Cruella review

CRUELLA:

EMMA STONE IS DELIGHTFULLY WICKED AS DISNEY’S MOST FASHIONABLE VILLAIN! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

DISNEY

Emma Stone unleashes her inner “De Vil” in Cruella

 

            Emma Stone (Easy A, La La Land, The Favourite) brings Disney’s most stylish villain to life in Cruella, the latest in Disney’s trend of taking their iconic animated villains and making them into sympathetic characters much like what they did with Maleficent. So, I guess it makes sense to do one on the infamous puppy killer and coat maker from 101 Dalmatians. 

            This marks the third time Cruella de Vil appeared in live-action movie form with the previous two being Disney’s 1996 remake of their animated film which starred Glenn Close as Cruella and its sequel, 102 Dalmatians in 2000. I remembered liking the original animated version of 101 Dalmatians enough though it wasn’t one of the Disneymovies I watched over and over as a kid and the live-action version I think is perfectly decent and cute with the highlight being Close’s manic performance as Cruella de Vil who is an absolute riot whenever she was onscreen and, in my opinion, the only reason to see the two live-action films. 

            Now, we have this prequel/origin story of Cruella starring Stone, directed by Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl, Fright Night (2011), I, Tonya), and coincidentally produced by the earlier Cruella de Vil herself, Glenn Close showing how she became the maniacal fashion designer we know, hate, and also love at the same time. The film was announced all the way back in 2016 and I remembered hearing of Emma Stone’s casting as the character and was initially a little skeptical. 

            Don’t get me wrong, Emma Stone is a brilliant actress, but I wasn’t sure if she’d be capable of portraying such a wicked, cold-hearted character…and keep in mind, this was a couple of years before she played Abigail in The Favourite. I had completely forgotten this film was coming out until fairly recently when a photo of Stone as Cruella was released online, and the trailer premiered, and I was very interested in what I was seeing. 

            It wasn’t going to be another remake of 101 Dalmatians (Thank Christ! You can remake A Star is Born as many times as you want but we don’t need a bunch of remakes of this!), it would be darker in tone compared to the previous 101 Dalmatians movies even earning a PG-13 rating, and it was going to explore what made Cruella into the villain we know today. 

            Well, now that I’ve watched it, I can say that I had a really good time with this movie and one of the better Disney live-action films to come out of recent years outside of Marvel and Star Wars. It isn’t perfect nor does it really need to exist, but for what it is, it’s a consistently entertaining movie with impressive visuals, production design, and especially costumes, an interesting plot that’s dark and mean spirited in all the right ways, a damn amazing soundtrack mostly consisting of 60s and 70s tunes that I want to get, and a tour de force performance by Emma Stone and an equally entertaining performance by Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility, Men in Black 3/Men in Black: International, Saving Mr. Banks) as Cruella’s inevitable rival. 

            Set in 1970s London during the punk revolution, the film follows a young grifter named Estella (Stone), a woman who aspires to become a fashion designer and make a name for herself and her designs. Estella is very creative and clever with her fashion designs which catch the eye of Baroness von Hellman (Thompson), the narcissistic head of a prestigious London fashion house and renowned designer who employs Estella to work for her.

            However, through a series of events and revelations, Estella embraces her wicked side and becomes the fashionable yet revenge-bent Cruella de Vil. 

            The film also stars Joel Fry (White Van Man, Game of Thrones, Yesterday) as Jasper, Paul Walter Hauser (I, Tonya, BlacKkKlansman, Richard Jewell) as Horace, Emily Beecham (28 Weeks Later, Hail, Caesar!, Daphne) as Catherine Miller, Kirby Howell-Baptiste (The Good Place, Veronica Mars, Infinity Train) as Anita Darling, Mark Strong (Kick-Ass, Kingsman 1 and 2, Shazam!) as John, John McCrea (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, God’s Own Country, Dracula (2020 TV series)) as Artie, Kayvan Novak (Fonejacker, Four Lions, What We Do in the Shadows) as Roger Dearly, and Jamie Demetriou (Drunk History, Fleabag, Paddington 2) as Gerald. 

            Overall, Cruella may not be the coat for many Disney purists, but for those looking for a darker and more different variation of this well-known character, it gets the job done. The best way I can describe it is like a mix between Joker, The Devil Wears Prada, and Ocean’s 8, the dynamic between Stone and Thompson’s characters is very reminiscent to that of Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada, Estella’s descent into madness is just like what happens to Joaquin Phoenix in Joker, and a pivotal part of the story is to steal a necklace similar to the heist from Ocean’s 8, I’m not sure if the filmmakers were inspired by those movies but I wouldn’t be surprised. 

            Emma Stone and Emma Thompson’s performances are the highlight of this movie, Stone as the aspiring fashion designer and Thompson as this narcissistic fashion house owner (Granted, Thompson has portrayed cynical characters before, but here it’s almost to the point where she’s echoing Glenn Close’s Cruella de Vil). The banter between the two is brilliant, just listening to Stone and Thompson talk and throw insults and comebacks to one another is ironically more entertaining than any of the action scenes, which are good as well. 

            For the most part, the plot is very engaging, and I was getting wrapped up into what was going on and how Estella becomes Cruella. I will say, it starts to kind of fall apart during its third act where a twist or two occurs that doesn’t need to be in the movie and take the Maleficent route and make Cruella into more of an anti-hero rather than a legit villain, it didn’t bother me too much because I already loved a large chunk of this movie, it isn’t like Spiral where the movie stops abruptly and there isn’t much of a climax or payoff, there is a climax that wraps everything up but I just wished it ended about 30 minutes earlier. 

            Much like the previous live-action 101 Dalmatians films, the costume designs are fantastic in this movie, and I really appreciate how creative the designers got when making these outfits for both Cruella and the Baroness. They’re so good that I’m going to be very angry if this movie doesn’t get at least nominated for a Best Costume Design Oscar next year. 

            Cruella is a Disney remake/re-imagining done right and offers a dark, moody, and delightfully mean-spirited take on this iconic Disney character that’s definitely worth checking out because if she doesn’t scare you, no evil thing will.