Emilia Pérez: Everyone is going to be talking about this new crime musical from Netflix

A crime musical about a Mexican cartel leader who wants to fake her own death before undergoing gender-reassignment surgery — that’s definitely not the kind of risk-taking fare you see every day from Netflix . But such is Emilia Pérez , a new film from French director and “renegade auteur” Jacques Audiard with stars that include Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Karla Sofía Gascón.

Coming to Netflix on Nov. 13 , Emilia Pérez follows four women in Mexico, each pursuing their own happiness. Cartel leader Emilia (Gascón) enlists Rita (Saldaña), who’s an unappreciated lawyer stuck in a dead-end job, to help fake her death so that Emilia can finally “live authentically as her true self,” Netflix explains.

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Zoe Saldaña as Rita Moro Castro in “Emilia Pérez.” Image source: Shanna Besson/PAGE 114 – WHY NOT PRODUCTIONS – PATHÉ FILMS – FRANCE 2 CINÉMA

Like many people, I’ve been largely displeased with Netflix’s film output for a while now, partly as a result of how mediocre so much of it has been — aimed at offending no one, while also pleasing almost no one. Here, though, Gascón said in an interview with Netflix about the new movie that: “You have a musical that is not a musical, an action movie that’s not an action movie, a drama that’s not a drama, a comedy that’s not a comedy. It is such a great gift, and I’m so proud to be part of it.”

Making Emilia Pérez all the more exciting is that it caused a big stir at Cannes this year, taking home the jury prize in addition to Saldaña scoring the best actress award. A far cry, in other words, from some of the streaming giant’s most recent forgettable movies, like the dumb Mark Wahlberg spy drama The Union and Jerry Seinfeld’s Pop-Tart movie .

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About Emilia Pérez , Saldaña raved in a Netflix interview that: “It was described to me as this film noir that didn’t really exist in any of the conventional kind of genres, but it was a musical. It was actually an opera, and based in a crime world, but there was going to be a sense of justice, and validation, and sanctification. And I was just like, ‘What?’ I had to read it more than once. And then, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”

A Netflix movie that you can’t stop thinking about — what a novel concept.

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