Emilia Pérez (15)

Writer/director Jacques Audiard bold take on the transition narrative is one of the most unique films of the year.

At once a crime thriller, musical, and romance, the film is, at it’s heart, a classic tragedy that grapples with questions of love, identity, forgiveness, and heartache. Through liberating song and dance and striking visuals, the story follows the journey of four women in Mexico, each pursuing their own happiness. Rita (Zoe Saldaña) is an unappreciated lawyer stuck in a dead-end job. That is, until she’s enlisted by wealthy, powerful cartel leader Manitas Del Monte (Karla Sofía Gascón), agreeing to help him fake his death, then medically transition and be reborn as Emilia Pérez. Now liberated, wife/widow Jessi (Selena Gomez) pines for the man she had been cheating on Manitas with. Meanwhile, Emilia falls increasingly in love with Epifanía (Adriana Paz), who comes to her newly established foundation seeking out information about her missing abusive boyfriend.

It’s a lot. And it’s about as unlikely and unorthodox as a musical gets. But Emilia Pérez proves that sometimes the most unconventional films, even if they aren’t masterpieces, are the ones that stand-out the most.