A live-action feature film following the evil exploits of Cruella de Vil, the villain from the Disney film, “101 Dalmatians.”
Disney cashing in on their own well-known properties has become tiresome, to say the least. The studio’s list of live-action remakes goes on and on: “101 Dalmatians,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Maleficent,” “Cinderella,” “The Jungle Book,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Dumbo,” “Aladdin,” “The Lion King,” “Lady and the Tramp,” “Mulan” — and I’m not even including the sequels, or the Star Wars / Marvel properties, or the plethora of upcoming titles.
Craig Gillespie’s “Cruella” stands out from the bunch, if only a teensy bit, due to having the courage of its convictions. Yes, it’s a prequel of sorts to “101 Dalmatians,” and a blatant exploitation of our collective nostalgia. It also happens to be quite dark and macabre, rarely pandering to its audience in the ways other films of its ilk have. With its fiercely committed central performance and a relentless drive, dare I say “Cruella” intermittently approaches badass status.
The general outline of the plot is obvious: how did Cruella become Cruella? According to Gillespie and his team of writers (one of whom happens to be the Oscar-nominated Tony McNamara), she wasn’t always “Cruella.” They trace the origin of the character’s name in fun ways (particularly her last name), but it all begins with the young troublemaker Estella (Tipper Seifert-Cleveland), who has an affinity for fashion, being ostracized at school because of her naturally dual-colored hair.
Being who she is, Estella fights back, until she’s expelled and has to leave town with kindly mom Catherine (Emily Beecham). After witnessing Catherine’s brutal (for a kid’s movie) murder — which involves Dalmatians — the traumatized Estella joins two street thieves and grows up into Emma Stone.
Her partners-in-crime, Jasper (Joel Fry) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser) have become accustomed to Estella being the leader. But petty crime is not enough for her. When a chance encounter with ruthless fashion mogul The Baroness (Emma Thompson) lands her a job as one of the designers, Estella can’t believe her luck. But then secrets involving her past, a certain necklace, and the Baroness herself surface, spurring Estella to take further action and morph into Cruella — a nationwide sensation, a deranged fashion icon, challenging The Baroness for the Trend Throne. This split-personality takes over, affecting Estella/Cruella’s relationship with her “fam.” It all ends in a showdown at a ball filled with Cruellas. Don’t ask.
Imagine Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn invading the offices of David Frankel’s “The Devil Wears Prada,” and you’ll have a pretty clear idea of what to expect. Stone certainly channels Robbie’s tongue-in-cheek, violent rascal, but imbues the character with more warmth, earning our empathy despite her immoral deeds; her Estella/Cruella is haunted, whereas Quinn mostly does what she does for the hell of it. Stone proves she can handle a tentpole blockbuster with ease, by turns sly and sophisticated, tormented and ambitious.
On the other end, we have Miranda Priestly doppelgänger, Emma Thompson’s The Barones. The stalwart hams it up in the best way possible, building upon her similar, albeit less eccentric, performance in Nisha Ganatra’s “Late Night.” She’s effortlessly magnetic.
Gillespie — a filmmaker primarily known for indies like “Lars and the Real Girl” and “I, Tonya” — side-steps clichés as much as the studio bigwigs seem to have let him. Estella/Cruella’s potential romance with Jasper is flirted with but purposefully never dwelled on, and thank God for that. Unless I’m seeing what I want to see, the filmmaker also sneaks in a sly allegory about our infatuation with fads and trends and the destructive nature of said obsession.
The highlights, however, come in the competition between the two leads, Cruella crashing The Baroness’s shows and parties in the most outrageous ways imaginable — my favorite being Cruella’s appearance in a trash truck, her gorgeous garbage dress unfolding as she drives away. Major props to Costume Designer Jenny Beavan, as well as the Makeup team.
Suspension of disbelief is a given when watching something like this. The fact that Cruella gets away with 10% of her debauchery is a tough pill to swallow. She stages punk-rock concerts, desecrates property, and at one point shows up in the infamous Dalmatian skin coat, and the cops are either absent or appear too late.
“Cruella” also doesn’t really find a way to work out the Clark Kent syndrome — characters becoming virtually unrecognizable by simply putting on a mask or a pair of glasses. The Baroness should’ve figured it out immediately, but we’re supposed to buy that Cruella’s mannerisms are just so wildly different from Estella’s, no one’s caught on. The ending feels tacked on and perfunctory.
But Gillespie has unexpected style to spare, and he clearly has an affection for his heroine. Out of all the Disney remakes, sequels, prequels, side stories, and reboots, “Cruella” stands close to the top of the pack.
In Select Theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access in most Disney+ markets Friday, May 28th
