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Tess DeNunzio

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Jimmy Freeze

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Dear zoe review: wells’ sincere tear-jerker struggles narratively [sdiff].

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Sadie Sink has shown that she is a force to be reckoned with over the last five years. From her first appearance as Max Mayfield on Netflix’s Stranger Things to her most recent acclaimed performance in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale , the young actress shows no limits to where her talents can take her. Sadie’s latest show-stopping performance sees her bearing the heavy emotional weight of the loss of a loved one. Based on the 2005 American novel of the same name, Dear Zoe captures a sincere glimpse of grief when the surrounding world deals with its own problems. Director Gren Wells crafts a tender, yet narratively unbalanced film that accentuates the gift that is Sadie Sink’s talent.

A year after her family suffers an unimaginable loss, Tess DeNunzio (Sink) struggles to overcome her tremendous grief. Unable to heal as her family appears to be doing, she pens a heartfelt letter to her dead little sister Zoe. In it, Tess reflects on what she has lost and her resistance towards recovery. When nothing seems to be working, she turns to her estranged father Nick DeNunzio (Theo Rossi) and stays with him for several weeks. There, Tess finds love and support in surprising ways, giving her hope for a new-found journey of emotional restoration.

Related: Sadie Sink Battles Heartbreaking Grief In Dear Zoe Trailer

Dear Zoe provides modest insight into grief and guilt for a 15-year-old girl who is still learning to exist in a hectic world. Interestingly enough, the film takes place one year after the September 11 attacks , in which various sides to humanity were put on full display. While the feature takes place during the 2001-2002 time frame, not much outside several call-back videos to the tragedy helps to shape the period. Yet, that aspect gave screenwriters Marc Lhormer and Melissa Martin an advantage to put the focus on Tess and her emotional journey. Despite everything going on in the world, these events amount to lesser importance for Tess when personal tragedy strikes.

Though Wells frames Tess’s growth as happening in real time, the pacing of the story can inhibit viewers from being able to fully understand the toll her loss has taken on her. Viewers rarely catch a glimpse of Tess pre-tragedy, and it’s difficult to tell who she is as a teenager. As a result, it’s hard to rationalize her reactions and responses to events, forcing audiences to feel disconnected despite being a reasonably relatable story for anyone who has experienced loss. Ultimately, it all comes down to the wasted opportunity to put forth a powerful and poignant effort about how grief and guilt can change a person over time.

Within the script, there are also missed opportunities to show how tackling grief head-on enables a connection to the person who has passed. In Dear Zoe , the ounces of happiness Tess does get to experience tend to come from others, as she avoids her grief altogether. It’s an interesting message to send, but in these moments, Sadie Sink gives an emotionally-driven and nuanced performance, proving she can hold her own next to seasoned veterans. Theo Rossi is also exceptional . In nearly every scene, Rossi performs with affecting grace and delivers a richly impressive performance with such a comforting and calming presence. It will be incredibly easy for audiences to become invested in everything he does onscreen. If nothing else, the entire cast propels Wells’ feature as one to watch for the performances alone.

Gren Wells’ latest feels sincere, and she commits to a script where the strengths lie in the connections between its characters. Though there is potential lost when it comes to revealing intricate details about grief and guilt, Lhormer and Martin’s script enables Sink and Rossi to take full emotional control of the project. They deliver tender performances capable of stealing the hearts of its viewers who have experienced loss and found solace in reconnecting with family, leading to tear-jerking moments that will last throughout the film. It's a genuine effort despite its limitations, and it’s certainly worth a watch.

Next: She Said Review: Conflicting Yet Important Film With Great Performances [SDIFF]

Dear Zoe showed at the 2022 San Diego Film Festival. The film will open in limited theaters November 4. It is 94 minutes and rated R for some teen marijuana use.

Our Rating:

3 star movies
Movie Reviews

‘Dear Zoe’ Review: Sadie Sink Deserves Better Than This Lifetime Movie Wannabe

Despite strong efforts from Sadie Sink and Theo Rossi, 'Dear Zoe' is a well-intentioned misfire.

Fresh off of her acclaimed turn as Max Mayfield in Stranger Things Season 4, and a buzz-worthy role opposite Brendan Fraser in Darren Aronofsky 's Oscar-hopeful The Whale , Sadie Sink is becoming one of the most highly sought-after actresses working in Hollywood. She's more than deserving, as the latest installment of Stranger Things greatly expanded her role as Max, and her big scene set to Kate Bush 's "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" was one of the most widely discussed scenes of the year. Her co-stars have sung high praises for her, Winona Ryder even called her "the next Meryl Streep ." Enter Dear Zoe , an independent production based on Philip Beard 's YA novel of the same name, which was filmed back in October 2019. Having seen the movie, one has to think, maybe this should have just stayed on the shelf.

Dear Zoe follows Tess DeNunzio (Sink), a teenage girl living with her mother and stepdad ( Jessica Capshaw and Justin Bartha ) in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her relationship with her family has become incredibly strained since the death of her baby half-sister Zoe in a hit-and-run accident on 9/11. Fed up with the cards that life has dealt her, Tess decides to pack up her things and move in with her biological father Nick ( Theo Rossi ), a gruff but kind-hearted man. During her stay, she falls for Nick's next-door neighbor Jimmy Freeze ( Kweku Collins ), an aspiring musician, who she begins opening up to.

Dear Zoe was clearly made with a very low budget, and even with some recognizable names involved in the film, it would be hard to fault the film for looking the way that it does. But in an era where we've seen movies with minuscule budgets look stunning on screen, this film has the overly bright aesthetic of a Lifetime Original Movie and all the melodrama of one too. The story itself rings emotionally hollow, with no sense of direction. It's a collection of quirks, from the inclusion of 9/11 that just feels ill-advised, cute puppies, backstabbing friends, and montages of dates at an amusement park set to peppy pop music, Dear Zoe has all of that. Every single plot beat seems to be taken from better (or slightly better) material, which is shocking as its source material—published in 2005—was met with a great deal of acclaim and high praise. From the looks of it, the book this story in a much more nuanced way, compared to this film, which feels like it's trying to be something out of a John Green novel, but told in the vein of a Dollar Tree knock-off. Even with a short runtime of only 95 minutes, Dear Zoe 's lack of consistency makes the pacing unfathomably slow.

RELATED: Sadie Sink Thinks Taylor Swift Should Direct a Feature Film After Making 'All Too Well'

It's clear that filmmaker Gren Wells and writers Marc Lhormer and Melissa Martin were making Dear Zoe with the very best of intentions. Even if the emotional beats miss the mark, it is easy to tell that they wanted to tell a genuine and honest portrait of grief and how we deal with losing the ones close to us, but it just doesn't work. The film can't decide whether it wants to be a story of our grief, reconnecting with loved ones, forgiveness, or a simple Young Adult romance. Obviously, there are ways that one could balance out these topics in a way that isn't so jumbled, but that isn't the case with Dear Zoe . As the movie moves through its different sub-plots, you soon start to forget how it even got to certain plot points, making it feel jarring.

While Dear Zoe doesn't work as a whole, Sadie Sink, as some may have expected, rises above what she was given in the script, and gives a fantastic performance as Tess. Like her previous roles, she has such a natural screen presence, and it's very easy to feel empathy for her character. Her chemistry with her co-stars is hit-and-miss, but the scenes she shares with Theo Rossi and Jessica Capshaw are the ones that have any sense of authenticity. Speaking of, Rossi also turns some decent acting as Nick, while his casting as the father of Sink is a bit strange, he brings a lot of warmth and heart to the role and carries a mountain of charisma that seems almost effortless.

If there is any reason to give Dear Zoe a chance, it's because of these two central performances that save the movie from being unwatchable. Justin Bartha, who has proven himself to be a very talented actor, is given very little to do in the film, outside the cliché emotionally distant step-father role (you know the one). The one time that the emotions do actually, kind of, hit in Dear Zoe is in a scene near the end of the film between Capshaw and Sink. Not only does it remind the audience how we got to where we were in the story in the first place, but it is one of the few times that you can actually feel anything towards the film as a whole.

Dear Zoe has its heart in the right place, but its reliance on creating one too many schmaltzy moments for the characters, and trying to be too many things at once, hold it back from being anything noteworthy. This clearly isn't some career-ending film for those involved, far from it, as the previous work from this creative team has proven their talent, but this isn't something that will work for much of the audience either.

Dear Zoe comes to theaters and on-demand services on November 4.

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Review: ‘Dear Zoe’ Starring Sadie Sink (San Diego International Film Festival)

Dear Zoe is the story of healing, of carrying on when getting out of bed or performing mundane tasks feels too overwhelming to attempt. It’s the story of the “before and after” – the dividing line between life before a traumatic event and after an unimaginable loss rocks your world.

The Zoe referenced in the title is an adorable young girl who’s showered with love by her mom, dad, and two sisters. Zoe means “life” in Greek, but the child’s tragic death is what marks the “before and after” in the shattered lives of the family she leaves behind.

Sadie Sink , who’s coming off a breakthrough season on Stranger Things , stars as Zoe’s older sister, Tess. Tess had a relatively happy life before the tragedy. She didn’t feel warm and fuzzy about her stepdad, but otherwise, she had a normal home life.

At 16, Tess was dealing with normal teenage issues and then 9/11 hit. While the world watched in horror as terrorists attacked America, Tess and her family were forced to deal with a horror that struck closer to home. Zoe was ripped out of their lives as the result of a horrific accident right outside their house.

Zoe’s death leaves her family devastated and floundering. Grief is incredibly personal, and each family member faces the “after” in their own way while sharing a sense that nothing will ever be the same.

For Tess, her instinct is to flee to her dad’s rather than remain among the walking dead who’ve replaced her mom, Elly (Jessica Capshaw), and her stepdad, David ( Justin Bartha ). She regrets leaving her younger half-sister, Emily (Vivien Lyra Blair), behind, realizing the child needs her now more than ever. But Tess also needs to take care of herself and that means an unplanned, unannounced stay at her real dad’s house.

Nick ( Theo Rossi ) lives in a lower-class neighborhood and doesn’t have a job. But he does have a warm heart and a room set up just waiting for whenever Tess pops by. He’s also got a litter of puppies to distract Tess and a willingness to allow his grieving daughter her own space. There’s no pressure at her dad’s place and Tess slowly emerges from under the dark cloud of grief.

Sadie Sink does a phenomenal job as Tess, a teenager forced to face the sudden loss of someone she loved deeply and who emerges stronger from the experience. Tess is flawed and relatable; she doesn’t always make the right choices. Sink’s performance allows us to live each of the heartbreaks with Tess, and also celebrate the moments when Tess allows herself to just breathe.

Most of the lighter, untroubled moments in Tess’s life during the year following Zoe’s death are due to the handsome guy living next door to her dad’s place. Kweku Collins plays Jimmy, a guy that Tess’s dad warns her away from but Tess is drawn to like a moth to the flame. The feeling’s mutual, and their relationship is surprisingly sweet and completely necessary to Tess’s healing process. Collins and Sink have great chemistry, and their scenes are among the film’s best.

Theo Rossi, Justin Bartha, Vivien Lyra Blair, and Jessica Capshaw are terrific, and the splintered family dynamic feels genuine and unforced. Their reactions to the tragedy ring true and nothing is overplayed or feels melodramatic, which could have easily been the case.

Directed by Gren Wells and based on Philip Beard’s bestselling young-adult novel, Dear Zoe walks us through the stages of grief without any sugar-coating. As seen from Tess’s perspective, finding a way through to the other side is a struggle that can ultimately lead to healing. The process isn’t easy but reaching out for help is integral in moving forward.

Dear Zoe weaves incredibly complex themes including grief, guilt, and healing into a compelling coming-of-age story. The film does an impressive job of taking us along on Tess’s journey to reach the light at the end of a very dark tunnel.

MPAA Rating: R for some teen marijuana use

Running Time: 1 hour 34 minutes

Release Date: November 4, 2022 in limited theaters and streaming

Distributor: Freestyle Digital Media

Dear Zoe screened during the 2022 San Diego International Film Festival held October 19th through the 23rd. For more information, visit the festival’s official site .

Where to Watch

Sadie Sink (Tess DeNunzio) Theo Rossi (Nick DeNunzio) Jessica Capshaw (Elly Gladstone) Justin Bartha (David Gladstone) Kweku Collins (Jimmy Freeze) Vivien Lyra Blair (Emily Gladstone) Mckenzie Noel Rusiewicz (Zoe Gladstone) Tanyell Waivers (Vicky) Sophie Guest (Caitlin) Emmy James (Ashley)

When Tess and her family suffer an unimaginable loss, she finds support from a surprising source: her biological father - a lovable slacker from the wrong side of the tracks - and the charming but dangerous juvenile delinquent next door.

Recommendations

Release date

7 th October 2022

Based on the 2004 novel of the same name by writer Philip Beard, Dear Zoe follows Tess (Sadie Sink), a teenager who is struggling to cope with the death of her half-sister in a car accident on 9/11. The collective trauma strains her relationship with her family, and when she suspects her mother Elly (Jessica Capshaw) is having an affair, Tess decides to move in with her estranged father, Nick (Theo Rossi). While living with him, Tess meets his neighbour, Jimmy (Kweku Collins), who helps her deal with her family issues and begin the process of healing.

At least, that’s what the premise is on paper. In practice, Dear Zoe finds itself following several different tangents, none of which are particularly interesting, nor do they go anywhere. This leaves the film feeling distinctly unfocused, making for a frustrating and tiresome experience that constantly tries to tug at the heartstrings but can’t commit to its story beats for long enough to do so. The central hook feels almost vestigial in the bigger picture of the storytelling, with none of the various subplots feeding back into the core themes of the piece in any meaningful ways – and many of these diversions don’t even have satisfying conclusions to justify their presence in the film.

This isn’t helped by the weak scripting, as all of the characters feel very two-dimensional. Attempts to create drama fall flat as a result; without strong characterisation to drive compelling conflict, all of Dear Zoe ’s interactions feel like they were pulled out of thin air. The actors try their best to prop up the lacklustre script with strong emotional performances, but that hard work can only go so far to help a narrative that doesn’t know what it wants to do with itself.

Overall, Dear Zoe is a film that wants desperately to be gripping and complex but neglects to commit to any one idea, trying instead to be several things at once and compromising all of them. Structurally it is meandering and directionless, compounded by the dull writing that relies on cheap emotional tricks to try and inspire emotion in its audience in lieu of strong character dynamics or an engaging narrative. In its attempts to be multiple stories simultaneously, Dear Zoe ends up barely feeling like a story at all.

Dear Zoe is released digitally on demand on 7 th October 2022.

Watch the trailer for Dear Zoe here:

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Dear Zoe (Drama) [Based on Novel] (2022)

Director: Gren Wells

Writer: Marc Lhormer, Melissa Martin, Philip Beard (Based on Novel by)

Stars: Sadie Sink, Theo Rossi, Kweku Collins, Mckenzie Noel Rusiewicz

Watch Sadie Sink Grieve a Younger Sister in Emotional Dear Zoe Trailer

Dear Gren, embrace the unique elements of your film.

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Mark de Graaf T : +31 0639889981 E : [email protected]

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Kids say (4)

Based on 4 kid reviews

Dear Zoe is a great drama for older teens and adults with some more mature themes.

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Directed by Gren Wells

Tess enlists her biological father – a lovable slacker from the wrong side of the tracks – and the charming juvenile delinquent next door to help her come to grips with the death of her little sister.

Sadie Sink Theo Rossi Kweku Collins Vivien Lyra Blair MacKenzie Noel Rusiewicz Tanyell Waivers Justin Bartha Jessica Capshaw Sophie Guest Daniel Johnson

Director Director

Writer writer.

Melissa Martin

Sound Sound

James Parnell

Zin Haze Productions

Releases by Date

26 feb 2022, theatrical limited, 04 nov 2022, 19 apr 2023, 07 nov 2022, 01 jan 2023, releases by country.

Theatrical limited 14 Festival Filmelier

New Zealand

Premiere Sedona International Film Festival
Theatrical limited R

94 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by august ★ 2

they had $10, sadie sink, and a dream.

Review by leah ★★ 2

do you watch shitty films for your fav actors or are you normal

Review by cosette 2

excuse me, not to be disrespectful or rude but could you please take this movie down. that is my sister who was killed by metra train.

Review by jor ★

sadie is so real for not promoting this

Review by chloe ★★ 2

watched this bc of a tiktok edit

Review by ram<3 ★½

sadie… babe, you can do better than this :(

Review by Berry ★★

her dad's hot

Review by abs 🪐🪐 ★½

listen if i was rating it just on sadie sink — five stars. she’s great. always. but i’m not so …….

Review by 「𝙑𝙞𝙘𝙠」 ★★★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

All the one star reviews have me confusion but idc I lowkey loved it…

It’s just a chill wholesome coming of age overcoming trauma/guilt type of film that yeah maybe a little generic and been done before but the acting and vibe really makes the difference and it’s fucking Sadie Sink how can you hate it?

She honestly had the best dad ever, even if he has serious issues that weren’t fully addressed and he’s clearly still hooked af on Tessie’s mom.

Also, Tess was too good for jimmy (just saying) but I’m not gonna judge, they were really cute together, the fake tattoos tho hella cringe! And i did kinda forget about Zoe and whatever her deal was but they got back to it eventually, anyway everything else was quite good.

Review by Maxwell ★½

Bush did Dear Zoe

Review by kc

sadie sink you will always be famous

Review by Natalie ★★½

Sadie Sink needs roles where she does not loose a sibling

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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, dear evan hansen.

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In 2021, movie musicals are again the rage. “In the Heights” and “ Annette ” have already been released. “tick, tick … BOOM” and Steven Spielberg ’s remake of “ West Side Story ” are soon to follow. Back in 2015, a coming-of-age musical entitled “Dear Evan Hansen,” premiered on Broadway, and took the world by storm by winning six Tony Awards. Based on a book penned by Steven Levenson , it follows the eponymous character, a teen suffering from social anxiety, as he navigates a local tragedy for his own gain.

Evan ( Ben Platt ) wears a cast to protect the left arm he broke due to falling from a tree. He wants to talk to his crush, a guitar-playing Zoe Murphy ( Kaitlyn Dever ). But his anxiety gets in the way. To diffuse his uneasiness, his therapist suggests he write peppy letters to himself addressed as “Dear Evan Hansen.” When Zoe’s troubled brother Connor ( Colton Ryan ), however, takes one of Evan’s letters, only to die by suicide, Evan is tossed in the tumult of a fractured, grieving family. Connor’s parents believe Evan was his best friend. But the reality is far different. Evan plays along with the charade, gaining the fame, adulation, and love he’s always dreamed of. All at the expense of Connor’s memory.

Stephen Chbosky ’s cinematic adaptation of “Dear Evan Hansen,” whereby a 27-year-old Ben Platt reprises his role as the teenage titular character is a total misfire. It’s an emotionally manipulative, overlong dirge composed of cloying songs, lackluster vocal performances, and even worse writing.

The problem with “Dear Evan Hansen” is systemic, and the film operates on faulty ground. Connor’s grieving parents—Cynthia ( Amy Adams ) and Larry ( Danny Pino )—meet with Evan under the belief he was Connor’s one close friend. Evan doesn’t put up much of a fight, which is blamed on his anxiety. But he deepens the subterfuge by enlisting his friend Jared ( Nik Dodani ) to create fake email exchanges supposedly written by Evan and Connor. The correspondence paints a picture of the pair visiting Connor’s favorite orchard, Evan falling from a tree, and Connor nursing him back to health. Cynthia and Larry completely buy the distasteful con. In his duping, Evan is revealed as a devious protagonist, and the film follows suit.

The Benj Pasek and Justin Paul penned songs, such as "Only Us," "Requiem," "Sincerely, Me" etc. are a ramshackled assemblage of garish arrangements and even worse lyrics that ring with the artificial tinge of a plastic lollipop. Likewise, there’s no amount of suspension that’ll lift anyone to the disbelief of Platt being a teenager. His very build and frame, especially his jutted winged shoulders, is that of a grown man. The one added benefit he brings is his malleable voice, a vehicle with the ability to discover pockets of hard-fought warmth where only cold suspicion exists.

Platt’s vocal performance might soar, but his choices are not merely overwrought; there are an assemblage of tics and jitters that’s often played for laughs rather than real pathos. Platt reprising his role, on the other hand, is the least of the film's problems: his character is threadbare, and there’s no amount of experience that can add depth to Evan. His task is made all the more challenging because Evan isn’t a likable character. His unsympathetic rendering doesn’t solely stem from the fact that he lied about being friends with Connor. His rot takes root in apathy, as he exhibits almost no regard for the feelings of Zoe, her parents or even Connor.

Almost no one in this movie feels like an actual person. The exception is Evan’s mother Heidi, played by Julianne Moore . Heidi is a single mom, working late-night nursing shifts to afford college for Evan. She desperately wants the best for him, even when he doesn’t notice her efforts. The musical’s best scenes revolve around her, the first occuring when Cynthia and Larry offer to cover Evan’s tuition. She’s proud. And you can see the gears shifting inside of Moore’s head before she declines. The second is the film’s most tender vocal, Moore’s Judy Collins inspired performance of "So Big / So Small." Apart from Cynthia, everyone else in this musical isn’t just inconsistent, they’re poorly drawn.

The film’s big reveal hinges on the total betrayal of a character, Alanna. Played with a modicum of sincerity by Amandla Stenberg , Alanna is the Student Body President who wants to prove that she’s worth something. In a film composed of self-interested characters, she’s the most selfless. But the writing in “Dear Evan Hansen” is so wretched, so manipulative, it needs to undermine her by dragging her down with the film’s other feckless drecks. She ultimately takes an action that sabotages Evan.

Compounding the frustration elicited by “Dear Evan Hansen” is how often the costuming, the set design, and other small details like props reveal the film’s seams. T-shirts and sweaters are hewn closer to Platt’s body to make him look younger, but they do the opposite. The bland homes of both Evan and Zoe aren’t at all lived-in, displaying very little character beyond a department store commercial. When Evan looks at his yearbook to see Connor’s favorite books, heady titles like Kurt Vonnegut ’s Cat’s Cradle appear. But Connor looks no more than 10 years old in the picture. Rather the reading list is composed of the stereotypical titles associated with suicidal teens. At every turn, “Dear Evan Hansen” takes the lower, easier route. Each time it does a disservice to the misunderstood group with which it falsely claims empathy.

With “Dear Evan Hansen,” Chbosky aims to identify with those struggling with mental health challenges, but he and the source material only possess a superficial understanding of such travails. The worst scene (among many bad ones) is when Evan gets the recording of Connor singing during a group therapy session, sending it to everyone he knows. Who videotapes a group therapy session? Who then sends that footage? It’s blatant emotional manipulation on the part of the film. Chbosky's film concerns itself solely with pulling at heartstrings, and then stamping them into the saccharine ground. “Dear Evan Hansen” is a terrible, misbegotten musical with too little self-awareness to care how out of tune it sounds.

This review was originally filed from the world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10th. The film opens on September 24th, only in theaters.

Robert Daniels

Robert Daniels is an Associate Editor at RogerEbert.com. Based in Chicago, he is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA) and Critics Choice Association (CCA) and regularly contributes to the New York Times , IndieWire , and Screen Daily . He has covered film festivals ranging from Cannes to Sundance to Toronto. He has also written for the Criterion Collection, the Los Angeles Times , and Rolling Stone about Black American pop culture and issues of representation.

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Dear Evan Hansen (2021)

Rated PG-13 for thematic material involving suicide, brief strong language and some suggestive reference.

131 minutes

Ben Platt as Evan Hansen

Amy Adams as Cynthia Murphy

Kaitlyn Dever as Zoe Murphy

Julianne Moore as Heidi Hansen

Amandla Stenberg as Alana Beck

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‘emilia pérez’ review: zoe saldaña, selena gomez and the divine karla sofia gascón light up jacques audiard’s fabulous queer crime musical.

A Mexican drug lord enlists the help of a lawyer to undergo gender-affirming surgery in the latest from the French director of 'A Prophet,' 'Rust and Bone' and 'Dheepan.'

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Movies that take their title from a female protagonist’s name — from Mildred Pierce and Stella Dallas through Norma Rae to Vera Drake and Jackie Brown — instantly claim that woman’s rightful place at the heart of a story, often depicting struggle and sacrifice but also resilience and strength of character. The same applies to Jacques Audiard ’s bracingly original crime musical Emilia Pérez , even if the woman herself doesn’t show up until some way in, when she emerges from the unlikeliest of cocoons.

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Zoe Saldaña Highlights How Her New Film “Emilia Pérez” Celebrates Mexico's 'Rich' and 'Artistic' Culture

“Mexican culture is something that’s dear to my heart. I’ve lots of family still there,” the actress said at the Cannes Film Festival

Zoe Saldaña is giving fresh insight about Emilia Pérez in France!

During a 2024 Cannes Film Festival press conference that PEOPLE attended on Sunday, May 19, the actress, 45, opened up about how her new movie showcases Mexican culture.

“I’ve been living in Los Angeles for about 20 years. Mexican culture is something that’s dear to my heart. I’ve lots of family still there,” said Saldaña, who is at the festival promoting Emilia Pérez with Selena Gomez , Édgar Ramírez and other costars.

Related: Selena Gomez Cries as Emilia Pérez Film Earns Minutes-Long Standing Ovation at Cannes Film Festival

The Avatar and Guardians of the Galaxy actress mentioned the injustices and corruption in Mexico, but noted, "I believe that's true of all countries in the world, and I still have this great respect and admiration for Mexican culture."

In Emilia Pérez , Saldaña portrays Rita Moro Castro, an undervalued lawyer at a large firm who is hired to help cartel leader Manitas secretly complete a sex change operation to "become the woman he has always dreamt of being" as Manitas nears retirement.

The upcoming movie – directed and written by Jacques Audiard – is described as a musical thriller and stars Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón, who is trans, as Manitas and Gomez as Manitas’ wife Jessi.

Related: Zoe Saldaña and Her Lookalike Sister Cisely Make a Glam Red Carpet Appearance Together

Saldaña praised Audiard’s work on the film, saying she’s "very grateful" that he "used a lot of creative liberty and freedom" to tell the story.

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"He has this story which depicts a number of things that you can find in Mexico and which need to be improved in other countries," Saldaña said. "But he celebrates the culture, which is so beautiful, and so rich, and so artistic."

Emilia Pérez made its world premiere at the festival on Saturday, May 18, where it received a standing ovation that lasted nearly 10 minutes, a moment that made Gomez cry and wipe away her tears.

At the press conference, costar Gascón also championed trans rights.

“People who are trans are often the object of insults or death threats simply because they exist,” Gascón said. “In Mexico, we use very harsh phrases when addressing trans people, often people can be very gross. It is a real issue.“

“I think trans people should be treated like just anybody else. I'm no better, no worse than somebody else,” Gascón added. “We have to continue fighting for our rights. We have to continue with our lives. ... We're allowed to change it because we want to, we can make decisions about our own body. I wanted to be a trans woman.“

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Gascón went on to discuss the character she plays in the film.

"What I think is very important in this character [Manitas] and in the film made by Jacques is the following: It's quite clear that trans people, we trans people are just people. We're trans people, we're people,” Gascón said. “It's not as though we were a sort of a stain on the world. We are as human as others, and we have existed since the beginning of the world.“

Related: Selena Gomez Wows in Gorgeous Black and White Gown at Cannes Film Festival — See Her Look!

Following the movie's release, Saldaña is expected to star in the next two Avatar movies, set for release in 2025 and 2029, respectively. The actress is also raising her three sons, twins Cy Aridio and Bowie Ezio , 9, and Zen Anton Hilario , 7, whom she shares with her husband Marco Perego-Saldaña .

In a 2023 interview with PEOPLE , the actress spoke about raising her boys without gender-specific roles and teaching them "to honor women and to celebrate women." She said it’s "very important” to teach them to "honor themselves, their femininity, to celebrate their feminine self as well."

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Read the original article on People .

Dominique Charriau/WireImage Zoe Saldaña at the Cannes Film Festival in France on May 19, 2024

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Zoe Saldaña Stars in Emilia Pérez, a Movie Unlike Any Other

By Richard Lawson

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In French auteur Jacques Audiard ’s new film Emilia Pérez , which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 18, Zoe Saldaña plays Rita, a dogged Mexico City attorney who is contacted, in frightening fashion, by the leader of a major drug cartel. This fearsome figure has observed Rita’s work from afar and thinks she might be the right woman for a very sensitive job: researching the best and most discreet doctors to perform gender confirmation procedures on this murderous crime boss.

That’s a more than risky conceit, but Audiard’s steadfast refusal to play it as a joke—this is sincere, sentimental filmmaking—proves wholly winning. The film is captivating even before its chief revelation arrives; from the very first song, Emilia Pérez allures and surprises. Oh, yes: I should mention that Emilia Pérez is also a musical, with lovely and rousing tunes written by French pop musician Camille and a score by Clément Docul . So, this is a musical about a trans cartel boss forsaking her old life and beginning anew, and Selena Gomez is in it too. What a strange and rewarding concoction.

Emilia, as she dubs herself, is played by the Spanish telenovela star Karla Sofia Gascón , all hiss and menace in her pre-transition scenes before she is reborn as a gentle and sophisticated woman of the world. Not everything has been magically changed for the better, though. Emilia misses her wife, Jessi (sharply played by Gomez), and their two young children. Thus she enlists a wary Rita’s help once more, hatching a scheme that will reunite the family in Mexico. Emilia is now posing as a distant cousin of the crime lord, who is assumed dead. As disarmingly sweet as the film can be, Audiard is ever plucking a string of suspense in the background. Emilia was, after all, quite a dangerous person in her previous life, and surrounded herself with dangerous people. This could easily all go horribly wrong. Watching Emilia Pérez , it’s hard to know what tone to trust; is this an uplifiting story of redemption, or of terribly inevitable tragedy?

It’s sort of both, a celebration of the power of positive change and a fable about the far-reaching consequences of violence. On the brighter end of things, Emilia Pérez is a warmhearted depiction—albeit in outsized terms—of the good that results from transition. Emilia stepping into her fullest self is a triumph in its own right, but it also opens her eyes to the errors of her ways, and of the world’s. Emilia becomes a champion of the missing, working with Rita to locate the remains of people who could very well have been killed by her own underlings. Emilia Pérez may exonerate a vicious murder a little quickly, but in the loopy and loving context of the film, we believe in the arc.

That’s largely because Gascón sells it so persuasively. Her performance is intriguingly textured, at once hopeful and haunted. She builds an appealing and credible rapport with Saldaña, who is also terrific. Rita is one of a very few people who know who Emilia once was, which terrifies her. But she is also drawn to this wholly bettered person; she and Emilia become friends and allies, perhaps a testament to some wild cinematic version of restorative justice.

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This is a really exciting pivot for Saldańa, who is great in her many enormous sci-fi franchises but has rarely had an opportunity to do something this artful, to play a fully realized person. And to sing and dance, of course. (Though Center Stage heads have long known that Saldaña can move.) No one here is doing Broadway belting, but they’re all in pleasingly confident voice. The actors gracefully maneuver the sing-speak of the film—dialogue turns to music with little warning, which makes it all seem more natural than if the characters stopped, cleared their throats, and then burst into song.

To be fair, Emilia Pérez is not going for naturalism. It is an ornate melodrama—full of fabulous costumes, dotted with winks of wry humor, beguilingly idiosyncratic. There is, I’m fairly certain, no other movie like Emilia Pérez , a movie that is sure to alienate some: the song in which a chorus of doctors detail the many procedures that could be part of a gender confirmation journey will probably raise some alarm bells. Audiard could have aimed for a bit more careful nuance there. But hopefully the film will thrill many others. Emilia Pérez charms, partly, because of its imperfections, its bold choices that don’t always neatly land. The film walks a fine line between daring and ridiculous, and unlike some other big-swing movies at this year’s Cannes, Emilia Pérez stays mostly on the side of good. Its heart is in the right place, as its style. As is Emilia herself, at long last.

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‘Emilia Pérez’ Review: Jacques Audiard’s Musical Is Crazy, But Also A Marvel – Cannes Film Festival

By Stephanie Bunbury

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‘Emilia Pérez’ Cannes Film Festival Premiere Photos: Édgar Ramírez, Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldana & More

‘Emilia Pérez’ Review: Jacques Audiard’s Musical Is Crazy, But Also A Marvel – Cannes Film Festival

Enter Manita Del Monte, the leader of a criminal cartel, for his future life. Manita has unthinkable amounts of money stashed in Swiss bank accounts but still likes to hang with his homies, drinking on old car seats somewhere out in the desert while his beloved children dance with his posse of killers. Nobody would mistake him for a woman. His voice is rasping, his beard disheveled and his approach to recruitment strikingly direct: he has his hombres put a bag over Rita’s head and kidnap her. Discretion must be enforced, given Manita’s incendiary secret. He has always wanted to be a woman. Now, having seen how resourceful Rita is in court, he wants her to help set him up with a sex change.

RELATED: ‘Emilia Pérez’ Starring Zoe Saldaña And Selena Gomez Scores 11-Minute Ovation At Cannes World Premiere

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Audiard has always worked very deliberately across genres; he followed the urban thriller The Beat My Heart Skipped with Rust and Bone , a relationship drama, then took on the Western in The Sisters Brothers . In 2016 he won the Palme D’Or with Dheepan , a sympathetic slice of social realism about illegal immigrants. The musical is a deceptively rigorous form, trammeled by its inherent artificiality. People don’t usually burst into song in the street, still less while discussing possible procedures at a Thai plastic surgery clinic. Emilia even manages to muster a song from beneath several layers of post-operative bandaging.

None of this ever seems ridiculous, however, because Audiard leans into its conventions; rather than bending his provocative story to fit it, he bends the form itself. From the very beginning, when we see the lights of Mexico City dissolve into fairy lights around the sombreros of a mariachi band, there are visual evocations of the glitter and glamor of musical theatre; we often find ourselves gazing at the stars, a brief respite from the drama. Dance numbers might begin in the office, continue in a black neutral space as the scenery magically fades away, then return to the real. Songs are delivered in snatches rather than as whole numbers, merging into dialogue and often barely sung at all. The sparkle never outshines the essential seriousness of the subject.

That subject is a tragic one. Even with a new face, body, identity and sense of mission, Emilia Pérez will never leave her other selves behind. The performances encompass that thematic depth. Saldaña brings warmth and a sense of solidity to Rita, guiding us through the plot’s giddying excesses; Karla Sofía Gascón is appropriately larger than life as both the monstrous cartel boss and as Emilia, a born-again woman with the proud demeanor of a ship’s figurehead. Gomez, as her cast-off wife determined to live her best life, brings that unmistakable Disney zing. The greatest plaudits, however, go to Jacques Audiard. It may be too soon to call the Palme d’Or with a week of the Cannes Film Festival left to run, but Emilia Pérez looks very much like a winner.

Title: Emilia Pérez Festival: Cannes (Competition) Director: Jacques Audiard Cast: Adriana Paz, Edgar Ramirez , Mark Ivanir, Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez Sales agent: The Veterans Running time: 2 hr 10 min

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A Netflix original movie, Atlas stars Lopez as Agent Atlas Shepherd, a data analyst who has zero trust in artificial intelligence. Atlas is forced to embrace AI, though, when she needs to utilize the technology to catch Harlan (Simi Liu)—a rogue robot who was created to advance humanity that is now threatening to destroy it after failing in a previous attempt.

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The logline from Netflix reads, “In a world where the pandemic has wreaked havoc, a world steeped in frustration and uncertainty, a man comes along to shake up the markets—and people's consciousness—with an initiative that encompasses education, the financial sphere, and spiritual development.

“ Illusions for Sale: The Rise and Fall of Generation Zoe depicts the genesis, the growth, and the collapse of Latin America's most bizarre and ambitious financial platform, itself an accurate portrait of its eccentric creator, Leonardo Cositorto.”

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The Most Delirious Film at Cannes? A Transgender Cartel-Gangster Musical Starring Selena Gomez

By David Fear

Imagine a world in which Stephen Sondheim made Sicario. Yes, that Stephen Sondheim; yes, that 2015 thriller about the world of Mexican drug cartels. Got that? Good. Now add in Selena Gomez as the wife of a narco who, in a moment of deep grief and remembrance, utters the line, “My pussy still hurts when I think of you” — which, to be fair, sounds a lot more poetic in Spanish. She believes her husband, a major drug lord for the Los Globales cartel, had been murdered. This is not true. Rather, her spouse has faked their death so they could transition to being a woman, and is now Emilia Pérez, who runs a charity dedicated to locating victims of the drug wars. They’re also living in the same house, because “Aunt Emilia” misses their kids. And regarding our earlier reference to Sondheim: Yes, the whole thing is a musical.

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Cut to four years later, when Rita is living the life of the nouveau riche in London. A woman chats her up at a swank restaurant. It takes a few minutes before Rita recognizes it’s her former client. Now known as Emilia Pérez, and played by the extraordinary Mexican actor Karla Sofía Gascón, she wants to return to Mexico to see her family again. Rita must make the necessary arrangements so Emilia can pose as a long-lost aunt. She also wants to start a foundation dedicated to helping families of the thousands of missing people who became casualties of cartel turf wars. Her old lawyer will come on a cofounder, and hopefully, they can both undo some of the damage done.

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‘Emilia Pérez’ Review: Leading Lady Karla Sofía Gascón Electrifies in Jacques Audiard’s Mexican Redemption Musical

Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez also star in the Palme d'Or winner's exhilarating Spanish-language (half-sung) portrait of a former cartel boss's life-changing transformation.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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‘Emilia Pérez’ Review: Leading Lady Karla Sofía Gascón Electrifies in Jacques Audiard’s Mexican Redemption Musical 2 days ago
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SPOILER ALERT: The following review contains some spoilers.

Like a rose blooming amid a minefield, it’s a miracle that Jacques Audiard ’s “ Emilia Pérez ” exists: a south-of-the-border pop opera about a most unlikely metamorphosis and the personal redemption it awakens in a stone-cold criminal.

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The filmmaker got the idea from Le Monde editor Boris Razon’s novel “Écoute,” wherein the character’s mission is but one of countless questions raised about identity (in the book, Manitas wants to become his first love, who was murdered years before). But primarily-Spanish-language “Emilia Pérez” isn’t an adaptation so much as a totally different interpretation of that out-there idea: What if you took the poster boy for toxic masculinity and made them a woman — not à la Griselda Blanco (“Cocaine Godmother”), but in such a way that eclipsed the aggressive original persona?

Audiard starts by introducing Saldaña’s character, Rita, a defense attorney who helps scumbags go free, justifying her misgivings through song. Overstressed and undervalued, Rita accepts a potential client’s shady proposal, which means being driven out to who-knows-where with a hood over her head. Ultra-careful in order to evade potential assassination, Manitas swears Rita to secrecy before telling her why she’s been summoned: “I want to be a woman,” growls a man who looks like he wouldn’t hesitate to have her killed. And then Manitas opens his shirt and reveals his commitment to Rita (but not the camera).

At this point in the film, my sensitivity sensors were still wary. Early on, all references to Manitas are masculine, which is true even among the gender-reassignment doctors Rita flies around the world to interview. One can easily imagine such an assignment sparking a “Some Like It Hot”-style farce about the Witness Protection Program, and the film still feels like it could go either way (toward triumph or catastrophe) during the gonzo “La Vaginoplastia” number, which suggests “Myra Breckinridge” as Busby Berkeley might have staged it. “Changing the body changes society,” Rita sings to the surgeon in Tel Aviv (played by Mark Ivanir), who finally agrees to conduct the procedure, tipping off where the story is headed.

It’s not like Manitas can tell anyone what he’s doing, counting on Rita to stage his death and relocate his family to Switzerland. In fact, when the ex-capo reunites with Rita a few years later in London — now radiant, beardless and renamed Emilia — the lawyer tenses, afraid she’s come to erase the last trace of her past. Instead, Emilia asks Rita to bring her wife/widow Jessi (Gomez) and sons back to Mexico. According to press notes, Gascón (who plays Emilia) still lives with her daughter’s mom, and a similar dynamic emerges here, as Emilia presents herself as a long-lost aunt.

The scene that played best at Cannes finds Rita watching this reunion warily, as Emilia welcomes Jessi and the kids back into her life. Will they recognize her? “You smell like Papa,” one of their sons tells Emilia in a lovely reverse lullaby. “Emilia Pérez” would have been a very different movie if Manitas had found the courage to confide in the family. Not doing so sets the stakes for the rest of the film: Can Emilia continue to serve as their guardian? What happens if Jessi, who thinks she’s dead, should run off with new flame Gustavo (Édgar Ramírez)?

Such double standards add fascinating dimensions to the film’s second half, especially after Emilia decides to start La Lucecita, an NGO designed to help grieving family members find their “disappeared” relatives. In the process, Emilia also finds love. Apart from one scene where Rita worries that Emilia’s partner (Adriana Paz) may have figured things out, Audiard doesn’t distract himself with that old trope. Again, it would have been nice to see Emilia confide in others, but the film doesn’t treat fear of discovery as a point of suspense. Instead, Audiard wonders how much people really change when they transition. In Emilia’s case, less than she’d like, but enough to inspire positive change in society.

Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (Competition), May 18, 2024. Running time: 132 MIN.

Production: (France) A Why Not Prods., Page 114 production, in co-production with Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello, Pathé, France 2 Cinéma, in association with Library Pictures International, Logical Content Ventures, Les Films du Fleuve, The Veterans, Vixens, Casa Kafka Pictures, Pimienta Films, with the support of CNC, la Région Ile-de-France, with the participation of Ciné+, with the support of Canal+, France Télévisions. (World sales: Pathé, Paris.)
Crew: Director, writer: Jacques Audiard, freely adapted from the novel “Écoute“ by Boris Razon. Screenplay: Camera: Paul Guilhaume. Editor: Juliette Welfling. Original music and songs: Clément Ducol, Camille. Music supervisor: Pierre Marie Dru. Choreographer: Damien Jalet.
With: Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, Édgar Ramírez, Mark Ivanir, Karla Sofía Gascón, Eduardo Aladro, Emiliano Edmundo, Hasan Jalil, Gaël Murgia-Fur, Tirso Pietriga, Jarib (Javier Zagoya), Montiel Magali Brito, Sébastien Fruit.

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Janet Planet

In rural Western Massachusetts, 11-year-old Lacy spends the summer of 1991 at home, enthralled by her own imagination and the attention of her mother, Janet. As the months pass, three visito... Read all In rural Western Massachusetts, 11-year-old Lacy spends the summer of 1991 at home, enthralled by her own imagination and the attention of her mother, Janet. As the months pass, three visitors enter their orbit, all captivated by Janet. In rural Western Massachusetts, 11-year-old Lacy spends the summer of 1991 at home, enthralled by her own imagination and the attention of her mother, Janet. As the months pass, three visitors enter their orbit, all captivated by Janet.

Annie Baker
Zoe Ziegler
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June Walker Grossman
14 Critic reviews
84 Metascore
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Trivia Director Annie Baker and star Julianne Nicholson grew up in the same area, which is also where the film takes place. Neither of them knew this about each other until a random conversation.
Soundtracks The Littlest Worm Performed by Zoe Ziegler, Luke Bosco, and June Walker Grossman

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June 28, 2024 (United States)
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Dear Zoe is a great drama for older teens and adults with some more mature themes.

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