Up next in 10
Alan Ng reviews “Emilia Pérez,” now playing on Netflix.
Have a drink with us for Hollywood On the Rocks, Wednesdays at 1PM PT, then catch us on our Friday Livecast at 9AM PT for film reviews, interviews and a chance to join the conversation about movies and all things pop culture!
And on Mondays at 1PM PT, join us ringside for Versus, where a bunch of passionate movie nerds have themselves a Royal Rumble!
-----------------------------------------------------------
ALL THE LINKS!
https://linktr.ee/filmthreat
T-SHIRTS AND MERCH! Shop Film Threat t-shirts, mugs, merch and more:
https://shop.filmthreat.com/
SUBMIT YOUR INDIE FILM! We’ll review anything including your indie movie! Submit your film for review now: https://filmthreat.com/submit-project/
WIN AWARDS! All films reviewed on Film Threat become eligible for our indie movie awards show Award This! You can even attend the party! https://linktr.ee/awardthis
JOIN US AS A MEMBER! Join the Film Threat channel to get access to perks including giveaways, member chats and exclusive videos:
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:03
Allan I gave you my thoughts on Amelia
0:06
Perez we saw the movie when is it best
0:09
picture at the Golden Globes yes I think
0:12
that's prompted me to watch this uh
0:15
immediately after the Golden Globes yeah
0:18
in a category that Wicked was in Amilia
0:22
Perez beat Wicked so you have now since
0:25
seen Amilia Perez I'd love to hear your
0:28
review yeah let's let's let's set the
0:30
context Amelia Perez won over Wicked for
0:33
best
0:35
musical uh and just to get into the the
0:38
plot real quick Zoe Sala plays a lawyer
0:41
under rep underappreciated and underpaid
0:44
she's hired by a a Mexican cartel leader
0:48
to uh undergo a sex change operation uh
0:51
to uh to kind of um Escape all all her
0:56
troubles and uh underground because yeah
1:00
you know as a man Amia was a drug cartel
1:04
leader and a brutal one right that was
1:06
responsible for many death so a a
1:11
horrible
1:12
tough
1:14
hardened uh drug cartel of leaders so
1:18
yeah so so here's the thing that
1:20
surprised me that uh that that you like
1:23
this movie a lot more than I
1:25
did but I didn't I didn't love it I was
1:29
just like yeah weird it was weird it's
1:32
also a French director directing a
1:35
Spanish it's not all in Spanish but it's
1:38
it's English and Spanish subtitled it's
1:41
a musical that's very
1:44
experimental and yeah and uh basically I
1:47
describe the plot as Mrs
1:50
Doubtfire with with a trans drug dealer
1:54
because once he transitions he sort of
1:57
reinserts himself into the family
2:00
including his ex-wife who doesn't
2:02
recognize him his kids who doesn't
2:04
recognize him because he is not the man
2:08
they used to know he is
2:10
airz right so it's we have gender
2:13
criticism we yeah I I how do you talk
2:17
about this movie without bringing it up
2:19
I mean look all I'm saying is I I I
2:22
admired it's not where near is good is
2:24
wicked give me a break and and for know
2:29
why wait
2:30
we know why this is getting
2:32
prais because it's checking all the
2:35
boxes it's on Netflix which means means
2:39
most people haven't seen
2:41
it and it w it's winning all these
2:44
awards are they gonna ride it to Oscar I
2:46
don't know I'm like I'm confused as to
2:49
why this is getting so much attention
2:52
and success but I should not be is what
2:55
I so let me tell you let me tell you and
2:58
I'm interrupting your review no this is
3:00
my review you shut okay so first of all
3:05
uh apologies to
3:07
Mufasa Amelia Perez is the worst movie
3:10
of the year oh wow this is it just
3:14
confounds me because you know I'm we're
3:16
watching the Golden Globes at our watch
3:17
party it wins okay I'll give it a chance
3:21
and I'm watching it and I'm like this
3:22
movie is God awful and and let's just
3:26
let's let me just come at it from the
3:28
musical standpoint the music in this
3:30
movie is awful uh you say it's
3:34
experimental you can't I mean it's it's
3:37
just you know the the the thing about
3:41
musicals is M you sing a song because
3:45
you need to express feelings and
3:47
emotions that you can't say in just
3:50
normal conversation and so you sing
3:53
that's why you sing but in this movie uh
3:57
all the songs uh are basically dialogue
4:00
in the movie Set to
4:02
song and so Joker like Joker to you no
4:07
joku at least chose songs that had
4:11
emotion and depth behind it whe whether
4:13
it executed it well the songs they chose
4:16
the Cole Porter songs you know the uh
4:19
you
4:19
know I believe Abba or someone you know
4:23
I'm not I'm not going to go through and
4:24
try to remember all the songs in Joker
4:25
but um at least those songs had emotion
4:28
behind it and it was about feel feeling
4:30
a certain way in a certain situation
4:32
right so like the song vagina
4:35
plasty is a song about a great song it's
4:39
a great song I'm gonna sing it later
4:41
yeah please please sing vagina plasy um
4:45
you know it's
4:47
just again if you took the song if you
4:49
took the music away and just took the
4:52
the substance of the song you you have a
4:54
straightforward musical um then from
4:58
there so the music awful I I do not know
5:03
how you can say that the music in Amelia
5:05
Perez is better than Wicked the there's
5:09
no way but the the Golden Globe voters
5:12
whoever those are they did say that
5:15
Hollywood Foreign Press Association that
5:17
that should say it all right there and
5:19
to be clear it's not like I gave this
5:20
movie a great review I gave it a very
5:22
mixed review but admired that it swung
5:25
for the fences and was just plain weird
5:28
and the third act there's like this
5:29
crazy shootout battle with cars and guns
5:32
that's that's like and I'm like you
5:34
never see that musical so I like movies
5:37
I look I like movies that try to be
5:41
different and take risks and are weird
5:44
this does that does it does it succeed
5:48
no no it's got some in but it's got some
5:51
really admirable Parts as you pointed
5:53
out vagina plasty the song Yes okay I'll
5:57
give you vagina plasty
6:00
but you know look and before anyone
6:03
criticizes me about the the music yes
6:05
there's a moment where uh AIA pre is is
6:08
standing up for women's rights and for
6:11
uh domestic abuse and they they have
6:13
this banquet and she kind of has her a
6:15
Vita Peron U moment I'll give you that
6:19
but other than that the music is just
6:21
dialogue set the music it's there's no
6:24
Melody it's very forgettable then let's
6:26
move on to other things such as the
6:28
acting um look uh I watched I watched
6:33
the movie and thought to myself does
6:36
does Selena Gomez even know how to speak
6:38
Spanish uh and then I I texted paully
6:41
and I said what did you think of
6:43
Selena's uh Spanish and he said it was
6:46
it was bad it was really bad you watch
6:50
watch Selena Gomez uh the way I mean
6:54
I've seen a lot of Mexican films films
6:56
from Mexico yeah and people people speak
6:59
like Spanish speak Spanish like that so
7:03
clearly she's you know trying to it's
7:05
like me trying to be in a Chinese movie
7:07
um as much as hard as I'll try I'll
7:09
never sound like an authentic Chinese
7:11
person um the uh okay then you have the
7:16
the biggest problem of the movie and I
7:18
think this is the reason why trans
7:20
people by why certain trans people don't
7:22
like this movie because you know she
7:24
it's set up that Amilia Perez is this uh
7:28
this brutal uh brutal cartel leader and
7:31
the moment uh the the uh transition
7:35
occurs uh she is now this loving uh
7:39
activist you know uh you know uh woman
7:43
you know she basically the the sex
7:45
change operation made her into a
7:47
virtuous person right uh and and look
7:50
the third act kind of resolves that but
7:53
you know that's that's the kind of thing
7:55
that uh you know there there's just no
7:57
Nuance there's no subtext in that second
8:00
act because yeah instantly a great
8:02
person and uh you know I thought it was
8:06
the only clever part about this movie is
8:09
uh is that it kind of addresses that in
8:12
the third act but it doesn't do it very
8:14
well and it you know you know and I
8:17
think the the real reason the trans
8:19
Community is not really embracing this
8:21
movie is because it's the idea that that
8:24
Amelia Perez uh uh transitioned in order
8:28
to escape the law
8:30
as opposed to being a person who is
8:32
struggling with their gender which she
8:34
kind of does but the but the way the
8:36
story is written and the way the story
8:38
plays out it feels like that uh she just
8:40
did it to to avoid the law and uh I
8:44
think that's where a lot of the problems
8:45
is you could talk to Paulie about the
8:47
the ISS the the Latin America issues
8:50
with this movie um but this is this is
8:54
the worst movie of the year and I cannot
8:57
believe that it's going to get get get
8:59
the recognition it deserves because it
9:01
is a fundamentally horrible movie uh
9:04
made in terms of The Craft of making
9:07
movies this movie Just fails on all
9:11
levels well so first of all it's not as
9:14
bad as Craven but it's bad for it's look
9:18
I I gave it a mix Rie I think there are
9:21
things that like look also by the way
9:23
you should be clear I love David Lynch
9:26
movies this is this is almost if if
9:29
David Lynch made a musical this could be
9:32
it now would it be great no but it would
9:35
still be interesting and that's why I
9:37
think this movie is interesting let me
9:39
say this about Craven though uh I had
9:42
fun not liking
9:44
Craven true we all did that was one of
9:47
the most fun screenings was was PA was
9:50
with us script doctor it was a whole
9:52
group of us went Dante da it was great
9:56
but um but they but look you know me
9:59
going into this you know there's this
10:02
there's this idea that there are certain
10:05
subjects that you just can't criticize
10:07
um and the transit issue is the the hot
10:10
one right now um but thankfully this
10:13
movie is just awful uh period and uh so
10:18
you know I think you know come at me you
10:21
can call me a transphobe but all I'm
10:23
telling you is in terms of making a
10:25
movie uh Amelia Perez is the worst movie
10:28
of the year
10:37
SM SM
10:39
SM SM SM SM
#Film & TV Industry
#Movies
#Music & Audio
#Music Videos
#Drama Films
#Musical Films
#Romance Films
#Vocals & Show Tunes