Cruella
In 1970s London amidst the punk rock revolution, a young grifter named Estella is determined to make a name for herself with her designs. She befriends a pair of young thieves who appreciate her appetite for mischief, and together they are able to build a life for themselves on the London streets. One day, Estella’s flair for fashion catches the eye of the Baroness von Hellman, a fashion legend who is devastatingly chic and terrifyingly haute. But their relationship sets in motion a course of events and revelations that will cause Estella to embrace her wicked side and become the raucous, fashionable and revenge-bent Cruella.
- Released: 2021-05-26
- Runtime: 134 minutes
- Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Crime
- Stars: Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser, Mark Strong, Tipper Seifert-Cleveland, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Emily Beecham, John McCrea, Kayvan Novak, Jamie Demetriou, Abraham Popoola, Leo Bill, Javone Prince, Steve Edge, Paul Chowdhry, Ziggy Gardner, Joseph MacDonald, Niamh Lynch, Andrew Leung, Ed Birch, Dylan Lowe, Paul Bazely, Ninette Finch, Sarah Crowden, Harrison Willmott, Jack Barry, Asmara Gabrielle, Tom Turner, Crystal Wingx, Radhesh Aria, Tony McCarthy, John Wolfe, Haruka Abe
- Director: Craig Gillespie
Comments
- mafiagirl-21431 - 20 May 2024
Disney's female Joker movie
I'm conflicted on this one, while the cinematography is great, the outfits are absolutely immaculate and it's definitely one of those movies you would call a "female Joker movie" (and yes i count that as a positive), I just can't get over its major flaws.
Before I get into it though, there's something I gotta mention cuz this has been bothering me, no this movie isn't "gender obsessed" and I don't see how anyone would think that, gender is actually barely a factor in the movie. And even if it was, so what? Women should be able to talk about their problems in movies without men on the internet crying about it.
Anyway so first, the movie doesn't become somewhat enjoyable until Emma Stone shows up, cuz the whole opening with young Cruella was just not good and I feel it didn't fit with the rest of the movie all that much, it might only have been there to set up the "twist" reveal later on.
Second, speaking of the opening, dalmatiens killing Cruella's mother is so damn stupid, I almost respect it. Not just because it's so stupid, but also because I didn't expect an on screen death so bravo for that, I guess.
Third, the reveal is not all that surprising for anyone who's seen movies before, which I'm guessing is not the target audience because some of the scenes in there were a bit too dark for younger kids so yeah, I'm not completely sure as to who this movie is for. I doubt most teens are all that into 101 dalmatiens so... What, is the target audience Disney adults? Actually, that's the target audience for most Disney movies nowadays, isn't it.
But seriously, the twist of the Baroness being Cruella's biological mother really is something I didn't care for and then there was the twist that the death of her other mother was actually the fault of the Baroness, making the villain of the movie... the woman we already knew was the villain of the movie, how thrilling.
Although for as much crap I'm giving this movie, it's still pretty fun, not great of course but fun nonetheless and I guess that's enough for some people, so I'm not gonna pretend I don't get the appeal, I just wish I liked it more.
However, I do think that one of the things stopping it from being a total dumpster fire is Emma Stone, who's amazing in everything she's in (even if I wish she got to be more evil), along with Emma Thompson and the stunning wardrobe they both get to be in. The soundtrack is nothing amazing but it's mostly songs I like so it gets a pass.
Really, when you look at other Disney live actions remakes (yes I'm counting this as one even if it's technically not a remake of anything) like the Lion king remake or the mulan remake, this is not the worst one by a long shot and I wouldn't have any problem revisiting it later, just not anytime soon. - TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews - 5 February 2024
Am I going to have to catch you up a lot, or can you keep up?
Like with Maleficent, of course such an iconic animated(she has appeared in two of them, and three live action feature films, very high) Disney villain had to get a movie where they are the entire focus. And of course that's not the massive corporation's brand, and they're terrified of alienating customers. So instead what they do is turn these pure evil entities into misunderstood, misrepresented complicated individuals. This is of course extremely important for the feminist movement. But on account of it clearly being wokewashing by people who don't actually believe in those values. And just the fact that these two really don't fit this sort of thing. And for all this does to make us not hate the one female antagonist, it gives us another one, in the power napping, perpetually rude, impossibly narcissistic girl boss Baroness of verbal assassination. Pitting women against one another is patriarchal. So is there actually any progress being made?
I do appreciate that it fully embraces the fashionista aspect rather than running away from it(as it of course does with the animal cruelty, other than an unintentionally hilarious attempt at justifying the canine theft by making her mom die at the paws of Dalmatians. They also give her a puppy. The hatred of wealth, remains with this bending over backwards to explain that, no, don't worry, she's not the one who has the money that, like in real life, turns people, well, cruel) and this is actually the first time that gets a positive depiction(not to mention the inclusion of a gay man involved with it). It's seen by many as something primarily for women by misogynists who just look for excuses to hate 50% of the population and blame them for things they had nothing to do with.
I mean, this thing did have a vision; it's a period piece(with positively stunning costumes, sets, location shooting, needle drops, slang - the whole nine yards) about a poor orphan who joins a duo so all three can be incredible pickpockets, while she hopes to make statements with the clothes she designs and maybe plan a non-zero amount of heists. It absolutely is not what people would have guessed before these details were made public. You might barely even guess the House of Mouse was behind this, if not for a few giveaways. Few jokes actually land, despite both halves of the Emma-off displaying tremendous comedic chops elsewhere. At least they do deliver amazing performances and remain impossible to take your eyes off, even if this is very different from the Glenn Close version in most ways, until almost the halfway point. This rarely pushes the CG past what they can make seamless. Why does Jasper go from being an African American kid to a white adult? Are they saying being black is something you grow out of? For all that this does that is interesting and even at times absolutely astonishing, at the end of the day it's just impossible for it to completely escape the fact that everyone watching knows that either this is meant to lead up to (and maybe justify), or simply going to craft a completely new path from, the original in which Cruella dog naps 99 puppies in order to have them killed because she wants a fur coat. 8/10.
