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We’ll Be Yelling About Emilia Pérez Long After Cannes Ends
Most people at the 2024 film festival seem to love the movie, and the ones that hate it, really hate it.
Fearless in its ridiculousness, Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, a cross between Mrs. Doubtfire and Sicario reimagined as a musical, hit Cannes like a tidal wave Saturday night, drawing extended rounds of applause not just at its gala premiere (where standing ovations are common) but also at its press screenings (where they’re not). Beyond the political battles so often waged over trans issues, it’s also a movie — a god damned musical — made by a bunch of foreigners about Mexico’s devastating drug wars, a film in which an entire number is built around a group of soldiers loading their rifles. And whenever it finally opens, we’ll probably all be too busy trying to cancel each other over this or that, in part because, despite the fact that he makes grandiose, overstuffed films, Audiard rarely holds our hand when it comes to telling us how to feel about his characters; he has a maximalist’s eye and a minimalist’s heart, which is a fascinating tension to bring into a musical.
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