Emilia Perez (2024)

Direction: Jacques Audiard
Country: France

Jacques Audiard’s tenth feature film, Emilia Perez, is a flamboyant Mexican extravaganza filmed in Paris. Originally envisioned as an opera, the film is a messy fusion of musical comedy, drama, and thriller, marked by its shifting tones. By turns delicate and brutal, the story channels the flair of Pedro Almodovar and Baz Luhrman, introducing gender issues, the role of women in modern society, and the dangerous world of Mexican cartels. It’s a risky and irreverent departure from Audiard’s usual style, seen in acclaimed works such as A Prophet (2009), Rust and Bone (2012), and Dheepan (2015). 

Sometimes inspiring, sometimes bordering on the ridiculous, other times sordidly melodramatic, the film follows Rita Mora Castro (Zoe Saldaña), a skilled lawyer grappling with professional dissatisfaction and moral conflict. Her dreams of a rising legal career are stifled by a firm more invested in laundering criminals' reputations than pursuing justice. However, she receives an unusual and lucrative proposition by Manitas Del Monte (Karla Sofía Gascón), a notorious cartel kingpin seeking to transform his life. With Rita’s help, Manitas transitions into Emilia Perez, embarking on a mission to incarcerate cartel leaders, locate the bodies of their victims, and reconnect with the family Emilia left behind. 

Emilia Perez is a cocktail of contrasting flavors, blending vibrant extravagance with somber undertones. The result leaves an odd taste in the mouth. While the premise is compelling, its execution feels uneven. The film occasionally soars with its bold storytelling but stumbles when leaning too heavily on its musical elements. Even the most lavish dance numbers come across as either forced or flat. 

Despite these flaws, there are redeeming qualities. Saldaña delivers a sensational performance, bringing depth and nuance to Rita, while Audiard’s ambition and willingness to take creative risks deserve recognition. Still, the film struggles to work as a whole, and I can’t say I found it exciting.

Paris, 13th District

Direction: Jacques Audiard
Country: France

French auteur Jacques Audiard (A Prophet, 2009; Dheepan, 2015) is not as strong as we ought to be in Paris, 13th District, but by turning his lens to four disappointed young adults with distinct personalities and backgrounds, he provides a valid analysis of present-day French youth. Flowing like a waltz - two steps forward one step back - this arthouse effort with lots of sex appeal and emotional vulnerabilities develops from a screenplay by Audiard, Céline Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady on Fire, 2019; Petite Maman, 2021) and Léa Mysius (Ava, 2017; Farewell to the Night, 2019). Their writings were based on three short comic stories by American cartoonist Adrian Tomine, and the title is a reference to a particular administrative district of towers located in Paris. 

The promiscuous and egocentric Émilie Wong (Lucie Zhang), a recently graduated young woman forced to work small jobs, accepts Camille Germain (Makita Samba), an unfulfilled teacher, as her roommate. They instantly become lovers, but pressures drive them apart. Nora Ligier (Noémie Merlant), a law student from Bordeaux, is framed by her college mates when she’s mistakenly identified as Amber Sweet (Jehnny Beth), an online erotic entertainer. Through the intersecting paths of these characters, Audiard weaves a human story that, eschewing overstatements, feels very contemporary. 

The film is meandering and some parts don’t really hold together, but the way this tale finally ties into personal happiness is light-hearted and life-affirming. Rone’s electronic music together with Paul Guilhaume’s voluptuous black-and-white photography take advantage of the Parisian charm, facilitating the flow of energy from and to these characters.

The Sisters Brothers (2018)

Directed by Jacques Audiard
Country: USA / France / other

This is a gratifying adaptation of Patrick deWitt's novel by French director Jacques Audiard (A Prophet; Rust and Bone; Deephan), who commands an excellent cast with John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix in the leading roles, and Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed as credible supporting actors. In his first English-language film, Audiard, who co-wrote the script with regular associate Thomas Bidegain, provides quite a bit fun as he depicts sequential reverses in the life of two criminal brothers, Charlie (Phoenix) and Eli Sisters (Reilly). The occurrences are incidental to a ravenous gold rush that starts in 1851 Oregon and ends in San Francisco.

While the younger brother, Charlie, is dangerously impulsive - he drinks and kills with equivalent zest, Eli is tired of being an assassin on the run. He actually lives to cover his brother’s misconducts. Both work for the Commodore (Rutger Hauer), a harmful man who assigned them to fetch Hermann Kermit Warm (Ahmed), a gold prospector and chemist who developed a secret formula to extract gold from rivers. Also in his tail is John Morris (Gyllenhaal), a patient detective with an intellectual posture, whose mission is befriending him before giving him away to the brothers. The plans change after Warm and Morris become true friends, which leads the former to make an irresistible proposition to the brothers. They promptly accept, also agreeing to part ways after this job. However, the unreliable Charlie puts everyone in danger after a terrible lapse. The ending is a pure nostalgic pleasure.

With salient dark humor popping out from time to time and a great score by Alexandre Desplat (The Shape of Water; Argo; The King’s Speech), The Sisters Brothers provides proper entertainment even when things become a bit out of control. The strong performances by the leads help to shape curious characters with strong personalities, and Audiard plunges into the Western genre with conviction and panache, offering reasonably more than just the essential. It may be a passive film at times, but never exhausting.