Premiering at Cannes on Saturday, the interesting musical about a Mexican drug lord who decides to change his sex in order to escape the life of a narco has a supporting appearance from Selena Gomez.
Even for France’s shape-shifting master director Jacques Audiard, who took home the festival’s highest prize, the Palme d’Or, in 2015, the plot of “Emilia Perez” initially seemed too bizarre.
However, glowing assessments indicate that as the race approaches its midway point, Audiard might be the clear favorite to win once more.
Zoe Saldana (Avatar, Guardians of the Galaxy) plays a lawyer recruited by the cartel boss who has always wished she was a woman in the movie.
In the lead part, 52-year-old transgender performer Karla Sofia Gascon received overwhelmingly positive reviews.
Gascon wrote a book on her experiences with homophobia and transphobia and had a gender change at the age of 46 after starting a family and a successful career in Spanish-language movies and soap operas.
Gomez plays the boss’s unsuspecting wife in a surprisingly gritty turn for the mega-selling popstar-turned-actor.
