Emilia Pérez

Exhilarating and piercingly resonant, the latest from director Jacques Audiard (Rust and Bone, TIFF ’12; The Sisters Brothers, TIFF ’18) audaciously merges pop opera, narco thriller, and gender affirmation drama. Emilia Pérez is a rollercoaster in which crime, redemption, and karma collide, featuring fearless performances from Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, and the amazing Karla Sofía Gascón, an ensemble that collectively received the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival this year.

Rita Moro Castro (Saldaña) is a Mexico City defense attorney whose brilliant strategies have kept many murderous but wildly affluent clients out of jail. Her reputation draws the attention of Manitas Del Monte (Gascón), a notorious kingpin, who is secretly transitioning. He hires Rita to arrange an itinerary of under-the-table procedures with the world’s best surgeons, while making a plan for the wife (Gomez) and kids he’s leaving behind. The process is a success, Manitas’ murder is staged, and Emilia Pérez is born. This new identity affords Emilia the ability to create a whole new life for herself, but the past begins to creep back, threatening to undo everything she and Rita have worked so hard to achieve.

Written by Audiard with Thomas Bidegain, Nicolas Livecchi, and Léa Mysius, with music by Camille and Clément Ducol, Emilia Pérez upends expectations with its ingenious plot twists, eye-popping spectacle, and inspired musical detours, which find the entire cast singing, rapping, and dancing as a means to express the dreams and anxieties of an entire culture struggling against corruption, fear, and harmful stereotypes.

JANE SCHOETTLE

Content advisory: violence, mature themes, coarse language