It’s no secret that the sudden and divisive musical-drama Emilia Pérez has left audiences worldwide far from pleased. From haphazard, clunky writing, to bafflingly misguided representation, to one of the most soulless-feeling soundtracks to grace Hollywood in a long time, it’s truly impressive how far this film missed the mark. Since it hit theaters in November 2024, criticism of the film has spread across social media platforms like a raging wildfire that refuses to be put out, no matter what cope its cast and crew release in response. It seems no one can stop talking about the almost unbelievable disaster that is Emilia Pérez; still, from the moment the 2025 “award season” hit, it has been adorned with one nomination after the other. Upon a closer look at the film from a lens far from ours, the complexity and yet simplicity of how this occurred is unveiled.

To start off, it’s best to look at why this film is recognized as an absolute mess in the first place. What makes it stand out from other poorly-received films from the year? When analyzing the root of its various issues, most point to one specific aspect: the writing. The story undoubtedly feels very clunky; it switches focus and shifts gears so frequently that the first and second acts start to feel separate from each other. In attempting to give the characters something to do throughout its egregious runtime, their story arcs feel distant. On top of this, the abrupt ending couldn’t satisfyingly end these plot points, leaving a substantial part of what the film spent time building up unresolved. The haphazard writing couldn’t catch up with itself and fell on its face when hit by the inevitable ending.

This issue in the writing also majorly affects the representation that the movie’s marketing loves to boast. As many know, Emilia Pérez showcases (rather, attempts to showcase) Mexican culture, along with LGBTQ+ representation through titular character Emilia, a trans woman living in Mexico. When writing about these communities, a certain nuance and grace is called for in order to show the people of them respect. The intersection of those two groups had the potential to be an intriguing concept, but just couldn’t be pulled off tastefully. As clear as it is that the film wanted to be progressive, the writing just doesn’t have the refinement to do it justice. Much of the diversity in this movie falls into outdated and ultimately harmful stereotypes surrounding these communities. 

Various Mexican film critics have explained to the Internet how its version of the country, along with the off-putting cadence and pronunciation during the Spanish scenes, feels inauthentic. With a plot centering around a drug cartel, it’s hard to fight the feeling that the film’s writing takes more inspiration from outdated stereotypes about Mexico than real Mexican culture. The trans representation suffers a worse fate, using the fact that Emilia is trans as a story device while tremendously failing at fleshing out that aspect of her character. She spends the first act wanting more than anything to be a woman, but the plot only acknowledges her as a woman after she has gotten numerous gender-affirming surgeries; in fact, it goes out of its way to refer to her as a man up until that point. Later in the story, post-transition Emilia is treated less like her true identity and more like a disguise, having violent outbursts and “breaking character” when she gets upset. It goes without saying that this interpretation of a trans character is painfully inauthentic at best, and downright harmful at worst. These details in Emilia’s character perpetuate negative stereotypes commonly placed onto trans women, and, in reality, is far from the progressive representation the film’s marketing prides itself on being. 

Yet even with these unignorable writing flaws, Emilia Pérez has been continuously rewarded by award season. Just months after its release, the film received a record-breaking 13 Oscar nominations, 11 BAFTA nominations, and eight Golden Globe nominations. How could Emilia Pérez have won over critics without even striving for the approval of whatever audience it has? The simple answer is, it never had any intention of entertaining that audience. In its DNA, this movie was made with a very specific type of critic in mind: the high-brow, pretentious world of award season critics. The very people behind the nomination of the awards. 

These critics, especially behind events as high-profile as the Oscars or Emmys, tend to base their praise off a film’s aesthetic appeal more than its actual contents. More often than not, they make a choice that appears to have substance based solely on its first impression. Since these instincts aren’t usually far off, what audiences approve of and what they reward commonly fall around the same ballpark. Looking at examples from 2025’s award season, Conclave, Flow, and The Substance revealed themselves to be strong stories from the beginning, earning them the nominations they deserve. This is a rare case where the two perspectives differ. Emilia Pérez’s marketing was relatively vague, leaving viewers without a straight-shot idea of what the film would really entail. Only a few details were distinct: Mexican culture, trans representation, celebrity casting. From the outside looking in, not a bad structure by any means. Armed with so little context, all those critics saw was what could’ve been; intersectionality, emotional impact, significance. With their method of evaluating films, what else was there to see? They assumed the best possible path the film could’ve taken when, in actuality, its production crew wouldn’t go that distance. The marketing, intentionally or not, sold the critics behind award season on a product beyond what it became.

The story behind this movie’s success is a baffling one that still has much of the Internet, along with the film industry as a whole, stunned. The nightmare child of a thoughtless writer’s room that managed to prosper in false success while being deemed a monumental trainwreck, as award season fell in love with the concept, rather than the true nature, of Emilia Pérez.