Besides giving us the privilege of a great Zoe Saldana performance where she isn't blue or green, and some outstanding cinematography (lots of interesting camera movement, the lighting is superb), this is pretty much a total trainwreck. It's certainly not for a lack of effort, as there's a pretty bold combination going on here between Baz Luhrmann, Pedro Almodovar and Denis Villeneuve's _Sicario_. However, none of these stylings comes together as the tone of this movie is completely disjointed and all over the place. All the songs are way too cheesy, lacking in good compositional elements, catchy melodies or interesting performances (the mixing choices whenever it switches from dialogue to music are also really distracting). Wouldn't it be more intuitive if the music was hip-hop or rock inspired, given the crime theme? The songs here tend to have that whimsy Disney vibe, and right from the scene in Thailand where transgender operations are portrayed as this funny, quirky thing, I knew this was going to be a rough ride. Not only is the scene hilariously misguided, but it's also a taste of what's to come. Eventually the film starts to draw this metaphorical parallel between transgenders and crime bosses trying to better their lives, it feels very odd to say the least (I'd argue these aren't comparable in the slightest). Add to that the 'you can't escape your past' message it hammers home during the third act, and it all just feels very unfortunate and tasteless by the end. On top of that, the characters remain quite underdeveloped throughout (what's Rita's motivation?; why does the filmmaker expect me to feel empathy for Emilia?; who is Jessi?) and Selena Gomez proves once again that she's not a great actress. Overall, one of the worst Oscar frontrunners to come out in a very long time. I couldn't help but think of _Crash_ for a multitude of reasons.

3/10