‘Emilia Pérez’ Review: Leading Lady Karla Sofía Gascón Electrifies in Jacques Audiard’s Mexican Redemption Musical

variety.com:

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic SPOILER ALERT: The following review contains some spoilers. Like a rose blooming amid a minefield, it’s a miracle that Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez” exists: a south-of-the-border pop opera about a most unlikely metamorphosis and the personal redemption it awakens in a stone-cold criminal.

With a Palme d’Or to his name and the cojones to tackle his third movie in a culture and language that are not his own (after “Dheepan” and “The Sisters Brothers”), the director of “A Prophet” takes audiences into the macho realm of Mexican cartels, where Manitas del Monte — a fearsome drug lord with a silver grill and a voice like gravel — wants out, not because he’s had a crisis of conscience, but because he’s decided to embrace his true self … as a woman.

Pardon me if I’ve mixed up the pronouns there. Audiard’s dazzling and instantly divisive film — which stars Zoe Saldaña as the lawyer who helps Manitas transition and Selena Gomez as the mother of their two sons — doesn’t strictly adhere to the codes set by GLAAD and other LGBT advocates, and yet, “Emilia Pérez” emerges as a powerful, unfiltered portrait of someone who challenges several stereotypes at once.

That’s a testament to leading lady Karla Sofía Gascón (who plays Manitas/Emilia) and the audacity of Audiard, who had the good sense to incorporate Gascón’s personal experience into the character.