DIRECTED BY: CRAIG GILLESPIE
STARRING: EMMA STONE, EMMA THOMPSON, & PAUL WALTER HAUSER
RATED PG-13 FOR SOME VIOLENCE AND THEMATIC ELEMENTS
LENGTH: 134 MINUTES
Disney's trend of turning their classic animated library continues to chug along, earning the studio billions in the process. Their classic film 101 Dalmatians was already one of their first films to get the live-action treatment with a 1996 film starring Glenn Close which went on to score a sequel in 2000 cleverly titled 102 Dalmatians. So instead of remaking the film again, Disney decided to give the title the Maleficent treatment and would give the film's iconic villainess Cruella De Vil her own origin film. The film has quite the amount of talent behind it from Academy Award Winners Emma Stone and Emma Thompson toplining the film as well as I, Tonya filmmaker directing.
Set in 70s London, Cruella follows Estella (Stone), an orphan with a hot streak for mischief alongside her makeshift family Horace and Jasper (Paul Walter Hauser & Joel Fry). The truth is, Estella wants more than just a life of hijinks, her passion and talent in fashion has been apparent since childhood. She finally gets a chance to show off her talent when she is hired to work for the demanding and remorseless Baroness (Thompson). Though when Estella's past starts to resurface with ties to the Baroness, she starts a war of wits and fashion, leading to the creation of her alter ego Cruella.
While Cruella certainly had a lot going for it, it also had a lot going against it. While most are extremely successful financially, plenty of Disney's live-action reboots fail to recapture the magic of what made the animated pics so special. They either stay to close to the source material or stray far away. Cruella is able to walk the tightrope perfectly, it's able to be it's own thing without betraying what came before. Gillespie gives the film a similar energy to what he brought with I, Tonya, proving that he was the perfect choice as the director. From the editing style, the cinematography, the production design, and especially Jenny Beavan's extravagant costume design, it's undeniable that there was a lot of passion behind Cruella. Nothing feels overly manufactured and when it treads into cliched territory the film addresses it with a wink and a nod.
Stone makes for a fantastic Cruella, she never tries to replicate what Close did in the previous live action films and instead puts her own spin on the character. She nails the unpredictability and the madness of the character while also carrying enough charisma that makes it easy to follow along with her, even when her actions are questionable, to say the least. Thompson is also great as the antagonistic Baroness delivering a sharp performance that is right up her alley. Fry and Hauser are also a delight here and they share strong chemistry with each other as well as with Stone.
Cruella does run a bit too long clocking in over two hours, despite this the film never necessarily feels boring. While the film's 70s-centric soundtrack is impressive (and obviously cost the studio a pretty penny), the constant needle-drops do get a bit distracting. The movie does start off a bit rough as well and but it quickly is able to pick itself back up.
Out of all of Disney's live-action retellings, Cruella is near the top. It's noticeably darker than one would expect, the production quality is impressive, and the cast is stellar. It's not without it's issues but it's one of the biggest surprises of the year.
4/5 Stars
Cruella is now playing in theaters and is available to stream on Disney+ Premiere Access for $30.