Netflix is Trying to Win Oscars for 'Emilia Pérez' While Pretending the Best Actress Nominee Who Plays Emilia Pérez Does Not Exist
By now you've no doubt heard of Emilia Pérez, Netflix so-called "Narco Musical" that received more Academy Award nominations than such timeless classics as the first two Godfather films, Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, or Saving Private Ryan, just to name a few.
By way of full disclosure, I have yet to see it. But thanks to Robbie Fox's less than enthusiastic review:
... and the overwhelming angry contempt it has garnered on the YouTube nerdosphere, I can't imagine not giving it a hate watch. I mean, there's only so many times you can be satisfied with watching that tour de force musical number before you need all the context, plot development and character arcs that make it truly resonate.
Besides, Emilia Pérez has the unmistakable feel of one of those seminal, culture-altering moments. A movie made by a French director, ostensibly to celebrate Mexican culture, that reportedly includes all the worst Mexican stereotypes, with the title character played by someone from Spain and a grand total of one actual Mexican actress, would be appointment viewing anyway. But add to the fact the Academy was mesmerized by it, critics were mildly approving, while audiences detest this thing with the heat of a million black leather car seats:
… then this is a thing not to be missed.
And yet, someone the story of Emilia Pérez's journey into Oscars legend just keeps getting better. Like anyone who gets suddenly famous out of nowhere like a lightning strike, star Karla Sofia Gascon's social media past got a good going over. And the results were less than ideal for everyone involved:
And since then, another post went viral. This one seemingly supportive of a certain mid-20th century European leader with one testicle and a passion for genocide:
In the interest of fairness, you want to give some benefit of the doubt here because it's possible Gascon's Tweet lost something in the translation and this was not meant to come across as praise for ol' Schiklgruber. Or perhaps you're simply against canceling anyone over something they said almost six years ago. Which, generally speaking, I would agree with.
But you and I aren't running Netflix. This is nothing sort of a cataclysmic Public Relations natural disaster. They've sunk millions trying to promote this movie while distancing themselves from its star. And now they're stuck with trying to figure out how to pull off that magic trick:
Source - This week, Emilia Pérez best actress Oscar nominee Karla Sofía Gascón was expected to fly in to Los Angeles from her home in Spain for a busy week awards campaigning.
On Thursday, Feb. 6, she was to be seated with her writer/director, Jacques Audiard, and costars, Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldaña, at the AFI Awards luncheon [followed by] the Critics Choice Awards [followed by] the Directors Guild Awards and the Producers Guild Awards [followed by] the PGA Awards … where she was to serve as a presenter. …
However, given the massive controversy that has engulfed Gascón in recent days … The Hollywood Reporter has learned that she will not be coming to town at all.
Tensions are said to be high between Gascón and the streamer, which has invested millions in the film’s awards push. … But now, at the most inopportune moment, it is on life support thanks to the Gascón revelations.
The two parties are now said to be communicating only through Gascón’s agent, Jeremy Barber of UTA. And it is my understanding that there is no great interest on the part of Netflix to provide the usual courtesies afforded by a studio to an Oscar contender, such as transportation and accommodations, to facilitate her attendance at the remaining award season gatherings.
And here, in a nutshell, is everything wrong with the current film industry. Hollywood has been so invested in pushing agendas and promoting their own socio-political causes that they've abandoned any pretense of trying to tell good stories that entertain a wide audience.
The common denominator of all those movies I listed in the opening paragraph is that they all have broad appeal. They resonate with people around the globe to this day. Despite them being from different generations, from different countries, speaking different languages. Because they address the human condition. Speak universal truths. But express them in the form of great stories, which is how people have been communicating since we were hunter-gathers sitting around the fire at night. They're not beloved classics because some studio decided to forcefeed audiences garbage movies occasionally interupted by awful songs sung terribly just to signal their own virtue.
And now that the star they pinned their hopes on turns out to have no personal virtue. Netflix wanted to ride a wave of sentimentality and "a historic" Best Actress Oscar to fame, glory, and adulation. Instead they're going to have to spend Hollywood Self-Congratulations Season trying to convince everyone they don't actually support Hitler. And it's more fun than Emilia Pérez could ever be.
The lesson from all this is: Live by representation, die by representation.