For Your COMMsideration: Emilia Perez Is Undeserving Of An Oscar

The 2025 Oscar nominations were revealed back on January 23rd and leading the pack with 13 total nominations was “Emilia Pérez.”

The film has the same amount of nominations as last year's Best Picture winner “Oppenheimer: " as well as some of the most beloved films ever made like “Gone with the Wind.”

“Emilia Pérez” only needed one more Oscar nomination to be tied for the most ever and be in the field with films like “Titanic” and “La La Land.”

All these nominations would make one believe that “Emilia Pérez” is truly a genius work of filmmaking but in reality, the film is simply a flawed mess.

Ignoring the many controversies that the film has faced, the film itself is simply flawed in several aspects that make it a film difficult to get through.

The film follows Rita Mora Castro, a Mexican lawyer offered a unique job to help a cartel boss fake their death and transition into a woman, fulfilling a lifelong desire.

Rita’s assistance allows the former cartel leader to start a new life under a new name, Emilia Perez.

The worst aspect of the film is that it is a musical. The songs add nothing to the film and seem completely out of place.

The most memorable song of them all would be “La Vaginoplastia” but the song is memorable for completely the wrong reasons.

Not only is the singing bad and the lyrics even worse, but the song itself is goofy and comedic which completely contradicts the gritty tone of the rest of the film.

A film like this does a major disservice to musicals as a movie genre. Those not a fan of musicals may never want to try watching one ever again, and it would be understandable if they did.

Thankfully “Wicked” came out shortly after the release of this film which portrayed the musical genre in a much more positive light.

Two songs from the film, “El Mal” and “Mi Camino”, were nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar and while they are probably the two best songs from the film, that is not saying much.

They are fine songs but are ultimately forgettable and in no way should they be in the category that has featured some of the greatest songs of all time.

The film itself tackles serious issues but does not go about them in a good way.

For example the characters are not developed enough for the audience to be attached to them.

The main culprit of this is the central character, Emilia Pérez. She is meant to be the heart of the film but the film does not flesh out her character enough to really resonate with the viewer.

This could have potentially been solved if the movie was focused on giving additional depth to these characters instead of having countless musical numbers that really add nothing to the overall film.

With these characters seeming surface level, the world that they are in also feels surface level. This leads to the themes that the movie tries to demonstrate feeling well, surface level.

The film is such a tonal mess as it is part crime drama, part thriller, and part musica. It makes the whole thing murky and makes it hard for the ideas of the film to really come to full fruition.

In the end “Emilia Pérez” is a severely flawed film with numerous elements weighing it down. There was a good story to tell but unfortunately the plot and characters were severely underdeveloped and a majority of the movie was wasted with poor musical numbers.

It is yet to be seen how many Oscars this film has but with how flawed it is, the number should be few.

Nikolai Wagner is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To email him, contact njw5648@psu.edu.