January 2, 2025

This is not a bad right-wing comedy sketch. This is a scene in the movie "Emilia Pérez," which was honored with 10 Golden Globe nominations.


You can read what the "Top Critics" are saying about it here (on Rotten Tomatoes). For example: "It seems to revel in its contradictions, mixing crassness with tenderness, pastiche with originality, silliness with sincerity. It’s emotionally manipulative. It’s visually over-the-top. It’s a mess, in other words -- a spectacular, operatic one."

Not all critics like it. For example, at Vox, there's "Emilia Pérez is a regressive movie that thinks it’s woke. It will probably win an Oscar. Could a movie musical about a trans Mexican drug lord be this awards season’s Crash?" That is, among those who like wokeness, there's some question whether it is properly woke.

ADDED: Here's the trailer for "Emilia Pérez":

126 comments:

Dave Begley said...

And I can’t get my “Frankenstein, Part II” made.

“Life is unfair.” Jimmy Carter

Narayanan said...

If your F_II assembled from different gendder parts > Trans F_II

mezzrow said...

Hopes and dreams. Be very careful what you wish for.

Enigma said...

Inherited "truths" are conservative by default. Some people never question received knowledge, and they thereby understand it in a cartoonish fashion. They become human parrots and mockingbirds merely acting out monkey-see, monkey-do.

Furthermore, when a monoculture demands that people say the same stuff all the time, the cynics, subversives, and comedians disguise their views as they shift in and out of the background. See the history Roman Catholicism and Italian attitudes toward it. See the history of the USSR.

Tarrou said...

A new hymn for the new dispensation.

ron winkleheimer said...

https://theonion.com/gay-pride-parade-sets-mainstream-acceptance-of-gays-bac-1819566014/

And that's all I have to say about that.

narciso said...

Why is it regressive even trans can be drug dealer

Aggie said...

This ought to go over well on the big screen.

Ann Althouse said...

"Why is it regressive..."

Did you watch the clip?

ron winkleheimer said...

OK, I guess that isn't all I have to say about that.

Why would Zoe Saldana take this role? She has been in a slew of Star Trek, Guardians of The Galaxy, and Avengers films. As a major character. I can't imagine she needs the money. And if she did she could have gotten a much better paying gig. She read the script and said, "hey, I really want to play this character!"

MadTownGuy said...

"That is, among those who like wokeness, there's some question whether it is properly woke."

Cults must have their own heresy hunters. No one expects the Woke Inquisition.

Disparity of Cult said...

Purity spiral.

Bob Boyd said...

It was reminiscent of a scene in the day room from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Jamie said...

I thought narciso was joking.

narciso said...

Seems kind of lame but not regressive

rhhardin said...

Brain connectivity plasty ought to be in there, among the sexual differences objectified.

narciso said...

More like this seasons acolyre too much is made of drug kingpins specially on latin tv but we see this on international channels on dw premium

Saint Croix said...

It looks funny!

Everything is freakier if you sing while you're doing it.

Rusty said...

Did anyone else who watched the "Conclave" think the ending was contrived and silly?

Yancey Ward said...

Like Narciso, I find "regressive" an inappropriate descriptor. "Stupid" or "Inane" is more accurate.

Bob Boyd said...

At first I thought it was a trailer for Lioness, Season 3.

narciso said...

I get the notion trans are are supposed to be noble however its more about trailblazing

Its an answer to a question no one was asking

Leland said...

Another movie musical? Usually these are only any good if adapted from a stage musical that was successful. This one is an adaptation, but I'm not sure the stage version has had any success. I only know from wikipedia that it is an adaptation, and the stage version was itself adapted from a 2018 book? Seriously 2018 to movie? Accurate name for the production studio, "Why Not Productions".

Dave Begley said...

Yes. A terrible and ridiculous movie. Again, how does this trash get made?

Peachy said...

More like an American Big Pharma ad.

It's totally normal to switch out your genitals. Everyone does it - and they are so happy. Come join the fun.

Peachy said...

I gave up on Hollywood years ago. I gave up on self-congratulatory celebrity award shows years ago.
Confirmed: I made the right decision.

Peachy said...

Hollywood: Where the masses go to litter their brains with hot garbage.

Bob Boyd said...

So getting a sex change is just like going to a cool party with all your online friends?

Aggie said...

Because she's a terrible actress?

Peachy said...

Yes. It's just cosmetic surgery. No different than a nose-job. Plus - while you recover at home - you can turn on the telly and watch even more Big Pharma Ads.

mikee said...

Oh, dear me! How can you make such a magnificent comment and not start listing their primary weapons?

mikee said...

I didn't watch the clip, in the belief that the strong independent Trans Woman would justify her sex transition surgery as simply creating for her another place to hide drugs when crossing the border, early in her career as a drug lord. And if that wasn't included in the clip, my disappointment would have been unbearable. So, skipped the clip. The rest of you can tell me if I missed anything worthwhile.

Joe Bar said...

"This is not a bad right-wing comedy sketch." Well, I LOL'ed.

gilbar said...

i LIKE the new subtitle for your movie!

Joe Bar said...

No! Not the Comfy Chair!

Jaq said...

The Bob Dylan movie is very good, just make sure to wait to enter the theater until the 30 mins of commercials and previews are over. Where I was, all of the previews were for horror flicks, when they felt like they had to shock the audience in the trailer, or for Marvel movies, which I think I probably would have outgrown about the same age as I outgrew The Three Stooges, if I were a kid today.

Joe Bar said...

I see what you did there.

Leland said...

Apparently, but I wouldn’t know and not interested in finding out.

gilbar said...

serious question:
doesn't Canada have the right idea?
IF a person is suffering from a "dysphoria" (gender, sexual, emotional, political)..
Wouldn't it be CHEAPER FOR SOCIETY if we just gave them Medical Assistance In Dying?

standard medical treatments DON'T seem to cause much (or ANY) reductions in dysphoria. MAID totally eliminates ANY and ALL dysphoria.
Plus, it's QUITE inexpensive..
PLUS, i'll bet that total numbers of people claiming to have dysphoria will PLUMMET when they find that such a claim will result in MANDATORY MAID.
I'm NOT trying to be Cruel.. i JUST WANT PEOPLE TO STOP BEING DYSPHORIC (and want to save money).

OR; is The Entire Purpose of Gender Transition just to make money for hospitals?
LET'S SAVE MONEY! LET'S END DYSPHORIA! (through mandatory MAID)

n.n said...

Homosexual, left-wing, woke and morally broke but ethical and em-pathetic. A wicked bucket list full of Rust in transhumane ideology under the Pro-Choice religion.

n.n said...

Transpride albinophobic parade in joyful exclusion.

n.n said...

Progressive is an ideology of unqualified, monotonic change: one step forward, thee steps backward. #NoJudgment #NoLabels #HateLovesAbortion

RideSpaceMountain said...

Exactly. Parties so cool they're why transpersyns like Ellen Page look like they want to kill themselves.

Jamie said...

Well, Wikipedia chronicles largely positive critical response but also negative responses from the "LBGTQIA+ community" (my quotes - I don't think they used all those letters. I just think it's awfully artificial to lump people with all those kinds of sexual orientations* into a single "community" when they don't even hang out in the same places) and from Mexican reviewers, both for the screenwriter's? librettist's? tone-deafness about Mexico and for the paucity of Mexican actors in it.

The funny thing is, I can ALMOST get the... I don't know, the appeal? of a movie that lays out the process of transitioning as this clip seemed to. It's a profoundly mechanical and performative process, like the home improvement shows where they remake a house in three days for $5000: everything is cobbled together, nothing actually works as it should, and it's all for the Big Reveal - don't get too close, and don't try to live in it. Being trans, unlike being gay, I think, seems less about sex than it is about - in essence - the Instagram engagement, because the trans person is going to have to spend the rest of his or her life trying to maintain this facade of otherness in order to bolster claims that this kind of otherness is in fact the way this person always was inside. Don't forget the vaginal dilator! Don't skip your meds! Study videos of how to fake sexual pleasure in case your normal sexual function was damaged or destroyed in the cosmetic conversion of your genitals...

I wouldn't wish that life on an enemy. But... maybe, for a handful of people, it really is the only thing that will bring them peace.

* I look forward to the day when how you want to have sex and with whom is something important only to you and the person (at least I hope it's a person) with whom your interest lies.

ron winkleheimer said...

I don't see why being a terrible actress would have anything to do with it. She is still young and hot. She probably reduced her income by spending her time on this movie instead of something that could be commercially successful. My guess, she saw it as a "prestige" role. Its got 10 Golden Globe nominations and could win a couple of Oscars. Which shows just how out of touch Hollywood is.

RideSpaceMountain said...

"I look forward to the day when how you want to have sex and with whom is something important only to you and the person (at least I hope it's a person) with whom your interest lies."

Never happen. The humiliation ritual of forcing you to hear about it is part of the kink.

Jamie said...

Which shows just how out of touch Hollywood is.

Goes along beautifully with the purse post. I clicked through to that story in the London Times (I think that's right) and of course Gwyneth Paltrow was pictured carrying her status bag: Gwyneth Paltrow, who strove mightily to convince upper middle class women that her lifestyle was the one to which they should all aspire, because of its purity and authenticity. I mean, I guess you could say that spending thousands on a purse rather than whatever Walmart is charging for its knockoff version is more "authentic."

Lazarus said...

Would anyone need both a vaginoplasty and a penoplasty (phalloplasty)?

I didn't see much of the recent winner, Everything Everywhere All at Once, but from some of the reviews I see that there were a lot of juvenile jokes about farts and things like that. Hollywood people aren't serious, and their award shows aren't to be taken seriously.

Peachy said...

I don't go to theaters at all - no matter what the movie is. Since I'm not a Bob Dylan fan (sorry) - I might choose to watch it when it's available on streaming.

AlbertAnonymous said...

Why would Zoe Saldana take that gig? Utter crap. She has an actual career that’s been successful. Why f it up with this garbage?

Temujin said...

Have we bottomed out yet?

mikee said...

The caps and purposeful noncaps makes your comment even more BETTEREST of a modest proposal. Would it be impolitic to add that this proposal also works when used on EVERYONE ELSE one objects to, as well? Or should we wait until April 01, 2025 to highlight this feature of MAID?

mikee said...

Plus, the AI Robot manufacturers, and the Robots themselves, will have something to say about his hopes for only persons being involved.

Iman said...

She’s watchable in “Lioness”.

Leland said...

Not yet. Disney’s remake of Snow White isn’t scheduled for release until March 21st.

Enigma said...

I'm guessing she was telegraphing that she's not tied to Chris Pratt of Guardians of the Galaxy, per his "anti-LGBTQ religious controversy" of 2022.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Pratt#Personal_life

tcrosse said...

Not only that, you must celebrate it, you bigot.

Iman said...

Your surgery for that has been scheduled.

TaeJohnDo said...

I got tru the first minute and a half of it. I just don't get it. Seemed silly and vapid; I'm not understanding how it is regressive. I like Zoe in the ST movies. We tried watching 'The Lioness', but lost interest in it. One thing I noticed about it (and other shows with strong, physical female leads) is how unrealistic the fight scenes are. I took martial arts for several years, and my experience is that 98% of the women would lose a fight with 100% of the men 99% of the time. I don't think this would be any different in your average street fight, unless the guy is holing back.

Iman said...

I watched… I laughed… I wondered why they didn’t use Mexican comedian/actor Chespirito in this farce.

MadTownGuy said...

Bonus! Reproduction is taken out of the equation, which is the (unstated) point of transgender surgery.

Iman said...

“Narcos: Pene o Plata”

RideSpaceMountain said...

Perhaps I should. Maybe I should start a band called Le Feminine Penis just to force people to google that to see our videos on youtube. You know...screw with google's algorithm a bit.

Our first album would be called !sUCk a DicK BiGot! I'd be lead vocals/songwriting. Brothers Johnson on guitar and backup BIPOC's, and Dave Grohl on drums and chief buckfluffer. Our first big hit would be a cover of Clarence Carter's "I Be Strokin Le Feminine Penis".

RideSpaceMountain said...

Also narcos: "Plomo o Vagino-plata-sy"

Lazarus said...

"Stunning and brave ..."

Lazarus said...

Better than the subtitle AI gave me: "Frankenstein II: The Legacy of Dust and Bone"?

rhhardin said...

There'd be a place for Chiquita Banana in this

Michael Fitzgerald said...

So, like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, except they put a chick in it and made it lame and gay.

Randomizer said...

"LBGTQIA+ community" can't we just call them queer? I feel like the alphabet soup they keep enlarging is just a test to see how much ridiculousness we will abide. Queer is in the alphabet soup, so they can't be to disappointed.

Yancey Ward said...

Dave, just make Frankenstein trans in your script and where a grave has to be robbed to find a vagina for grafting.

narciso said...

well he's dead, plus he was probably about 80

Narr said...

As I've been saying--today's stars are remarkably unattractive (and their movies are overrated).

robother said...

Somewhere, Nietzsche observes that there is no worse enemy of a cause than the smug believer who articulates it too well.

Narr said...

That was stupid and ugly, from first to last. No wonder it's winning awards from the stupid and ugly.

Saint Croix said...

I don't see it as woke at all. Woke is very serious. Humor is anti-woke. Woke is anti-humor. They are polar opposites.

When she's singing about all the medical choices she has, and all the options she has, to me they're mocking the whole idea of it. She's excited by that adam's apple surgery. That's funny.

I might be wrong, but I've watched the trailer twice, and that's the vibe I get.

To me, the transexual stuff is like a cult. And when you start singing and dancing about it, and rhyming, you've left the cult mind and you're driving your bike into the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Humor cleans your mind and makes you immune to cult shit.

I see this sort of art as Fonzie on his bike, about to jump the shark. RIP, you woke bastards, and good riddance.

Saint Croix said...

Why would Zoe Saldana take this role?

She's done a bunch of dramatic roles. Humor is harder and funnier and more important. Kudos to her for risk-taking. Artists should do that.

Saint Croix said...

This is not a bad right-wing comedy sketch.

I think it is a right-wing comedy sketch. I really don't get a dramatic or a serious vibe from that trailer, at all.

And I agree, it's not bad! It seems fun to me.

Trailers sometimes fool me, but that one makes me want to watch the movie and see where it goes.

PM said...

A fun-house mirror to the madness.

Ann Althouse said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tacitus said...

Nah. That was a joke not a real movie. An elaborate joke to be sure. Well played.

Saint Croix said...

The pissed off woke critics are funny.

"most unique cis nonsense you will ever see"

put that on the ads!

Saint Croix said...

I also like the "rhinoplasty" with the guys in the mask going "ya"

Rabel said...

Water-skis.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

See soap opera “Sin tetas no hay paraíso“ (2006)

It was so popular, they did a remake in 2008.

Saint Croix said...

Also, people who judge art by the "progressive" or "regressive" football framework are humorless morons who should get out of art criticism and pour concrete for a living. Or hit golfballs. Appreciating art is not your thing.

Rusty said...

It's like "Springtime for Hitler", but not as serious.

One Fine Day said...

I find I only go to theaters when the movie is a war movie or a western. There's something about seeing those types on the big screen that watching on a tv isn't sufficient to capture or convey. In Westerns it's usually the broad view shots or landscape shots, with war movies it's usually the wide-view combat sequences.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

After embracing plastic surgery, in Latin America transitioning may not be as foreign nor strange.🤷🏽‍♂️

Aggie said...

"...and at Cannes where the film premiered, the four women shared the Best Actress award...."

If that ain't Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, what is? It can be a humbling experience, being on the 'right side of history' - at least as far as personal achievement, anyway.

Ann Althouse said...

It's on Netflix, if you want to check it out.

Ann Althouse said...

Did some of you think that was the trailer? I called it "a scene in the movie," which is what it is.

I've added the actual trailer.

Ann Althouse said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lem Vibe Bandit said...

All the plastic surgery see it as an unplanned precursor like the phones are a precursor to….

narciso said...

ok so it's the king of the skies, the amado cifuentes story, which they have rung 7 seasons of out that,

narciso said...

but not a single nomination for Nosferatu, (even adapted screenplay,)

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

GLADD is probably the one exhibiting left behind hand wringing.

Saint Croix said...

Regressives trying to be progressive are funny.

Progressives trying to be regressive are sad.

Robin Goodfellow said...

It was total crap.

Bob Boyd said...

So it's basically a woke remake of that 70's western TV series 'Alias Smith and Jones'.

RideSpaceMountain said...

GLADD...the gloomiest organization on earth.

Saint Croix said...

Did some of you think that was the trailer? I called it "a scene in the movie," which is what it is.

I've added the actual trailer.


Yeah, I should have said "clip," not "trailer."

That trailer is horrible!

No humor whatsoever and, ugh, so pretentious. Not as bad as a Jaguar ad, but right up there.

Saint Croix said...

That trailer is like a Bud Light commercial for wine snobs. While that clip is funny, and mocking, and honest. 2 completely different movies.

What's really horrible about that trailer is I now know exactly where that movie is going. No suspense, no surprise, nothing. It doesn't give you any reason to see it.

Rabel said...

Hopefully this trend towards musicals or musical numbers wedged into movies will end soon.

I watched Beetlejuice Beetlejuice a few days ago and it was OK, at best.

But near the end there was a long, long scene with singing and dancing that made me thankful for fast forward.

I'm not going to name the song they used but it was a crime against nature when originally released and I don't want it to get stuck painfully in anyone's head for days like it did in mine.

Eh, why not.

Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think I can take it
Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that memory again.

Biff said...

I remember being young and optimistic.

Rocco said...

narciso said…
Why is it regressive even trans can be drug dealer.

Some people are lower than DDERT - Drug Dealer Exclusive Radical Transgenders.

Iman said...

Works for me, narciso…

john mosby said...

Space Mountain, your Clarence Carter reference wins the internet today.

JSM

Michael Fitzgerald said...

Waz it the Donna Summer version or the Richard Harris version?

Rabel said...

The actors did the singing, I think. They played Donna's version during the end credits. Amazingly, Jimmy Webb wrote the song.

Ann Althouse said...

Here's what GLADD had to say: "Now that “Emilia Pérez” is streaming on Netflix, more people are able to critique this profoundly retrograde portrayal of a trans woman. While the film garnered rave reviews when it premiered at Cannes earlier this year, none of those reviews were written by trans people....
“Emilia Pérez” is a step backward for trans representation... 'I don’t demand total realism from every film that I see. I can even appreciate the camp, whether intentional or not, of Emilia waking up from her 5-million simultaneous surgeries, her face bandaged like a mummy save for her eyes and lips. But I expect that a filmmaker so taken by the concept of transitioning, one who’s displayed a certain level of conscious sensitivity in his previous efforts to depict lives unlike his own, to at least display an informed understanding of what that concept actually looks like in practice.'..”

https://glaad.org/emilia-perez-is-not-good-trans-representation/

Rabel said...

That was GLAAD quoting a trans critic of the movie, not GLAAD itself.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Disparity of Cult said...

The trailer excludes footage of Selena Gomez speaking Spanish.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

GLADD is the classic victim of their own success. They are probably seeing everything through the mostly political prism that brought them success in the past, and so they are, patriarchally, imposing their own views of how things ought to be. Not realizing the Latins are not asking for permission.

Trans should probably form their own organization to look out for them.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

I use the weasel word? probably because I’m no expert in neither trans issues nor Latin American culture. I’m just an observer. I could be wrong.

Narr said...

OMG. Now I'm more glad that I never saw that one.

Lazarus said...

Is it as good as the one AI gave me?

Frankenstein II: The Legacy of Dust and Bone.

RideSpaceMountain said...

"Trans should probably form their own organization to look out for them."

Anathema to them. Their entire reason for being is to play victims, co-opt organizations and seize political control of pre-existing movements after the heavy lifting is long done. Look at what they did to the pride flag and women's sports, among many others. If the last 15 years have proven anything it's that not only are they unwilling to co-exist with those unlike them, they're deliberately extirpatory.

n.n said...

Whether it is bisexuals at clubs or neo-genders in clinic, the homosexuals are under inclusive in the transgender spectrum. Women on womb farms, men in sperm banks, and albinophobia on parade, on the White House wall... The Obamacity of political congruence ("=").

n.n said...

Boys groomed in schools, girls raped in sanctuary jurisdictions, wombs on farms, sperm in banks, confused woking in Levine's Dreams of Herr Mengele, babies unburdened in human rites. We didn't start the social progress...

Bob Boyd said...

Lots of censorship on this topic today.

Jupiter said...

I'll never have that recipe again.

Iman said...

Stunningly brave! Two snaps up!!!

Clyde said...

Peak 2024 Biden Weimar America, which is coming to an end in 18 days.

Peachy said...

After the Aurora Theater Shooting - in lame hyper Democrap Party controlled CO - that put me over the edge. I was pretty much there anyway. I don't like being bombarded with big booming sound I cannot control. I need a clicker!
No more theaters for me.

Saint Croix said...

That's right, thanks. I think he did try to jump a bunch of cars in the parking lot at Arnold's, on his bike. Ripping off Evel Knievel wasn't nearly as bad as ripping off Jaws.

Also, jumping a shark would actually be cool, if that's all it was. What made it laughably stupid was wearing a leather jacket in the ocean. That was pathetic and weird. America went, "Oh my God, Fonzie has a leather fixation, there's something wrong with his mind."

It's a kind of totemistic thing, you know?