HIS THREE DAUGHTERS (A-minus) - A great cast meets a wonderful script under the careful direction of Azazel Jacobs in a story of three sisters whose fraught relationships are put to the test while they watch vigil over their dying father in his last days in hospice.
Two of the daughters are the biological offspring of Vincent (Jay O. Sanders, seen only at the end), and one is adopted from a second marriage. (Both of Vincent's wives died of cancer.) As one of the daughters suggested for Vinnie's obit: "Married a couple of crazy bitches; raised a few crazy bitches." Jacobs (who burst on the scene strong with "Momma's Man" and "Terri" but who meandered for years with "The Lovers" and "French Twist") has meticulously curated an intimate chamber drama full of nuanced interactions and a thrumming realism.
The sisters are Katie (Carrie Coon), the eldest and alpha who speaks in fiats, obsessed with her sister's failure to obtain a do-not-resuscitate order earlier; the peacekeeping Christina, the young mother into yoga and meditation; and gruff Rachel (Natasha Lyonne) a serious pothead with a gambling addiction who has been living in the New York apartment with their father, taking care of him (but not the DNR) while the other two were off raising their families. Katie orders Rachel to take her smoking outside, and Rachel has some charming interactions with the middle-aged security guard (Jose Febus) who knows the situation with Vincent and does his best to look the other way.
Family secrets and old recriminations surface over these few days, but Jacobs is understated in his delivery, and he manages to take an old trope and make it fresh. Most of the action takes place in the apartment, and it feels like a staged play without the staginess. It reminded me of the 2006 Chekhovian drama "The Sisters" -- which also had fantastic writing and knockout performances.
Lyonne brings a new twist to her slacker shtick, conveying pain and cynicism behind those big eyes. Coon is perpetually put-upon as Katie, the hectoring mother hen. Coon's line delivery early on is mannered, as if she is intoning David Mamet dialogue, but she settles into a rhythm that is less theatrical. Olsen, sandwiched between a couple of heavyweights, is the real powerhouse here, understated but deep as a woman searching for inner peace in the eye of the emotional hurricane. There's a reason why she lives on the other side of the country.
Some minor roles are effective here, too. Rudy Galvan is sly as Angel, the hospice nurse who over-explains what may come next. And Jovan Adepo is cutting as Benjy, Rachel's stoner buddy who calls out Katie on her condescending bullshit. Sanders shows up at the end in an inspired scene that adds a provocative twist. Jacobs gets everything right here, and he trusts his actors with the delicate material.
EMILIA PEREZ (B) - Jacques Audiard is a master filmmaker, and you can't blame him for venturing out of his comfort zone and making a quasi-musical about a Mexican drug kingpin who drops out and transitions to a woman. The flashes of great filmmaking are there, if the execution of the story, sometimes through song, falls short.
The camera work is so confident, and the narrative tricks are so smooth, a viewer could easily be lulled into falling deeply for this tale of not only identity, but also loyalty and personal ambitions. Zoe Saldana is the true star as Rita, the conflicted defense lawyer who opts for riches and danger as the facilitator for the murderous Manitas (Karla Sofia Gascon) to fake his death and emerge a few years later as Emilia. At the start of the film, Rita pens the closing argument that wins an acquittal in a big murder case, but she is unhappy with compromising her principles, and Manitas makes her an offer she can't refuse. Out of the frying pan ...
He wants her to globetrot to Bangkok and Switzerland and Israel to set up the anonymous process for Manitas to transition from man to woman. When Emilia tracks Rita down four years later, it is to have her arrange for Manitas wife and two children to return to Mexico City so that he can be with them, albeit under the disguise of Tia Emilia. His wife, Jessi (Selena Gomez), welcomes the return from exile in Switzerland, mainly so that she can reunite with the lover she had been cheating on Manitas with.
If this sounds a bit like a telenovela, it's probably because at times it feels just like that. It's not cheap so much as oddly blithe. Combined with the musical interludes, the whole package can be tough to swallow, especially for Audiard fans in the market for a hard-boiled underworld thriller. One problem is that many of the "songs" are tuneless and drab, with characters taking standard dialogue and delivering it in off-key sing-song stylings. Some are effective, especially when Rita goes into Janet Jackson mode with a troupe of dancers, or Manitas mumbles rhythmically in threatening tones, or a child innocently coos to Tia Emilia that she smells like papa -- the latter a pivotal moment halfway through the movie. However, a wacky dance routine featuring doctors and post-op patients is cringe-inducing.
The second half just cannot keep all the narrative plates spinning, and a bloated running time of 2 hours 12 minutes doesn't help (though the last 9+ minutes are end credits). Saldana digs deep to show how Rita, approaching age 40, eventually regrets being a kept woman, with a conscience thrashed by guilt. (Is Emilia, consciously or not, blocking Saldana from having kids?) Emilia channels her own guilt into ordering her former goons to help hunt for young men who went missing during the brutal drug wars. (She goes so far as to fall for a widow of one of the victims, in a dramatic misstep.) Gomez is one-note as the bitter "widow" who wallows in riches. It is also apparent that the filmmaker never had a good idea about how to end this whole mess.
For Audiard, "A Prophet," which this echoes, is still the high bar he set for himself. After some noodling in the wilderness, he has been back on his game in recent years with the immigrant tale "Dheepan" and the relationship study "Paris, 13th District." "Emilia Perez" is a bold move -- and his storytelling abilities and visual skills are undeniably brilliant -- but his reach for the stars here falls short.
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