Netflix’s Emilia Pérez is facing backlash for its portrayal of Mexican culture

[Omar Vela 2,547]

I'm sooo thrilled to live in a time where, as a Mexican (born and raised in Mexico), I have a couple of French dudes telling me how I should feel and identify with my own nationality. Seriously, we Mexicans are just so clueless that we'd be completely LOST without Jacques and a certain 'French monster' here explaining us step by step HOW TO FEEL AS MEXICANS. Thank you so much, I'm literally crying tears of joy here... 

Sarcasm aside. I'm not someone who gets offended easily, and honestly, a mediocre movie made by a MEDIOCRE DIRECTOR is one of the last things that could upset me no matter how racist it is (because it is, whether people want to admit it or not). What does offend me is seeing a poorly made film get nominations and awards. Mediocre in every sense, and full of excuses from the team like, 'maybe it didn’t turn out great, but hey we tried our best.' REALLY?

It’s hilarious how Americans have spent years trying to be the world’s saviors when it comes to racial and cultural issues, only to turn around and award this thing.

And hey, I hope the thousands of Mexican families with missing loved ones are feeling just as thrilled and validated by how their situation is portrayed in this movie...

PS: By the way, the trans actress (Karla Gascón) is SPANISH, NOT MEXICAN. And actually, she's not very well-liked around here because she's basically the equivalent of Caitlyn Jenner—someone who, despite being part of a vulnerable group, chooses to be aggressive toward her own community

Edited January 8 by Omar Vela

[tyler k 4,970]

5 hours ago, elijahfan said:

Was wondering what type of person would first come after me and my post, and it's the butthurt Gaga stan that wins! 

[tyler k 4,970]

12 minutes ago, Omar Vela said:

I'm sooo thrilled to live in a time where, as a Mexican (born and raised in Mexico), I have a couple of French dudes telling me how I should feel and identify with my own nationality. Seriously, we Mexicans are just so clueless that we'd be completely LOST without Jacques and a certain 'French monster' here explaining us step by step HOW TO FEEL AS MEXICANS. Thank you so much, I'm literally crying tears of joy here... 

RETWEET 

[gagzus 15,060]

If Joker 2 got backlash for being a musical when it didn’t need to be then why on earth did this garbage win a GG for it. I’ve seen 4 sequences from the movie and it’s all garbage and cringe.

The sex change surgery part alone makes the movie worse than Joker 2 like come on girl

[MadArchitect 613]

10 hours ago, Reality said:

I did hear that people were defending Selena over Eugenio Derbez’s comments, but that gave me the impression that people were defending the movie, so seeing this shift all of a sudden (from my perspective) just felt super weird and sudden. 

Yeah, I’m not from Latin America, so I’m not familiar about whether or not he movie’s been receiving backlash there. I have heard complaints about Selena’s accent before though. 

the movie was plagued with backlash eversince clips of the movie started leaking online and reaching latin american people, the only people who were defending and excusing Selena here in latam during the Derbez viral comments were the very loud Selena fanbase, the rest of people were with Derbez and were joking around how it took selena gomez for us to agree with Derbez for once lmao, we were also making fun of his fake ass PR apology for giving a harmless opinion about the acting on a movie, all because external pressures of hollywood and international prestige that were loving the movie so he wouldnt get blacklisted and keep all those people still in his pocket.
It just really takes a bit of research to see how much backlash this movie has received from the community they are trying to portrait, this is literally like a Sia's "Music" situation, of course the controversy got bigger after the golden globes, but thats because it is like another slap in the face. Mind you, you ask why we weren't denouncing this movie back when it was released, but the movie hasn't even been officially released in Mexico, thats how ridiculous it is and how little they care, the only way to watch it here is ilegally or using vpn on netflix

Edited January 8 by MadArchitect

[Omar Vela 2,547]

2 hours ago, tyler k said:

RETWEET 

hasta me duele la pinchi vulva nada más de tener que explicar

[Emvee 7,801]

Selena’s accent is not the ****ing problem. People making it out to be about her accent are either willfully misrepresenting the controversy to undermine the criticism or really, really dumb. 
 

There’s this really annoying American and European obsession with reducing Mexico to being a failed cartel state over and over and over again. Is there a cartel problem is Mexico? YES! For the millionth time, yes there is. And we don’t need some FRENCH guy to tell us there is. And the cherry on top is that Hollywood is giving him praise for churning out every trope in the book. All in an era when Trump is constantly threatening Mexico with invasion and American media is going out of their way to vilify the Mexican government. It’s like there are whole host of actors that are priming Americans and the broader western world to permit yet another foreign intervention in Mexico just when there’s finally some progress in the country and it isn’t ruled by a party that was revealed to be on the payroll of the CIA. Funnily enough, this one comes in the form of a French film. That’s just rich if you know any Mexican history. 

Edited January 8 by Emvee

[elijahfan 25,112]

10 hours ago, Omar Vela said:

I'm sooo thrilled to live in a time where, as a Mexican (born and raised in Mexico), I have a couple of French dudes telling me how I should feel and identify with my own nationality. Seriously, we Mexicans are just so clueless that we'd be completely LOST without Jacques and a certain 'French monster' here explaining us step by step HOW TO FEEL AS MEXICANS. Thank you so much, I'm literally crying tears of joy here... 

Sarcasm aside. I'm not someone who gets offended easily, and honestly, a mediocre movie made by a MEDIOCRE DIRECTOR is one of the last things that could upset me no matter how racist it is (because it is, whether people want to admit it or not). What does offend me is seeing a poorly made film get nominations and awards. Mediocre in every sense, and full of excuses from the team like, 'maybe it didn’t turn out great, but hey we tried our best.' REALLY?

It’s hilarious how Americans have spent years trying to be the world’s saviors when it comes to racial and cultural issues, only to turn around and award this thing.

And hey, I hope the thousands of Mexican families with missing loved ones are feeling just as thrilled and validated by how their situation is portrayed in this movie...

PS: By the way, the trans actress (Karla Gascón) is SPANISH, NOT MEXICAN. And actually, she's not very well-liked around here because she's basically the equivalent of Caitlyn Jenner—someone who, despite being part of a vulnerable group, chooses to be aggressive toward her own community

I have repeatedly said that people are entitled to their opinion, especially when they’re part of the communities being represented. That’s literally the first thing I said in my initial post.

But asserting this is a bad film and Jacques Audiard is a bad director are two statements that are factually inaccurate. He’s experienced both critical and commercial success his whole career, Emilia Perez included, and even won the Cannes Palme d’Or 10 years ago as well as numerous other prestigious prizes. He’s one of the most internationally celebrated film directors. Nobody here has also suggested Karla Sofía was Mexican, so I’m not sure why that point felt necessary to point out. I talked about Adriana Paz, whose character is directly linked to the plot regarding the fate of Mexican families.

I’m genuinely curious about what offended people that much with this film. Its heart is so obviously in the right place that at times like these I’m wondering if we all saw the same movie. Once again, you’re more than welcome to dislike the film, but also… facts are facts, whether you like it or not.

Edited January 8 by elijahfan

[elijahfan 25,112]

7 hours ago, Emvee said:

Selena’s accent is not the ****ing problem. People making it out to be about her accent are either willfully misrepresenting the controversy to undermine the criticism or really, really dumb. 
 

There’s this really annoying American and European obsession with reducing Mexico to being a failed cartel state over and over and over again. Is there a cartel problem is Mexico? YES! For the millionth time, yes there is. And we don’t need some FRENCH guy to tell us there is. And the cherry on top is that Hollywood is giving him praise for churning out every trope in the book. All in an era when Trump is constantly threatening Mexico with invasion and American media is going out of their way to vilify the Mexican government. It’s like there are whole host of actors that are priming Americans and the broader western world to permit yet another foreign intervention in Mexico just when there’s finally some progress in the country and it isn’t ruled by a party that was revealed to be on the payroll of the CIA. Funnily enough, this one comes in the form of a French film. That’s just rich if you know any Mexican history. 

Ok, now I understand where this is coming from. But as I suspected, it has more to do with the subject matter than the film itself…

I come from a place in France that has been heavily impacted by the two world wars, and every time there’s a film shooting in my hometown, it’s always a war film and we end up with nazi flags in the streets, and I always roll my eyes at the fact this is the only story people are willing to tell about this region. So I get where the reactions are coming from. But… if they do end up making a magnificent war film, will I feel the need to put it down just because I’m tired of the place being reduced to the tragedies of the past?

Now I do understand a bit better where this is all coming from. It’s an interesting discussion to be had about how Mexico is being consistently represented in the media. But is it a reason to literally trash a film whose heart is in the right place and that’s being lauded left and right as a modern cinematic masterpiece? I guess that’s up to you.

[elijahfan 25,112]

10 hours ago, MadArchitect said:

Mind you, you ask why we weren't denouncing this movie back when it was released, but the movie hasn't even been officially released in Mexico, thats how ridiculous it is and how little they care, the only way to watch it here is ilegally or using vpn on netflix

That was up to the Mexican distributor of the film to decide when to release it, the filmmakers literally have 0 say about local release strategies.

[MadArchitect 613]

6 hours ago, elijahfan said:

I have repeatedly said that people are entitled to their opinion, especially when they’re part of the communities being represented. That’s literally the first thing I said in my initial post.

But asserting this is a bad film and Jacques Audiard is a bad director are two statements that are factually inaccurate. He’s experienced both critical and commercial success his whole career, Emilia Perez included, and even won the Cannes Palme d’Or 10 years ago as well as numerous other prestigious prizes. He’s one of the most internationally celebrated film directors. Nobody here has also suggested Karla Sofía was Mexican, so I’m not sure why that point felt necessary to point out. I talked about Adriana Paz, whose character is directly linked to the plot regarding the fate of Mexican families.

I’m genuinely curious about what offended people that much with this film. Its heart is so obviously in the right place that at times like these I’m wondering if we all saw the same movie. Once again, you’re more than welcome to dislike the film, but also… facts are facts, whether you like it or not.

you are cluelesss, anybody can have the opinion that hes a bad director and he made a bad movie, and they wont be wrong for that, prestige awards and commercial success say nothig about the quality of a movie, bad movies get awarded a have commercial success all the time, and the fact that a movie is not commercially succesfull and didnt recevived any awards wont make that movie bad either. That fact only indicates that the movie got recognized by a certain group of people at at certain time, nothing more.

It is also a fact that the overwhelming majority of Mexican and latin american people who have watch the movie arent liking it at all, and there are plenty of reasons that have been given for that, the fact that you value most european and american prestige awards over the community that is the subject matter of this movie is a clear display of your biases.

The hearts of the people reponsible for the making of this movie are not in the right place at all, it is an exercise on arrogance and ego to think that you can make a good film about the culture of a another country and admit that you didnt do proper research about it, and if you are mexican or latin american you can clearly see that this is the case. The film is plaged with tired stereotypes and treats the subject of dissaperance and kidnaps due to narcotraffic with such carelessness and cynicism, trivializing it to the extent that it becomes unbearable for how senseless it is, none of the main characters has any moral ground and then later appear criticizing the corruption they are still partaking in, because the movie pretends to make a case for their redemption and fails in every way.

If you are a native spanish speaker you cant watch this movie and overlook the dissonace, none of the main actresses are mexican and you can notice their spanish(from spain) and dominican accents from the get go, yet the fllmakers just assumed that we would suspend our disbelief and somehow think for even a second that they are suposed to be mexican by saying a couple of mexican expressions and words that just feel so forced, In the case of Selena is not even an accent at all, but the fact that you can tell she doesnt speak spanish and she cant even suntain a conversation in spanish in real life without a script, thats how unnatural and robotic it sounds, shes just reciting lines and the emotion is completely detached from what she says.

There are plenty of talented mexican actresses and the fact that the casting director pretends us to believe that they didn't found any mexican actresses talented enough and the ones in the movie are the best of the best is just laughable and insulting, they just clearly went with their whims and not by talent level or what was best suitable for the roles.

 

5 hours ago, elijahfan said:

That was up to the Mexican distributor of the film to decide when to release it, the filmmakers literally have 0 say about local release strategies.

This is no true at all, filmmakers have absolutely a say, plus they decide themselves which studios and distributors suit them best to attatch the name and the roll out of their movie, much more if they are stablished in the industry already. If they really valued the opinion of mexican people they would've done their due diligence, but they dont, they have to care first, and they clearly didnt care one bit. It actually even feels intentional to not release the movie in mexico until after award season so it wont interfere lmao...

Edited January 8 by MadArchitect

[Controversiaga 9,511]

I’m just a cis white gay man but here’s my thoughts 

great idea - but doesn’t land. If you remove the song and dance numbers and fill that time with deeper plot development and deepening the characters relationships- this movie really could’ve been so much more compelling.

because of the song and dance, I felt the plot didn’t get to thicken as much.

we barely got to see Emilia and Selena interact, we barely got to see Emilia and her kids interact . We never got to see Emilia and Selena’s lover interact. I wish there was more of a build of tension between all of them before they finally leave Emilia. 
 

the gender affirmation surgery song was the most cringe and ridiculous part of the movie I think . Not necessary or crucial to the story at all imo. It Just made a circus out of being trans 

 

and then finally when Emilia comes out to Selena, that moment should’ve been so much bigger and powerful and shocking for Selena but her character barely got to react to it.  And of course they made that moment a sing song moment 

Edited January 8 by Controversiaga

[elijahfan 25,112]

2 hours ago, MadArchitect said:

you are cluelesss, anybody can have the opinion that hes a bad director and he made a bad movie, and they wont be wrong for that, prestige awards and commercial success say nothig about the quality of a movie, bad movies get awarded a have commercial success all the time, and the fact that a movie is not commercially succesfull and didnt recevived any awards wont make that movie bad either. That fact only indicates that the movie got recognized by a certain group of people at at certain time, nothing more.

It is also a fact that the overwhelming majority of Mexican and latin american people who have watch the movie arent liking it at all, and there are plenty of reasons that have been given for that, the fact that you value most european and american prestige awards over the community that is the subject matter of this movie is a clear display of your biases.

The hearts of the people reponsible for the making of this movie are not in the right place at all, it is an exercise on arrogance and ego to think that you can make a good film about the culture of a another country and admit that you didnt do proper research about it, and if you are mexican or latin american you can clearly see that this is the case. The film is plaged with tired stereotypes and treats the subject of dissaperance and kidnaps due to narcotraffic with such carelessness and cynicism, trivializing it to the extent that it becomes unbearable for how senseless it is, none of the main characters has any moral ground and then later appear criticizing the corruption they are still partaking in, because the movie pretends to make a case for their redemption and fails in every way.

If you are a native spanish speaker you cant watch this movie and overlook the dissonace, none of the main actresses are mexican and you can notice their spanish(from spain) and dominican accents from the get go, yet the fllmakers just assumed that we would suspend our disbelief and somehow think for even a second that they are suposed to be mexican by saying a couple of mexican expressions and words that just feel so forced, In the case of Selena is not even an accent at all, but the fact that you can tell she doesnt speak spanish and she cant even suntain a conversation in spanish in real life without a script, thats how unnatural and robotic it sounds, shes just reciting lines and the emotion is completely detached from what she says.

There are plenty of talented mexican actresses and the fact that the casting director pretends us to believe that they didn't found any mexican actresses talented enough and the ones in the movie are the best of the best is just laughable and insulting, they just clearly went with their whims and not by talent level or what was best suitable for the roles.

 

This is no true at all, filmmakers have absolutely a say, plus they decide themselves which studios and distributors suit them best to attatch the name and the roll out of their movie, much more if they are stablished in the industry already. If they really valued the opinion of mexican people they would've done their due diligence, but they dont, they have to care first, and they clearly didnt care one bit. It actually even feels intentional to not release the movie in mexico until after award season so it wont interfere lmao...

If it were up to the filmmakers, their films would be released in as many theaters and as many territories possible at the same time... Netflix won the bidding war to distribute the film in most international territories, Mexico included, and the choice of a late 24 / early 25 release strategy from them is to benefit from the awards season buzz. It's being released in 37 countries between November and next February, France and Belgium are literally the only territories where it was released as early as August for the obvious reason that this was made by a French director. To suggest there was some kind of conspiracy to keep this film away from Mexican eyes is as ludicrous and paranoid as pretending the filmmakers had any ill intent by making it, or pretending the film is objectively bad.

[MadArchitect 613]

9 hours ago, elijahfan said:

If it were up to the filmmakers, their films would be released in as many theaters and as many territories possible at the same time... Netflix won the bidding war to distribute the film in most international territories, Mexico included, and the choice of a late 24 / early 25 release strategy from them is to benefit from the awards season buzz. It's being released in 37 countries between November and next February, France and Belgium are literally the only territories where it was released as early as August for the obvious reason that this was made by a French director. To suggest there was some kind of conspiracy to keep this film away from Mexican eyes is as ludicrous and paranoid as pretending the filmmakers had any ill intent by making it, or pretending the film is objectively bad.

Yes of course they would love an unprecedented mass commercial multi territorial release lol, but since it is not possible for them, they have to CHOOSE, and they chose to go with the biggest postor and what was most convenient, and Mexico was just not a priority, to say that the filmakers have no say at all is just your way to excuse them.
See, you try to say they hosted a bidding war in and in the same breath you wanna make it seem that they had no say in it lol, the say was what was most confortable and profitable for them, not any kind of principles or care about the subject matter of the movie and the auidence they were portraying in contrast to the one they were actually aiming for, and this is true and evident from all the pre-production of it to the roll out and distribution. Plenty of international movies of all kinds premiere in Mexico near the debut release date, not even dealing with mexican subjects, they just care about the audience here and the of course the market, there is just no excuse, they didnt care.

You agree with me that they did it intentionally to benefit from the award seasons without putting in the limeline any potential controversy lol. Nobody here is saying that they had ill intentions and were evil, or they are actively trying to witheld the movie from the mexican audience lmao, they just dont care about our opinion and are insecure of a potential big bad response that could tarnish its award run, thats all, you are essentially saying the same thing that i do but trying to spin it a conpiratory light lmao no, the difference is that i see a problem and you don't. I dont care if they had good intentions, or if they really try and worked hard, the reality is that the movie is not anything near of an accurate or authentic representation of mexico, and it is just a display of willfull ignorance and the arrogance of thinking that the very narrow view that they knew was anough to cover such complex issues of a culture thats not their own, and as we say here, the pathway to hell is made out of good intentions lol.

The only person here pretending that the film or the director is objectively anything and other people are factually wrong is you lol, that is invalidating other people's opinion, and to do so you cite prestige awards or commercial success which makes no sense....
 

Edited January 9 by MadArchitect

[elijahfan 25,112]

3 hours ago, MadArchitect said:

Yes of course they would love an unprecedented mass commercial multi territorial release lol, but since it is not possible for them, they have to CHOOSE, and they chose to go with the biggest postor and what was most convenient, and Mexico was just not a priority, to say that the filmakers have no say at all is just your way to excuse them.
See, you try to say they hosted a bidding war in and in the same breath you wanna make it seem that they had no say in it lol, the say was what was most confortable and profitable for them, not any kind of principles or care about the subject matter of the movie and the auidence they were portraying in contrast to the one they were actually aiming for, and this is true and evident from all the pre-production of it to the roll out and distribution. Plenty of international movies of all kinds premiere in Mexico near the debut release date, not even dealing with mexican subjects, they just care about the audience here and the of course the market, there is just no excuse, they didnt care.

You agree with me that they did it intentionally to benefit from the award seasons without putting in the limeline any potential controversy lol. Nobody here is saying that they had ill intentions and were evil, or they are actively trying to witheld the movie from the mexican audience lmao, they just dont care about our opinion and are insecure of a potential big bad response that could tarnish its award run, thats all, you are essentially saying the same thing that i do but trying to spin it a conpiratory light lmao no, the difference is that i see a problem and you don't. I dont care if they had good intentions, or if they really try and worked hard, the reality is that the movie is not anything near of an accurate or authentic representation of mexico, and it is just a display of willfull ignorance and the arrogance of thinking that the very narrow view that they knew was anough to cover such complex issues of a culture thats not their own, and as we say here, the pathway to hell is made out of good intentions lol.

The only person here pretending that the film or the director is objectively anything and other people are factually wrong is you lol, that is invalidating other people's opinion, and to do so you cite prestige awards or commercial success which makes no sense....
 

Check out the local release dates of other films that are being pushed for awards and you’ll see this is not just about Emilia. It’s been working that way for decades, it’s literally the same in France and countless other local territories. While filmmakers might express their wishes regarding these strategies, at the end of the day this gets decided by the distributor. And there was no intention of singling out Mexico regarding those strategies. The film was released in priority in French-speaking territories because it’s the market it was initially made for, it’s as simple as that.

Once again, I’m not invalidating anyone’s opinion, I’m just reminding that it’s what they are: opinions. The reception of the movie has overwhelmingly been positive since its premiere at Cannes in May, and that should be taken into account. My tone is merely matching the one of the people who are spewing hate towards the film and the people who made it. A conversation is definitely warranted, but the hate is uncalled for.