Review:
"Cruella"
Release Date: May 28, 2021
Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 134 minutes No, we do not need another iconic Disney villain recast as an antihero, not after Maleficent gave Sleeping Beauty’s mistress of evil an unnecessary reputation rehabilitation. But now comes Cruella de Vil, stripped of her greed, vanity, and malevolence for another Disney live-action reimagining that significantly alters the mythology of one of the Mouse House’s most terrifying mischief-makers The fashion designer of director Craig Gillespie’s Cruella lacks the cruelty of the fur coat fetishist of the animated One Hundred and One Dalmatians and the Glenn Close live-action romps. “I’m Cruella, born brilliant, born bad, and a little bit mad,” Emma Stone calmly declares late in a retconning origin story that defiantly refuses to set up the events of One Hundred and One Dalmatians as we know them. Yes, Stone’s Cruella is brilliant when it comes to fashion. No, she is not born bad. Nor is she a little bit mad. She is more of a wild-child maverick with enough of an eccentric streak to put England’s polite society on edge. Unlike Maleficent, which stumbled mightily in its bid to present its antagonist as a misunderstood outsider, Cruella succeeds in repositioning its black-and-white haired Vivienne Westwood wannabe as a sympathetic casualty of her sad past. This is not to say that Cruella behaves admirably throughout this 134-minute account of her rise to notoriety. That would not be much fun. So there are many times when Cruella acts downright devilish toward the object of her ire as well those in her corner. But invaluable life lessons are learned along the way for the young woman raised without parents. Yes, this Cruella—with the birthname Estella—is an orphan, one who survives the London of the Swinging Sixties with the help of her closest friends and future henchmen, Jasper and Horace (played as adults with comic precision by In the Earth’s Joel Fry and I, Tonya’s Paul Walter Hauser). How and why Cruella is orphaned after watching her mother die not only informs every second of director Craig Gillespie’s fast, flashy and stylish revenge saga but also explains why she so despises Dalmatians. Working from a smart and rascally script by Dana Fox and Tony McNamara, Gillespie takes great delight in pitting Cruella against her ruthless mentor, Emma Thompson’s highly influential fashion designer Baroness von Hellman. Estella assumes the role of her alter-ego Cruella to bring down the Baroness, whom she suspects was involved in her mother’s untimely demise. Cruella derives much of its fun from watching Stone and Thompson lock horns. Adopting a withering posh English accent, and glammed up as the newest l'enfant terrible of the fashion world, Stone makes for a cool and calculating Cruella. One who wants to shock the establishment not with callous behavior but with outrageous public antics aimed at placing the spotlight on her and away from her nemesis. Thompson counters with a stinging wit, haughty demeanor, and intoxicating panache that makes her Baroness the richest and most fiendish villain in a family film since Hugh Grant’s Phoenix Buchanan of Paddington 2. Gillespie knows better than to get in Stone and Thompson’s way. So he focuses his attention on glitter bombing the drab London of the 1970s with a vibrant punk-pop aesthetic and eye-popping designer clothing that perfectly match Cruella’s brash and brazen attitude. At the same time, Gillespie keeps Cruella grounded and oddly realistic in a way that other Disney live-action reimaginings dare not. It is as if Gillespie is less interested in keeping occupied the kids currently being raised on Disney+ but the parents who watched either version of One Hundred and One Dalmatians at the movies or on VHS or DVD. This works for Cruella because it unfolds as a street-level crime caper, one that even indulges in a few impeccably executed Ocean’s 11-style break-ins and heists. And, of course, there are no talking animals. Gillespie also cannily employs a triple album-worth of rock and pop classics of the 1960s and 1970s not just to evoke a sense of time and place but to also perfectly complement the audacious tone and the swift pace of this sophisticated study in vengeance. “People do need a villain to believe in, so I am happy to fit the bill,” Cruella proclaims deeps into her public campaign to first humiliate and then to ruin the Baroness. Disney obviously does not believe in Cruella de Vil as a villain, at least not when it comes to carrying a $200 million live-action prequel. Which is fine. If you want the mad, bad, and dangerous to know Cruella de Vil, Glenn Close will always be there for you. Emma Stone’s Cruella is cut from a different cloth. As Cruella herself notes, she still has “much to avenge, revenge, and destroy.” And she does so in her indomitable fashion. Robert Sims Aired: June 3, 2021. Web sites: https://movies.disney.com/cruella https://www.facebook.com/DisneyCruellaDeVil |
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