genre mash-up of crime thriller and musical, devolving into a cloying telenovela despite strong early moments and committed performances. Unfulfilled potential leaves it feeling like a half-completed thought experiment. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/1677578/emilia-perez-review/) ## Details - **Director:** Jacques Audiard - **Director:** Jacques Audiard - **Writer:** Jacques Audiard - **Novel:** Boris Razon - **Cinematography:** Paul Guilhaume - **Editor:** Juliette Welfling - **Music:** Clément Ducol, Camille - **Production design:** Emmanuelle Duplay - **Costume design:** Virginie Montel - **Producer:** Valérie Schermann, Pascal Caucheteux, Jacques Audiard - **Cast:** Zoe Saldaña as Rita; Karla Sofía Gascón as Emilia / Manitas; Selena Gomez as Jessi; Adriana Paz as Epifanía; Édgar Ramírez as Gustavo Brun; Mark Ivanir as Wasserman; Eduardo Aladro as Berlinger; Emiliano Hasan as Gabriel Mendoza - **Runtime:** 2h 12m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 1 November 2024 - **Genres:** Drama, Thriller - **Also in:** [Best Picture winners](https://film.one/collections/oscar-best-picture.md) (Nominee, 2024); [BAFTA Best Film winners](https://film.one/collections/bafta-best-film.md) (Nominee, 2024); [Golden Globe Best Musical or Comedy winners](https://film.one/collections/golden-globe-comedy.md) (Winner, 2024) - **Budget:** $26 million - **Box office:** $16 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h7j_EcZ5fU ## Where to watch in the US - Netflix: streaming *Checked 2026-09-10.* Also available in: AR, AT, BE, BR, CA, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, ES, FI, FR, GB, HU, IE, IN, IT, MX, NL, NO, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, SE, TH, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 2025: Best Makeup and Hairstyling (nominated); Best Picture (nominated) - Lumière Award for Best Actress 2025: Lumière Award for Best Actress (won) - Lumière Award for Best Director 2025: Lumière Award for Best Director (won) - Lumière Award for Best Film 2025: Lumière Award for Best Film (won) - Lumière Award for Best Music 2025: Lumière Award for Best Music (won) - Lumière Award for Best Screenplay 2025: Lumière Award for Best Screenplay (won) - Cannes Film Festival 2024: Best Actress (won) - European Film Award for Best Film 2024: European Film Award for Best Film (won) ## If you liked this - *A Prophet* (2009), Fi1m 86: Audiard at his best: a criminal built from nothing, no songs, no shrug. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/a-prophet.md) - *Dancer in the Dark* (2000), Fi1m 71: Von Trier’s musical about a woman in trouble; the songs hurt and are meant to. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/dancer-in-the-dark.md) - *All About My Mother* (1999), Fi1m 88: Almodóvar on women, transition and grief, with a lighter hand and a better ear. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/all-about-my-mother.md) - *Annette* (2021): Carax’s sung-through oddity; if Audiard’s big swings pleased you, this connects more often. - *Amores Perros* (2000), Fi1m 85: Mexico City filmed by people who live in it, with the violence taken seriously. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/amores-perros.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/emilia-perez