I watched this the other night. It's not very good! I'm completely baffled by how it drew so much praise in Cannes and picked up so many BAFTA and Oscar nominations (the most Oscar noms ever! tying only with Gone With The Wind!), and have been enjoying all the fallout over the last few days. It's not just KSG's comments of course; there's wider backlash about its portrayal of Mexico, its sloppy attitude to the Spanish language and its treatment of transition. Critics who were early champions of the film seem to be walking it back.
The collision of genres seems to have struck critics as very bold and having a central trans character gives instant progressive points, although I didn't think it was particularly trans-positive. Manitas/Emilia Perez is quickly revealed to be a controlling, gaslighting, violent narcissist. The director seems interested in the possibilities of leaving an old self behind, but not in any trendy ideas about gender identity. The transition is presented as a fait accompli. We don't see any suffering or struggle (but are told it happened) and the transition is presented more as a disguise rather than some revealing of the true self. It's impossible to watch this film and not think of Mrs Doubtfire. It's basically Mrs Doubtfire with cartels and songs and a soap opera sensibility.
No idea if this backlash will affect Oscar voting, which hasn't started yet. I read somewhere (and apologies if it was here) that despite the massive number of nominations, it was only expected to win in about three categories -- supporting actress for Zoe Saldana, song (the songs are terrible), and (I think) editing. KSG wasn't seriously expected to win.
Saldana won the Best Supporting Actress at the London Critics Awards yesterday and gave an incredibly emotional speech there are clips online. It did really feel like the speech of someone who can see the reputation of the film tanking before her eyes and it seemed like she genuinely believed in it. I felt quite sorry for her. She didn't namecheck KSG.
I don't think there's any kind of conspiracy behind its popularity with the academies. They're as prone to group think as anyone else and maybe it was helped by appearing to offer some easy virtue signalling points -- although, again it doesn't feel like an especially woke film, but sometimes people vote for things without watching them. Whatever, it's blowing up in their faces now. It's very funny and I'm loving all the memes.