Cruella (2021)

 

Like most people, I love a good villain.

Villains are fun. They get the best songs, the best lines and they’re deliciously evil. I don’t rule for the villains personally, but I love when they give the heroes a challenge.

Cruella is definitely not a villain I would root for she does kill innocent puppies after all, but she’s so iconic. She’s also so deranged and over the top fun.

Emma Stone plays Cruella in Cruella which is meant to serve as her origin story.

It’s fun, but not great. It can also be way shorter than it is. 

Cruella was born Estella. As a young girl she was constantly getting into trouble, until ultimately she’s kicked out of her school causing her and her mom to move to London.

Not surprisingly Cruella ends up an orphan in a manner not meant to be funny, but honestly is. While on the streets she meets two other orphans Horace (Paul Walter Hauser) and Jasper (Joel Fry) and the three team up becoming petty thieves.

Cruella does what she must to survive, but her dream is to become a fashion designer and become as great as The Baroness (Emma Thompson).

In an unexpected turn of events, Estella is hired by the Baroness and thus begins her journey of going from Estella to Cruella.

The film is packed with long voice overs and way too long fashion montages and I wish the focus had been on just Cruella. 

The film shows the evil Cruella we all know and love while also trying to prove that she’s not all bad. This is my main issue with the live action villain films we’ve gotten so far. 

These films try to redeem these villains so much that they almost get rid of what makes these villains so fun. I don’t need to see that Cruella might be a good person underneath that tough exterior. I want to know how she became evil.

Thompson and Stone are both great, though. The Baroness is very one dimensional though.

Stone seems to be having an absolute blast in the role. She’s over the top, but quite nuanced and understated when she has to be.

The dogs are absolute scene stealers. The best character in the whole film is the one eyed chihuahua, Wink.

The costumes and the soundtrack also stand out for being absolutely phenomenal.

The film is entertaining. As it gets to the end though, it feels like it’ll never come to an end.

Cruella was better than I expected it to be, but a Cruella origin story it is not.

3/5 stars ✨