How Emilia Pérez sabotaged its own Oscars campaign

The Substance and Emilia Pérez are the two films nominated for Best Picture.

The two auteurs behind the films aren't American , but French .

The Substance follows a transgender Mexican drug lord who undergoes gender affirming surgery, goes into hiding and reunites with her family, Mrs Doubtfire-style , without revealing her former identity.

In another tuneless number, Emilia ’s children remark that she smells like their late papa “like mint, mezcal and guacamole” as though it wasn’t already clear that no actual Mexicans were involved in the making of the film.

There are other problems: the songs are bad, the pacing is all over the place, and Audiard 's interest in trans identity is perfunctory at best.