Selena Gomez 'shines' in new Oscar-tipped musical

When Emilia Pérez premiered earlier this year, it became one of the breakout hits of the Cannes Film Festival, where its four lead stars jointly won best actress.

On Wednesday, the Spanish-language musical is released worldwide on Netflix as the film awards race continues to heat up ahead of the Oscars in March.

Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón and Adriana Paz launched the movie at the London Film Festival last month, where it continued to build its momentum.

Emilia Pérez follows a dangerous Mexican Cartel leader (played by Gascón), who asks a high-powered lawyer named Rita (Saldaña) to help him fake his own death.

But the reason he wants to retire and disappear from the world of crime isn't what you might expect - the drug baron wants to change gender and live a new life as a woman.

The rest of the film focuses on four women, including the newly-transitioned Emilia Pérez, as they each pursue their own version of happiness in modern-day Mexico.

Pérez is portrayed by Spanish trans actress Gascón, who has been tipped as a possible best actress contender in the forthcoming awards race.

Interestingly, Gascón campaigned to play both the male and female roles – in other words, the character both before and after transition.

Audiard had originally intended for a different actor to play the male drug lord Manitas, because, the director explains, he was "uncomfortable asking [Gascón] to revisit something she was moving away from".

But, Gascón recalled: “I said to Jacques, I want to play this role in the complete arc, because for me it is important to do the full part. It wouldn't be the same film if another actor played [Manitas]."

That meant using effects and make-up such as a fake beard, so she could play the drug baron in the first section of the musical.

"This film is this film because the same actress played the complete performance," Gascón continues. "It's that kind of role you have once in your life and I didn't want to lose the opportunity to play this.”

The ongoing debate about whether actors should have lived experience of characters they play is complex, and Gascón herself says: "I prefer that all actors have the full opportunities. When you chose this career, it's because you want to express another life that's not like your life.

"But," she continues, "obviously when you are closer to the role of the character, it's better. In this case, I think it's beautiful, because I give all of myself to this role."

Gascón has been described as a "wonderful discovery" by the Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney, who said she gives "a magnificent performance".

"The warmth, the joyous self-realisation, the complexity and authenticity... that illuminate her characterisation no doubt owe much to the parallels in the Spanish star’s life - in her own words, she was an actor before becoming an actress, a father before becoming a mother."

The Telegraph's Tim Robey described the film as "amazingly confident – it’s clever, earnest, ridiculous, knowing, forceful and absolutely bonkers", while Hoai-Tran Bui of Inverse said it was "an emotionally fulfilling triumph".

Not all critics were as enthusiastic about the film, however.

"Emilia Pérez was originally intended to be an opera, which perhaps partly explains its saccharine sentimentality, repetitive lyrics, and diverging story branches. But that doesn’t excuse its almost random, whiplash-inducing tonal pivots," said Slant's Kyle Turner.

However, Lauren Bradshaw of Fangirl Freakout said: "Emilia Pérez is a magnificent, genre-bending thrill ride that transcends the typical movie construct, breathing a fresh burst of excitement into the way we think about film."

As an actress, Gomez is best known for starring in Only Murders in the Building, but also has a successful singing career with hits including Back To You, Wolves and Love You Like a Love Song.

Her co-star Saldaña, meanwhile, has starred in a large number of blockbusters in the last two decades, with roles in the Avatar and Guardians of the Galaxy franchises.

It remains to be seen whether Emilia Pérez could be a big awards player, but Academy voters may see an opportunity to recognise Saldaña's box office success via this more critically acclaimed work.

Their co-star Adriana Paz is a Mexican actress whose credits include Not Forgotten, Hilda and La Caridad, while Gascón also had a successful acting career before transitioning in 2018.