CRUELLA IS A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

 note: this review was written June 13

Cruella is certainly...different. It's definitely not what I was expecting from a Disney villain origin film. Emma Stone is great, though her Cruella doesn't really feel like the Cruella from either 101 Dalmatians film (The scene after her coming out as Cruella where she is driving her car is perfection though). Emma Stone definitely steals scenes throughout the entire film and her performance was top notch, so I don't necessarily blame her for the issues I have with the character, but more so on the script and what it gave Ms. Stone to work with.

Emma Thompson plays Baroness Hellman, a popular London fashion designer who takes Estella/Cruella under her wing. Hellman is without a doubt the best modern day Disney villain I've seen. She fits into the classic Disney Rogues gallery quite well. Joel Fry brought a surprising amount of heart and empathy to the role of Jasper, and Paul Walter Hauser was also great fun as Horace (He definitely resembled the classic Horace from the cartoon).

Cruella is not a great Disney film, but it is certainly pretty memorable thanks to superb cinematography by Nicolas Karakatsanis, editing by Tatiana S. Riegal, set design by Alice Felton, and costume design by Jenny Beavan. Cruella is set mostly in the 70s, and some striking clothing styles are featured throughout the movie. The sets can be incredibly visually appealing as well. Craig Gillespie (of I, Tonya fame) directs, and he brings an Indie sensibility, a punk-rock vibe, and an intense energy to the proceedings. Cruella is also bursting at the seams with great song choices (It uses music in a similar way to Suicide Squad), although it can get tiring after a while and some of the selections are a little too on the nose (Sympathy For The Devil as the closing song, for example). The film isn't afraid to get dark, mean, and "out-there" at times as well.

My biggest complaints with the film are it gets more than a little silly at times, it's not very faithful to the classic character or source material, and that Cruella isn't especially evil here (she also hasn't yet acquired her propensity for fur). At the end of the day, Cruella is the story of how a poor working class girl became the biggest fashion designer in London, and how she adopts the Cruella moniker and persona because it is more true to who she really is. There are also some very odd similarities to events seen in 101 Dalmatians, although this is indeed a prequel (There's an end credits scene too that only further convolutes things). There are enough visually striking, stand-out, WOW scenes that Cruella makes for an easy recommendation, although in the end it doesn't fully work as an origin story for the classic villain.

3 STARS