In my 11 years of following Oscar season, I have never seen a campaign this messy. I've also never seen a film this hated. Something like Green Book didn't even have this level of ire (likely due...
In my 11 years of following Oscar season, I have never seen a campaign this messy. I've also never seen a film this hated. Something like Green Book didn't even have this level of ire (likely due to it at least being well-constructed).
Now there's concerns that all the controversies surrounding the film (including a recent clip of the director calling Spanish a language for poor people), jeopardizes potential wins including International Feature (which now has another Best Picture contender with I'm Still Here) and Supporting Actress (which Ariana Grande is now gaining favor and momentum to win).
Who knows what the outcome will ultimately be, maybe the industry completely ignores this and still awards it heavily. But, I really do think this is a wrecking ball situation.
The only things I've heard from other trans people about the film have been extremely negative, so I don't think it's pandering to anyone so much as it is them patting themselves on the back over...
The only things I've heard from other trans people about the film have been extremely negative, so I don't think it's pandering to anyone so much as it is them patting themselves on the back over how progressive they are in that classic "white cis ally who's never actually spoken to a trans person or a Mexican" way.
OK, maybe it's a lot worse than I thought. Original comment is within. I haven't been following the discourse at all, but I think it's a legitimately great film. That being said, I can understand...
OK, maybe it's a lot worse than I thought. Original comment is within.
I haven't been following the discourse at all, but I think it's a legitimately great film. That being said, I can understand why people hate it. The things @zestier describes are overblown in my opinion, but I can absolutely understand how a trans person would really hate it. There's really only one trans character in it and they are the head of a cartel who abandons their family and then pretends to be their own sister as an attempt to get back - and, to an extent, to *control* - the family they left behind. I also thought it was weird when I saw french studios making this movie that takes place in Mexico about Mexican people, so I am not at all surprised that they would have fumbled the representation. The stuff they are upset about really doesn't seem like a big deal to me - the character describing the person's scent is a *child* - but I'm not even hispanic so I don't know everything that might insult a Mexican viewer.
But to put things simply, the songs are pretty great, and they are mixed into the story in a very seamless way. Netflix has put up the sequence for the song El Mal on Youtube if you don't have a subscription or just don't care to watch the whole thing.
I always preface these by saying I'm Mexican. I don't think anything within the film is that bad in regards to Mexican representation. I know some people take offense to any sort of depiction of...
I always preface these by saying I'm Mexican. I don't think anything within the film is that bad in regards to Mexican representation. I know some people take offense to any sort of depiction of the Cartel, but it's an actual thing. It's why I always defend Sicario. Honestly I would say Selena Gomez's Spanish is the most offensive part of the film's depiction of Mexico (even if she's supposed to be American she shouldn't speak Spanish that poorly if she's been living in Mexico for however many years).
I have not seen the film and have no intention to. I did stumble upon a My Friends Call Me Pat video about it a few hours ago. Assuming what he said in the video is accurate this movie even being...
I have not seen the film and have no intention to. I did stumble upon a My Friends Call Me Pat video about it a few hours ago. Assuming what he said in the video is accurate this movie even being at the Oscars is baffling to me even without the racist tweets. The rest of my comment was not independently researched, just my takeaways from his video.
The movie was created by a straight French man, filmed in France, using famous US Hollywood and Spanish actors while being about Mexico, cartels, and a trans person. The accents are, as would probably be expected from that, all over the place. It was also admitted to have almost no research done, causing it to get elements of almost everything it's about wrong in ways that cause it to reinforce harmful stereotypes rather than providing trans or Mexican representation. Just one random example was listing items that a specific Mexican person smells like and it includes mezcal and guacamole. My understanding is that it also continues to paint trans people as deceptive because the character that transitions is a cartel boss doing so to hide rather than to be true to who's inside.
And then there're the tweets. I'm not even sure what to add. They aren't so old as to even try the "oh I was a dumb teen and I'm not like that anymore" excuse and they're just so blatant.
The /r/mexico sub absolutely hates this film, it really struck a nerve. At first I didn’t get it bc I thought it was a Mexican movie, but from reading the above comments, I can see where they’re...
The /r/mexico sub absolutely hates this film, it really struck a nerve. At first I didn’t get it bc I thought it was a Mexican movie, but from reading the above comments, I can see where they’re coming from.
I watched this movie because I found it interesting that it simultaneously got so many Oscars nominations, but also was getting terrible ratings from actual watchers. I always find media like that...
I watched this movie because I found it interesting that it simultaneously got so many Oscars nominations, but also was getting terrible ratings from actual watchers. I always find media like that that get hated by some but loved by others to have the most potential to be truly incredible or even life changing.
But sadly I found it to just be ... bad. I feel like I am the type of person that ends up liking almost every movie I watch, even though I don't really watch too many movies, but this one was just boring for me. I think a big part is that I probably don't like musicals much (although I did like some in the past), but even ignoring those parts I felt like it was pretty dumb. Also, the movie is about a trans person, but every trans person I talked to hated how they portrayed being trans in the movie, and the movie is about Mexico, but from what I heard everyone from Mexico also hates it. It felt like a B movie, but not in a good way? Maybe if it fully leaned into it and just decided to be a fully campy non serious comedy movie it would have been better, but right now it felt weirdly half-serious and trashy.
For comparison, I watched "I Saw the TV Glow" a week before, which got similar reception online, also getting some very mixed reviews but with a lot of people saying that it's amazing which interested me. It was a bit slow and strange, but I was ok with that and I have to say the "point" of that movie resonated with me very hard, even though I am not trans. It's a movie that could definitely be life changing for some. So I'd say if someone wants to try watching Emilia Pérez, watch the TV glow instead :D.
In my 11 years of following Oscar season, I have never seen a campaign this messy. I've also never seen a film this hated. Something like Green Book didn't even have this level of ire (likely due to it at least being well-constructed).
Now there's concerns that all the controversies surrounding the film (including a recent clip of the director calling Spanish a language for poor people), jeopardizes potential wins including International Feature (which now has another Best Picture contender with I'm Still Here) and Supporting Actress (which Ariana Grande is now gaining favor and momentum to win).
Who knows what the outcome will ultimately be, maybe the industry completely ignores this and still awards it heavily. But, I really do think this is a wrecking ball situation.
I don't think I've ever seen a kind word said about this movie by anyone. Why did this movie get any noms in the first place? Pandering?
The only things I've heard from other trans people about the film have been extremely negative, so I don't think it's pandering to anyone so much as it is them patting themselves on the back over how progressive they are in that classic "white cis ally who's never actually spoken to a trans person or a Mexican" way.
OK, maybe it's a lot worse than I thought. Original comment is within.
I haven't been following the discourse at all, but I think it's a legitimately great film. That being said, I can understand why people hate it. The things @zestier describes are overblown in my opinion, but I can absolutely understand how a trans person would really hate it. There's really only one trans character in it and they are the head of a cartel who abandons their family and then pretends to be their own sister as an attempt to get back - and, to an extent, to *control* - the family they left behind. I also thought it was weird when I saw french studios making this movie that takes place in Mexico about Mexican people, so I am not at all surprised that they would have fumbled the representation. The stuff they are upset about really doesn't seem like a big deal to me - the character describing the person's scent is a *child* - but I'm not even hispanic so I don't know everything that might insult a Mexican viewer.But to put things simply, the songs are pretty great, and they are mixed into the story in a very seamless way. Netflix has put up the sequence for the song El Mal on Youtube if you don't have a subscription or just don't care to watch the whole thing.
I always preface these by saying I'm Mexican. I don't think anything within the film is that bad in regards to Mexican representation. I know some people take offense to any sort of depiction of the Cartel, but it's an actual thing. It's why I always defend Sicario. Honestly I would say Selena Gomez's Spanish is the most offensive part of the film's depiction of Mexico (even if she's supposed to be American she shouldn't speak Spanish that poorly if she's been living in Mexico for however many years).
Audiard, the director, is pretty clearly racist though. He thinks Mexican culture is beneath him, he thinks of Mexico as a hell-ish third world that doesn't have the pedigree of a European country like France. It reminds me of something Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu said a few years ago: “It was like ‘Oh, you guys from your banana country,’” Iñarritu said. “If I were from Denmark or Sweden, I might be seen as philosophical, but when you’re Mexican and you say things, you’re pretentious.”
Heads up that you may need to VPN through the US (or UK or Canada?) in order to access that youtube link.
I have not seen the film and have no intention to. I did stumble upon a My Friends Call Me Pat video about it a few hours ago. Assuming what he said in the video is accurate this movie even being at the Oscars is baffling to me even without the racist tweets. The rest of my comment was not independently researched, just my takeaways from his video.
The movie was created by a straight French man, filmed in France, using famous US Hollywood and Spanish actors while being about Mexico, cartels, and a trans person. The accents are, as would probably be expected from that, all over the place. It was also admitted to have almost no research done, causing it to get elements of almost everything it's about wrong in ways that cause it to reinforce harmful stereotypes rather than providing trans or Mexican representation. Just one random example was listing items that a specific Mexican person smells like and it includes mezcal and guacamole. My understanding is that it also continues to paint trans people as deceptive because the character that transitions is a cartel boss doing so to hide rather than to be true to who's inside.
And then there're the tweets. I'm not even sure what to add. They aren't so old as to even try the "oh I was a dumb teen and I'm not like that anymore" excuse and they're just so blatant.
The /r/mexico sub absolutely hates this film, it really struck a nerve. At first I didn’t get it bc I thought it was a Mexican movie, but from reading the above comments, I can see where they’re coming from.
I watched this movie because I found it interesting that it simultaneously got so many Oscars nominations, but also was getting terrible ratings from actual watchers. I always find media like that that get hated by some but loved by others to have the most potential to be truly incredible or even life changing.
But sadly I found it to just be ... bad. I feel like I am the type of person that ends up liking almost every movie I watch, even though I don't really watch too many movies, but this one was just boring for me. I think a big part is that I probably don't like musicals much (although I did like some in the past), but even ignoring those parts I felt like it was pretty dumb. Also, the movie is about a trans person, but every trans person I talked to hated how they portrayed being trans in the movie, and the movie is about Mexico, but from what I heard everyone from Mexico also hates it. It felt like a B movie, but not in a good way? Maybe if it fully leaned into it and just decided to be a fully campy non serious comedy movie it would have been better, but right now it felt weirdly half-serious and trashy.
For comparison, I watched "I Saw the TV Glow" a week before, which got similar reception online, also getting some very mixed reviews but with a lot of people saying that it's amazing which interested me. It was a bit slow and strange, but I was ok with that and I have to say the "point" of that movie resonated with me very hard, even though I am not trans. It's a movie that could definitely be life changing for some. So I'd say if someone wants to try watching Emilia Pérez, watch the TV glow instead :D.
I would appreciate it if you added the tag "awards" to posts about awards.