Film

Ema

Name: Ema
Genre: Drama
Released: 2019
Cast: Mariana di Girolamo, Gael García Bernal, Santiago Cabrera, Paola Giannini, Cristián Suárez

Drama

Ema is a hypnotic, combustible portrait of desire and obsession wrapped around a reggaeton dancer's fierce, destructive mission to reclaim her adopted son. Pablo Larraín's film moves like a fever dream—electric, sensual, morally corrosive—and Mariana di Girolamo inhabits its center with feral intensity. It's for viewers drawn to characters who burn rather than bend.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you are drawn to bruised, restless character studies where the pulse comes from music, bodies and a heroine who refuses to behave, like the hypnotic Pablo Larraín-style pull of Jackie but with a Latin American street-dance heartbeat.

Skip it if you need a story that tells you where it is going, since its plot moves in restless sideways loops and some viewers will find its sharp, sensual surfaces more frustrating than gripping.

What it asks of you: Under two hours, it stays close to Ema's moods, so you need to sit with its abrupt shifts in tone and let its rhythms carry you rather than waiting for the story to explain itself.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

A Prophet2009

A prison-set character study about a young man's ruthless ascent through force of will and moral compromise. Like Ema, it's hypnotic psychological portraiture that refuses to flinch from its protagonist's monstrousness.

But Deliberately paced and sometimes bleak. The absence of a clear moral framework can feel exhausting rather than liberating.

The Mule2018

An intimate examination of a woman unraveling through obsessive behavior and poor choices, shot with Larraín's signature visual intensity and an almost unnerving closeness to her perspective.

But Toni Collette's performance is so internalized it can feel distant. Some find the film's emotional texture coldly observational rather than moving.

Under the Skin2014

Scarlett Johansson in an alien-as-predator role, stalking Scottish landscapes with hypnotic, unsettling grace. Like Ema, it's sensual, strange, and doesn't explain itself through dialogue.

But Very slow, very quiet, and its narrative is almost skeletal. The experimental structure will alienate viewers wanting conventional storytelling.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Ema

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Mulholland Drive2001

Both use narrative fragmentation and dreamlike imagery to trap viewers inside a character's distorted perception; both explore obsession as a force that warps reality itself.

David Lynch's fractured noir about obsession, performance, and the unreliable narrator's complete dissolution. Both films use visual and narrative distortion as a formal expression of a protagonist's inner state—the story itself becomes corrupted by her wanting.

But Deliberately nonlinear and refuses resolution. Demands viewer participation and tolerates confusion. Some find it pretentious; others find it revelatory.

The Souvenir2019

A young art student's portrait of an unhealthy, destructive relationship told with deliberate strangeness and fractured memory. Both films trap you inside a character's distorted perception of their own life.

But Aggressively oblique and formally challenging. It prioritizes mood over clarity, which some experience as self-indulgent rather than artistic.

The Spectacular Now2013

A romance between beautiful, volatile people that refuses the Hollywood ending. It captures the magnetic pull of someone who's bad for you with uncomfortable honesty.

But The romance itself is idealized by the film even as we watch it implode. That contradiction bothers some viewers more than others.

Climax2018

Gaspar Noé's fever-dream about dancers whose rehearsal becomes a nightmare of compulsion and desire. Shares Ema's intoxicating visual language and interest in bodies moving through space as moral statement.

But Genuinely difficult viewing—graphic, chaotic, designed to unsettle. Not entertainment; endurance test masquerading as art.

Nymphomaniac: Vol. II2013

Lars von Trier's provocative mapping of female desire and destruction through an unsparing character study. Like Ema, it centers a woman's agency and appetites without softening or judging.

But Explicitly sexual and graphically violent. Von Trier's maximalism can read as exploitation rather than exploration, even to viewers who appreciate his ambition.

First Reformed2018

Paul Schrader's portrait of a man consumed by obsession and moral disgust. Formally inventive and suffocating in the way it traps you in a collapsing worldview.

But Slow-burn bleak. Its formal innovations sometimes feel cold, and the emotional payoff is minimal. Not cathartic.

La Haine1995

Both use visual style and spatial movement as expressions of social rage; both protagonists are trapped in systems that limit their options, making destruction feel like the only available language.

Mathieu Kassovitz's monochromatic fury about three young men in a Paris banlieue, shot with a kinetic energy and formal audacity that makes marginalization viscerally felt. Like Ema, it's a film that moves through space as a form of rebellion.

But Shot in black and white with a deliberately abrasive aesthetic. The political messaging can overshadow character, and the violence isn't tragic—it's presented as systemic inevitability.