EMILIA PÉREZ (2024) - 11/15/2024
Let Zoe cook
It’s funny to think that Zoe Saldaña is one of the most bankable blockbuster and action stars in the modern age. She has been in the top three highest grossing films of all-time, and six of the top ten. Since 2009 she is a franchise queen with Star Trek, Avatar, and Guardians of the Galaxy, and when you zoom out one more time, do not forget that she was in the very first Pirates of the Caribbean. She is a bonafide action star carrying shows like Lioness and helming films like Colombiana. She also has an incredible darkness to her that allows her to pull off films like Out of the Furnace. All of this from the love interest in Drumline.
It’s undeniable that Zoe is a bonafide star and chameleon-like actress, but we never really think of her in that light because she isn’t a Glen Powell, or Julia Roberts, or anyone of that ilk1. While she’s gotten chances to lead and has succeeded in doing so, she’s never been the main attraction, rather, important support. Because while she may not be the main attraction, you see that she is in a film and you automatically think, “Oh this will at least be solid.” She is the ever important glue that holds these pieces together and allows the stars to amplify their inherent abilities (like Chrises Pine and Pratt). Every once and a while she gets her opportunity to go off, yet those films aren’t wildly as known as her box-office successes; but now we have Emilia Pérez.
Zoe finally gets another chance to lead (rather co-lead) a film following Saldaña’s lawyer character, Rita Castro, who becomes the head counsel for a cartel boss who wants to fake his death and undergo a gender confirming surgery to live out the rest of his life as the woman he has always wanted to be. When the surgery happens, and Emilia (Karla Sofía Gascón) reappears in her life four years later, Emilia brings Castro back into her life to prove that she, as Emilia, has changed. For two hours and twelve minutes, it may seem like a lot, but what French2 director Jacques Audiard does is take this oddly specific story and turn it into a tale about cartel violence, trans lives, and the perpetuating issue of missing persons throughout Mexico. He also does this by making this film essentially an opera, which is why Zoe gets to shine.
Saldaña, as I have stated, is usually cast as an important supporting role in some capacity, yet here she gets to use her full range. Her dancing background, her physicality, her emotions, and her voice! Which I absolutely did not know she had. At times she has to take a back seat to Gascón’s more central character, but goddamn does she cook - her best scene probably being the gala which she completely takes over. I’m happy for this, I’m happy for her. Saldaña will always have a special place in my heart and I’m happy she’s getting big roles like this that she deserves.
That's not a treatise on race, more of a point of asses-in-seats stardom.
Which will make it an odd one in awards season for Foreign Language Film.