10 So-Called Sad Movie Endings That Are Happier Than You Think

This widely-loathed and polarizing Best Picture nominee Emilia Perez presents its ending as a sad one, even though plenty of viewers are unlikely to feel the way the filmmakers no doubt wanted them to feel. 

Emilia Perez tells the story of a Mexican cartel boss (Karla Sofia Gascon) who fakes their death so that they can disappear and transition into a woman. Once she's done this and is going by Emilia Perez, she invites her former wife Jessie (Selena Gomez) and her two children back to Mexico to live with her, where she pretends to be a distant cousin of their supposedly dead father. 

Eventually, when Jessie wants to move away with the children and her new partner, Gustavo (Edgar Ramirez), Emilia uses violence and blackmail to try and stop them. This situation eventually leads to a car crash in which all three of them are killed. Secondary lead Rita Castro (Zoe Saldana) adopts Emilia's children and a big funeral is held for Emilia, celebrating her work in helping victims of the cartel. 

Look, if writer-director Jacques Audiard wanted viewers to feel sorry for Emilia, he went the wrong way about it. She killed God-knows how many people as a cartel boss (something the movie never makes enough effort to hold her to account over) and, by trying to control the family that she herself had abandoned, she created the circumstances that led to her death. Despite what the film wanted us to believe, she was always the bad guy.