Cruella (2021) Review

 "I'm Cruella, born brilliant, born bad, and a little bit mad."

-Cruella de Vil

This origin story shows how Cruella de Vil (Emma Stone) went from being a young pickpocket to becoming the criminal mastermind and fashionable force of nature we all know and love to hate.

I have many bones to pick with this movie and I can't really do that without getting into spoilers.  In short, it's an entertaining enough movie with lots of things to like, but it's a terrible prequel to 101 Dalmatians, which is a movie I love to death.  So, before I air my grievances, I would just like to say, "Spoiler Alert."

What Works:

Off the top, there are some really great performances in this movie.  Emma Stone was a great choice to play Cruella and she gives it her all.  I have a lot of problems with how this character was written, but none of the problems are with Stone's performance.

The main antagonist of the film, Baroness von Hellman (Emma Thompson), is fantastic.  She is basically Cruella before Cruella.  She's nasty, evil, murderous, and a bit crazy.  The rivalry between the two of them is definitely the high point of the movie.  I love all of the scenes where Cruella messes with the Baroness' plans.

When I heard Paul Walter Hauser was cast to play Horace, I was so happy.  He's a perfect fit for the role and he doesn't disappoint.  He's one of the best character actors in the business and I don't think anyone could have done a better job.

Finally, the costume design is spectacular.  Fashion is a key component of the film, so I would expect nothing less, but it's still some fantastic stuff.  I'm not even into fashion at all, and I was blown away by some of Cruella's looks.  

What Sucks:

This movie has a lot of problems that come from its core.  Let's start with our main character.  Cruella de Vil is an evil, wicked, attempted puppy murderer.  She's one of Disney's nastiest villains.  However, she is very interesting and entertaining.  It makes her an excellent villain.  The problem is, this movie tries to make Cruella a likable and sympathetic character, with a few personality quirks.  SHE WANTS TO MURDER DOGS!   There isn't any coming back from that!  This movie really needed to double down on having this nasty character as the protagonist, but just make the antagonist someone worse or even just having a villain protagonist win.

What the film tries to do instead is give Cruella an inner conflict between her natural evil desires and her mother's wish that she try to be a good person.  Ok, that's another route you can go, but you have to make that balance work.  Show more of Cruella's inner conflict.  The story can be about her swinging back and forth between good and evil, but in the end she chooses the dark side.  It could work as a tragedy.  Unfortunately, the balance isn't really struck.  They try to make her a mix of both with her apologizing to Jasper (Joel Fry) and Horace for her behavior, yet still being a badass bitch.  It makes me wonder if the filmmakers have ever seen 101 Dalmatians.  The way Cruella treats everyone else is very different and it doesn't jive with the character.  This would have been fine if the the movie at least ended with Cruella going full evil, but it doesn't.

The character assassination doesn't stop with just Cruella.  Jasper is one of my favorite henchmen in any movie ever.  He's arrogant, violent, funny, and wants to kill puppies.  This guy is just as despicable as Cruella, he just has more of a sense of humor.  In this movie, Jasper is absolutely nothing like the original character.  He's a thief with a heart of gold and is more than a little bland.  I read that actor Joel Fry intentionally didn't look back at Jasper's original depiction.  He really should have.

Another note; Cruella, Jasper, and Horace are all dog lovers in the film.  They have dogs with them at all times and they even take part in their various schemes.  You're telling me these three dog lovers eventually attempt to murder 99 puppies?  Bulls**t.  Have these filmmakers ever met a dog lover?  It's an easy fix!  Make them hate dogs!  Done!

Finally, there are a lot of unnecessary references to the upcoming events of 101 Dalmatians.  Anita (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) is a supporting player in the film, which is totally fine.  But why is Roger (Kayvan Novak) in this movie?  All he does is help set up what is to come.  He could have been completely cut from the film and nothing would have changed.  And the final scene reveals that Cruella actually was the one who gave Anita and Roger Perdita and Pongo.  I just don't buy it.

Verdict:

Cruella is a decently entertaining movie with some solid performances from Stone, Thompson, and Hauser and the costume design is fantastic, but this is a terrible prequel to 101 Dalmatians.  The story is flawed from the start with some egregious and disappointment character assassinations.  I can think of 101 ways to write a Cruella de Vil origin story and all of them are better than this movie.

 5/10: Meh