Craig Gillespie reprises many of the themes of I, Tonya (2017) for his updating of Dodie Smith’s character of Cruella de Vil. Cruella (2021) is a kind of intersection of blockbuster trends, combining the re-branding impulse of Maleficent (2014) with the critical credibility of Joker (2019). But Cruella only has a passing, superficial connection to these films and seems to be drawing water from the same well as Anna Biller and Elvira: Mistress Of The Dark (1988).
More than anything Cruella is about fun; the fun one gets from watching actors enjoy themselves as they ham it up and don some awesome attire. Emma Stone and Emma Thompson are the singular culprits in this respect. Each actor very clearly savors their shenanigans. Thompson and Stone bite into their roles with such relish that it’s almost impossible to look away from them.
Cruella never set out to be a masterpiece which is also part of its charm. It is classic escapism that avoids enough of the “Disney” cliches to feel relatively fresh in the moment. Personally I haven’t had this much fun seeing a Disney movie in theaters in years. It will never be a classic, but it might become a minor cult film for a generation of youngsters.
