Cruella (2021) Disney/Comedy-Drama RT: 134 minutes Rated PG-13 (some violence, thematic elements) Director: Craig Gillespie Screenplay: Dana Fox and Tony McNamara Music: Nicholas Britell Cinematography: Nicolas Karakatsanis Release date: May 28, 2021 (US) Cast: Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser, John McCrea, Emily Beecham, Mark Strong, Kayvan Novak, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Jamie Demetriou, Niamh Lynch, Andrew Leung, Ed Birch, Dylan Lowe. Box Office: $86.1M (US)/$233.5M (World)
Rating: ***
NOTE TO READERS: Although I’m sure we’ll be hearing quite a bit about it in the weeks to come, I’m NOT going to weigh in about the inclusion of an openly gay major character in Cruella, supposedly a first in the history of Disney. I’ll only say I have no problem with it. Let’s move on.
I said it when Maleficent came out and I’ll say it again about Cruella. It’s nice to see that origin stories extend to Disney villains as well as MCU superheroes. As you can surely guess, this one tells the backstory of the dog-hating antagonist of 101 Dalmatians, Cruella de Vil. It follows her from her tragic Dickens-esque childhood to young adulthood where she faces off against the terrible person who ruined her childhood, an evil fashion magnate called “The Baroness”. Cruella is played by Emma Stone (La La Land) while her nemesis is played by Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks). It’s a lot of fun to watch these two wicked women lock horns. It’s like All About Eve with dogs and a 70s soundtrack.
Cruella de Vil wasn’t always Cruella de Vil. She started life as Estella, a gifted but rebellious child with a talent for designing clothes and a penchant for getting into trouble at school. Her mother (Beecham, Into the Badlands) decides the best thing for both of them is starting over in London. On the way, she stops at a mansion to ask the Baroness for some financial assistance. Estella watches in horror as the Baroness orders her ferocious Dalmatians to push her mother off a cliff. The girl manages to escape and make her way to London where she takes up with two young con artists/thieves, Horace and Jasper. Oh, so that’s how the three of them met. Okay.
About ten years later, Horace (Hauser, Richard Jewell) and Jasper (Fry, Game of Thrones) surprise Estella on her birthday by getting her a job at a posh department store. After several instances of being dissed by her boss, she takes the initiative and drunkenly redoes a rather dull window display. It catches the eye of the Baroness who immediately hires the former employee to come work for her. No surprise, she’s a bitch to work for. She routinely abuses and insults employees. However, she takes a liking to Estella and makes her a personal assistant. Not long after, Estella discovers that the Baroness is the one who had her mother killed. She decides to take revenge in the guise of Cruella, a flamboyant rival designer who makes a career out of upstaging her sworn enemy at every turn. It leads to a rivalry that surpasses the one between Margo Channing and Eve Harrington.
Okay, Cruella answers a few burning questions about Cruella de Vil- e.g. the two-colored hair, the origin of her name and her car. What it doesn’t do is draw a clear connection to the Cruella de Vil we know from 101 Dalmatians, both the animated and live-action versions. Specifically, it doesn’t tell us why she hates dogs so much. In fact, she doesn’t hate them at all in Cruella. She has one of her own, a stray she adopted as a child. She’s never mean or abusive towards any dog, not even the ones that killed her mom. How did she go from this to the horrible woman who desires a fur coat made of Dalmatians? Inquiring minds want to know.
The most surprising thing about Cruella is how campy it is. I’ve already mentioned the similarity to All About Eve and how fun it is to watch the two Emmas to butt heads with each other. Both of them tackle their roles with great relish. When she’s in Cruella mode, Stone proves she can tear up the scenery with the best of them. She even manages to keep up with her distinguished co-star, an actress equally at home doing Shakespeare and Disney silliness. I’d also like to give serious props to John McCrea (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie) who plays Artie, an ally of Cruella’s who runs a vintage clothing shop. He’s the openly gay character I mentioned earlier. When he’s on-screen, he’s the life of the party. He does a fun rendition of The Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog”. Hauser and Fry are amusing as Cruella’s dim associates.
I LOVE that Cruella is set in the 60s and 70s. Such a setting means a great soundtrack filled with great oldies like “Five to One” (The Doors), “These Boots Are Made for Walking” (Nancy Sinatra), “Hush” (Deep Purple), “Car Wash” (Rose Royce) and “Sympathy for the Devil” (The Rolling Stones). It also means cool vintage sets, clothing and cars. Director Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya) has an amazing eye for period detail as well as a dark sense of humor. That last one is especially important when trying to find the good side of a Disney villain. I can’t say that Cruella makes us understand her character any better, but we come to love her style. It’s a tasty blend of dark humor and camp which makes me wonder if Gillespie had kids in mind when making the film. All I know is that I enjoyed it.
