This Emilia Pérez clip is going viral for all the wrong reasons - INTO
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This Emilia Pérez clip is going viral for all the wrong reasons

Critics are calling the upcoming Selena Gomez vehicle Emilia Pérez sensational, amazing, and a wonderful work of art. Cis critics, that is!

If you’re wondering how actual trans people feel about the Oscar bait “thriller musical,” look no further than to the response a certain cringeworthy clip is getting on social media. Hint: it ain’t good.

As if we needed more evidence that cis people don’t know what they’re doing, the clip—in which a doctor tonelessly sings the words “penis to vagina” to Zoe Saldaña as they move through a weirdly-lit open plan hospital—is so bad, it’s convincing viewers that Emilia Pérez can’t actually be a real movie. It’s a figment of our collective imagination.

Comparing a film to Sia’s infamous 2021 flop Music is big talk—but judging from this clip, it’s completely accurate. Comparisons to other legendary big-budget failures like Cats (2019) and Repo! The Genetic Opera are also painfully valid.

Even before the clip started making the rounds, the film’s bizarre, regressive enjoyment of anti-trans stereotypes were getting called out by critics and viewers.

It’s like a Frenchman watched Veneno and thought, “what if there was a version of this that sucked sh*t?”

It’s even more insulting knowing this film will win awards over the actual best movie (and most trans movie) of the year, I Saw the TV Glow.

And lest we forget, this was also the year of The People’s Joker! Trans cinema is alive and well despite what Emilia Pérez would have you believe!

It’s not the first time a horrible film ostensibly about trans people will win awards, and sadly, it probably won’t be the last.

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Henry Giardina (he/they) is the editor of INTO. He lives in Los Angeles. Past publications include the New York Times, The Believer, The New Yorker, The Paris Review Daily, The Atlantic, Film Comment, and Gizmodo. He is @punkgroucho on Twitter.