"Cruella" fashionable and sometimes fun to watch without making a case for itself

Cruella (2021)

Have you ever lost sleep wondering about the backstory of one Cruella de Vil? How did she ever become a maniacal fashionista, so roundly obsessed with spots and fur to dognap and then skin puppies? How did she meet her henchmen? And, above all, where did she get that cigarette holder? You think you know, but you have no idea. Not without conceptual intrigue, “Cruella” is the latest live-action refresh of Disney’s classic library. This time a revisionist origin story, it bends over backward to explore the pathology of the skunk-haired “101 Dalmatians” villain and make her misunderstood or vaguely sympathetic. While 2014’s “Maleficent” admittedly got away with softening the evil-horned fairy by seeing the story from her vantage point, some villains are probably just better left as villains and not demystified. This isn’t to say that there isn’t fun to be had in "the rise of Cruella de Vil," from two talented Emmas relishing their camped-up performances to Jenny Beavan’s fabulous costume design. In spite of those pleasures, “Cruella” miscalculates in its half-measures to make the protagonist also the antagonist, struggling to reconfigure Cruella into a complicated, interestingly wicked figure who’s root-worthy but beloved to be hated. 

In what eventually becomes a revenge caper, “Cruella” starts from the cradle in 1960s London. Before becoming the Cruella we all know, the young fashion designer in training was born a rebel (and a dog lover) as Estella (played by Tipper Seifert-Cleveland). After her Cruella side gets her expelled from school, Estella witnesses her mum (Emily Beecham)—and this is a Disney property, so it's not a spoiler—meet her demise, being pawed off a cliff by a certain spotted canine breed. Now an orphan, Estella soon befriends Horace (Paul Walter Hauser) and Jasper (Joel Fry) and learns the art of pickpocketing and how to scrape by as a conning street urchin. As she reaches adulthood, Estella (taken over by Emma Stone) is bored by this con-artist lifestyle, until locking down a job as a cleaner at a luxury department store. After the vandalization of a storefront window, her brazen, trend-setting style catches the eye of snippy, filthy-rich fashion designer The Baroness (Emma Thompson). This leads to Estella designing for The Baroness, only to tap into her incorrigible alter ego Cruella, nabbing the spotlight and making her older competitor yesterday’s news. Might the Baroness also be the designer of Estella's childhood misery?

Prancing along even at an overlong 134 minutes, “Cruella” might be the closest Disney has ever gotten to an anarchic glam-punk “All About Eve” and “The Devil Wears Prada” with a touch of “Joker.” There are boldly unpalatable choices—like Cruella’s first exposure to Dalmatians—but director Craig Gillespie (2017’s “I, Tonya”) and writers Dana Fox (2019’s “Isn’t It Romantic”) and Tony McNamara (2018’s “The Favourite”) retrofit what we already know about Cruella into an increasingly one-note story that can be boiled down to Mommy Issues. All of the right creatives seem to be attached (and borrowing from themselves), but their attempts feel like a Mad Libs exercise, tenuously based upon the novel “The One Hundred and One Dalmatians” by Dodie Smith. Estella flits between being Cruella, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-style, somehow pulling the wool over the Baroness’ eyes in a Clark Kent/Superman situation. When the big plot reveals come to apparently dig into the pain and betrayal Estella has experienced—and showcase how she can cheat death with a lot of elaborate planning—one is more eye-rollingly obvious and contrived than the last. 

When Cruella becomes the toast of 1970s, London and keeps upstaging the Baroness at red carpets to make a high-fashion statement with flashy, edgy surprise pageantry, the film can be devilish fun. Cruella being dumped out of a garbage truck, revealing the trash to be part of her long gown train, is quite clever, as is the setup to a punk concert/fashion show. These scenes also allow time to luxuriate the varying looks and top-of-the-line work of Jenny Beavan. Going over-budget with his soundtrack at every opportunity he gets, director Gillespie never misses a needle drop, including everything from Zombies and The Clash to Blondie, Nancy Sinatra, and Nina Simone. The songs themselves are great on their own, but the wall-to-wall placement of them can often be willy-nilly, anachronistic distractions. 

Cruella de Vil has always been an over-the-top cartoon, played to vampy magnificence by Glenn Close in the 1996 live-action remake of “101 Dalmatians" (and its 2000 sequel). Flamboyantly coiffed and irresistible even as a possible psychopath, Emma Stone brings a whole lot of life, cheekiness, and vulnerability to Estrella/Cruella, perhaps more than this script deserves. Any hint of pathos and shading to understand Estella’s dark Cruella side is all Stone’s doing. Truth be told, the divine Emma Thompson steals the entire show, understanding the assignment and nailing it. The true villain of the piece is actually the Baroness, and Thompson deliciously plays her to slyly tart, withering, bitingly funny perfection. It’s fun to watch Thompson having fun, from the tiniest bit of side-eye or a comic subtlety in her delivery, whether the Baroness is blowing away a single moth off her shoulder, popping a champagne cork in a waiter’s eye, or trying out a taser on her entire staff. Joel Fry and Paul Water Hauser also provide just enough unexpected humanity and endear as Jasper and Horace, who are more than just bumbling imbeciles. 

“Cruella” cannot exist in a vacuum even as a retconned prequel, and it does not make a proper case for itself. It does at least go in and out with style, and everyone involved seems to be having a hoot. If there were to be a sequel—which “Cruella” certainly tees up with gossip columnist and Cruella’s childhood classmate Anita Darling (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) and the Baroness’ lawyer Roger (Kayvan Novak)—there would need to be a few more steps taken to make the jump and earn Cruella’s complete turnaround. How “Cruella” handles the proverbial Dalmatian in the room is addressed; there’s only the winking suggestion that Cruella might have killed the three Dalmatians owned by the Baroness to make a coat, as she’s not quite there yet in her madness. If "Cruella" was supposed to justify its antihero/villain's later actions, the filmmakers dogged it. Now, because it’s inevitable, when’s Ursula getting her origin story, darling?

Grade: C +

Disney is releasing “Cruella” (134 min.) in theaters and on Disney+ through Premier Access.