Cruella
Director: Craig Gillespie
Writer: Dana Fox, Tony McNamara, Aline Brosh McKenna, Kelly Marcel, Steve Zissis, Dodie Smith (original author)
Starring: Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser (the cool dude from Cobra Kai), John McCrea, Mark Strong (I actually forgot he was in this)
Reason for watching: new release and watching live-action remakes of Disney classics is always a trip
Number of times I’ve watched it: one
***
Conceptually I know that these live-action remakes of classic Disney movies have one purpose: MAKE. THEM. SOME. BIG. MONEY. It’s not that these movies are poor in quality, I actually enjoy The Jungle Book remake quite a lot. But Disney at its core is a business with a bottom line to meet. How else are they going to keep a park open, continue making movies, and make more of The Mandalorian? But if you let a star like Emma Stone do her thing enough, you might end up with a pretty enjoyable movie regardless. You still make your money (or gain subscribers to Disney +), and the viewer gets a decent viewing experience. That’s what Cruela does.
Plot-wise, we’ve got a standard story going on here. Estella (Emma Stone) is an orphan who grew up on the streets of London in the 1970s. She has a passion for fashion designing, but she also runs hustles to survive with her two friends Jasper (Joel Fry) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser). Eventually, her passion gets her a job working a fashion icon, The Baroness (Emma Thompson). Pushed to prove herself, Estella takes on the persona of Cruella to show off her capabilities to The Baroness. Their rivalry grows until it pushes past fashion competition and people’s lives are at stake.
The strongest point this movie has going for it is Emma Stone as Cruella. Letting one of the most charismatic actresses take center screen as a bizarre fashion designer with a pension for mischief is a recipe for success. She’s fun and interesting to watch in this role, and Emma Thompson goes toe to toe with her. Their scenes together are great, especially when juxtapose the two personas Stone plays. Particularly there is a nice montage scene where we see Cruella’s various fashion creations and her showing up The Baroness’ designs.
What takes me out of the movie is the mismatch of the setting of the movie and the aura the movie tries to have. Tries to make a specific period of London and mash it with a lot of rock music makes for an interesting combination. I suppose it is not objectively bad. But it seems more like something done to sell t-shirts at Hot Topic and rather than making a quality movie. Also, there seems to be a lot of stuff cut out of this movie that’s already two hours and fourteen minutes long. Particularly there seems to be a cut love story between Cruella and Jasper.
It’s still a good time overall, but I think this movie was a good choice to go straight to Disney +. For being made for $200 million and coming out the same weekend as A Quiet Place: Part II, it probably was a good idea to offer it to people in their homes in exchange for $30. But somehow Luca (the next major Pixar release) is gonna be free on Disney +. I don’t understand how Disney makes these decisions sometimes. I know they’re all for the money, but it seems like they don’t always seem like they’re motivated by it. Maybe they’re just a stupid monopoly? I don’t know. Cruella was decent. Watch it if you want.
6/10
Until I see another one