There’s high-concept. There’s multi-concept. Then there’s this crime musical that’s become Netflix’s best chance at an award haul after years of trying.

At its heart, Emilia Pérez is the classic tale of a bad person seeking redemption and almost getting away with it, only for their past to catch up with them. But there’s a lot more swirling around that, including the musical set pieces. The songs that dot through the story may vary in lyrical quality—some (La Vaginoplasty) led to speedy memes—but the majority are likely to hang around beyond the credits. 

Anyway, there’s no such thing as bad publicity, said no drugs baron ever looking to turn a new leaf. 

Struggling attorney Rita Mora Castro (Saldaña) faces a difficult choice when she’s enlisted by a Mexico City kingpin, Juan “Manitas” Del Monte (Gascón), to undergo gender-affirming surgery in secret. With Del Monte presumed dead by the world at large, she rehomes his wife Jessi (Gomez) and children and embarks on a new life with her new wealth. But a few years later, she falls into the sphere of Del Monte’s new and authentic life as Emilia Pérez when the latter decides it’s time to reunite her family under the guise of a wealthy cousin of the deceased kingpin. 

As Pérez’s remorse grows, she exploits her past to find redemption, founding a charity that identifies and returns the bodies of victims of drug wars to their families. When Jessi rekindles a relationship with her old flame, Gustavo, and threatens to take her children away, Pérez realises the vulnerability of her new philanthropic persona.

Emilia Pérez is neatly bookended by street scenes, but that belies a structure that, along with its tone, is a little awkward and imperfect. It’s certainly a lot of things, and those continue to spill out for the duration of the film. Depending on how generous you’re feeling, it could be harder to settle as the songs shift tone and the screen time balances around the film’s lead. But given how scrappy it can feel at times, and it really can, there’s no doubt it comes together as more than the sum of its disparate parts by the end.

Emilia Pérez‘s main spotlight shines on gender as much as redemption. It’s a female-dominated film, with what could be considered three co-leads in Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón and Selena Gomez. Men are mainly present as an off-screen influence, especially Manitas. Even Gustavo (Édgar Ramírez), who might pass as the most antagonist, only gets a couple of good karaoke scenes before the explosive gunfight of the final act. 

The songs that propel the plot are sometimes laughably practical (yes, La Vaginoplasty) or tip to high emotion. But even the softest ballads are surrounded by a swirl of dark and industrial soundscape. For every stagey dip of the lights and firing up of a spotlight, Emilia Pérez strives to be gritty and make genuine inroads into exploring the dark reality of crime in Mexico. It has to end in violence, and that surprisingly culminates in a stunningly filmed car chase that more than warrants cinematographer Paul Guilhaume’s Academy recognition.

With so much going on, it’s a tribute to the cast and crew that it all hangs together as well as it does. Perhaps it’s the cold spine of objectivity; an attempt to respond to the heightened story with a mix of authenticity and artifice under the eye of Audiar, who, as he told the New York Times, “wasn’t hampered by an excessive love for the musical genre.”

The result is that Emilia Pérez wears many influences on its bullet-proof gilet. In addition to a strong dash of opera, on several occasions, teams (nurses, vigilante armies) appear in matching costumes, hinting at Greek choruses as the musical builds to its tragic conclusion. Despite, or because of everything, it manages to be vividly modern, broadly classical, and wholly Mexican. 

That doesn’t excuse some notable missteps, including some poor lyrics, unintended laughs and even a few unfortunate spoilers in the English subtitles. There’s a lot for viewers to take exception to, but for its broad sweep, it’s the gentle moments and subtle touches that linger. Emilia Pérez is a splash Netflix probably didn’t expect to make, and it’s hard to see that they or anyone else will find themselves with a film like this on their hands again.