Cruella (2021)

★1/2

When we look back in 50 years at the age of IP in films, we’ll look fondly at The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Marvel movies. But when we examine the decline of our cinematic period, the first film on the list should not be a bad teen dystopian adaptation or the mediocre extensions of preexisting franchises. It should be Cruella, a truly awful film that fails to justify its own existence.

Cruella is an attempt to create a sympathetic backstory for a horrific animal abuser. Estella, played by Emma Stone, is orphaned at an early age and is forced to join up with London street urchins as she pursues a life of crime. Still, she maintains her dream of being a famous fashion designer. She begins working for The Baroness – who is essentially a more evil version of Meryl Streep’s character from The Devil Wears Prada – and challenges current fashion norms to the tune of British punk rock as she devolves into a dark antihero.

 

There are a couple of pleasant things in what is otherwise a mess of a movie. Emma Stone is really “going for it,” and that’s the only thing that kept me from turning the whole thing off halfway through. She does a decent job embodying the iconic villain and makes me wish she had done a movie about a crazed fashion up-and-comer as opposed to this one. The other thing that works here is the costume and set design. The outfits are as they should be in a film focused on fashion – bombastic, eye-catching, and a little absurd in the best possible way. Oh, and there are some cute dogs – none of which are murdered, thank heaven.

But no amount of good lead acting or flashy costume work can make up for what is a nonsensical and infuriating storyline. The ploy is confusingly both completely random and totally predictable. Without wholly spoiling anything important, the story plays out with a bizarre parentage reveal not worthy of a daytime soap opera, a number of attempted murders that seem unbecoming of a Disney movie, and some truly awful voiceover (note to those who make movies: if you need someone explain your plot via voiceover, then it’s probably not a good movie to begin with). 

The most cringeworthy moment for me was at the end when The Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” plays as Cruella has finally won. On the nose much? The song illustrates the biggest problem with the film – how do you take a canonically selfish, evil character and make her relatable and likable? At least with Maleficent, Disney’s other attempt at rehabilitating a villain, the underlying story leaves some ambiguity as to why the villain is evil. Here, Cruella’s backstory is sad and certainly explains a life of petty thievery, there is no plausible exculpatory explanation for how her troubled past and results in her animal cruelty in One Hundred and One Dalmatians. 

It’s sad that this is what we get despite the great talent in the lead role and a truly iconic villain. I would have liked to see a version of Cruella where Estella seems like a misunderstood antihero, but in the end realizes that, in the eyes of others, she is a monster driven by hatred, ambition, and revenge. That movie would have done the character justice and given us something creative and unique as opposed to this barely-watchable disaster of writing and execution.