'It's my favourite movie of the festival … like Baz Luhrmann on 8000 steroids'
On day two of TIFF in 12: Teri Hart has a rapturous reaction to Emilia Pérez
In the new limited podcast series from Commotion, TIFF in 12, host Elamin Abdelmahmoud chats with film critics Rad Simonpillai and Teri Hart about the latest news out of the Toronto International Film Festival. It goes out this week only, 12 minutes at a time.
In the second episode, the trio discuss why Netflix's film Emilia Pérez is a surprising tour de force you have to see to believe, and whether it's earned a place as one of our critics' favourite movies of all time. They also unpack what it was like in the room at a recent screening of The Bibi Files, a documentary about key information regarding the investigation into Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.
Elamin: We both saw Emilia Pérez last night and we have, I think, similar vibes on this movie. But also, it's a wildly ambitious movie. Why don't you tell people how you feel about Emilia Pérez?
Teri: It's my favourite movie of the festival.
Elamin: Come on, okay.
Teri: It's up there, right now, I think, in my top 10 movies of all time.
Elamin: Teri Hart!
Rad: Whoa. Sorry, what?
Teri: I'm saying I had a transcendent experience watching Emilia Pérez. I went in knowing nothing, and I want people to have that experience as much as they can. So I'm not going to talk a lot about what is going on in Emilia Pérez, but I'll tell you this. I had no idea where it was going. I was completely mesmerized.
This is a movie that came out of the Cannes Film Festival. It won the grand jury prize for Jacques Audiard, who's the writer and director. And the three lead women in it — Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez and Karla Sofía Gascón — they shared the best actress award. So I knew I was going into something interesting. Baz Luhrmann is one of my favorites. Moulin Rouge is right up there as one of my favourite movies, and this is like Baz Luhrmann on 8000 steroids. There is so much going on in this movie, you are going to be shocked. You are going to be surprised. It is a huge swing from everybody involved, and it completely and totally pays off. I was like, goosebumps, transcendent. It was one of those film festival experiences that just made me go, I love movies so much. I love that I get to do this. So yeah, Emilia Pérez is the one for me.
Rad: This is giving La La Land energy, right?
Elamin: You meant that derogatorily.
Rad: Yeah. Teri remembers the La La Land wars of 2016, I think.
Teri: Don't put Damien Chazelle and Baz Luhrmann or Jacques Audiard in the same category. There is no La La Land comparison. This is not a twinkly movie. These are real people having real experiences.
Elamin: I have to say, I have not yet entered it into my top 10 movies of all time, Teri Hart, my God. But I came out of that movie saying this is the first time in a while, Rad, that I've genuinely had the experience where I was like, that is a movie where I genuinely don't know what's going to happen next. Anything could happen, and it would not be surprising to me at this point because it is just that kind of movie. It takes you on this kind of journey. It is good for people to not know a lot going into this film. I didn't know that it was a musical, for example. I regret even telling people that now on this podcast.
It is ambitious. I'm not sure it perfectly lands. There are a couple of sequences that I'm like, I think we might have some trouble here. Its premise, if it was played for a joke even once, for one frame, for one second of one scene, it would fall apart. But it was never played for a joke. It was perfectly sincere as a premise, and that's what makes it work. There are a couple of sequences that I'm like, I don't know, guys. We're getting a little close to the edge of it. And Teri, I know we can't get into it because we're trying not to spoil stuff on this podcast. But having said that, I know Rad, you have some takes on Audiard generally as a director. You haven't seen this movie yet, but what's your vibe on Audiard as a filmmaker?
Rad: Bear in mind, I really hate that I'm speaking on a movie I haven't seen. I'm not really speaking on this movie. But look, I love Audiard, with back in the day The Beat That My Heart Skipped, A Prophet…. But over time, it started dawning on me what his gimmick is. This is a guy who wants to make a genre film — whether it's a gangster film in A Prophet, whether it's a vigilante story in Dheepan — and then he dresses it up in somebody's social issues, and he's not necessarily always that invested in that social issue. Those movies I mentioned worked for me, but I'm always kind of wary and kind of been like, I have your number. And so this movie, when I heard about it, I'm like, oh, no.
Elamin: You know, I get it. That is fair. Me and Teri have the same hesitation.
Teri: This is the problem, is if anybody described this movie to me, I would have that same reaction.
Elamin: I would walk away. I would be like, you're insane. I'm never going to see that movie. That's why I'm hesitant to describe it … because if you hear what this movie is about, you're never going to watch it. You need to just watch it as an experience and make up your own mind about it.
You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.
For more from Teri, Rad and Elamin on #TIFF24, check out our podcast-exclusive episodes called TIFF in 12, dropping every day from September 9-13 about all the festival happenings you might have missed.
Panel produced by Danielle Grogan.
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