Review of Cruella (2021) by Moviemitch96 — 29 May 2021

An origin story on how Cruella de Vil came to be, this film stars Emma Stone as Estella, a girl with a tragic past who starts out innocent, but through acts of vengeance and intuition, rises through the ranks and against her scheming fashion designer boss (played by a very nasty Emma Thompson) to become one of Disney's most frightening and recognizable villains.

Stone's casting in the titular role had me excited for this film from the very get go, as she's undoubtedly one of my favorite actresses. And man, did she deliver! She blew this film right out of the park with her supremely confident, charming, but equally sadistic performance! She's EASILY the best part of the whole film, just as I'd suspected she'd be! Thompson also delivers what's undoubtedly her most sinister and intimidating performance to date as the main villain of the film.

Storywise, while it does follow a lot of the familiar tropes and beats of a prequel/origin story, things are kept pretty fresh for the most part thanks to several elaborate set pieces and spectacles throughout.

The production design and costume design were the next biggest highlight for me. Surprisingly, there's also a pretty killer classic rock soundtrack that accompanied this film that never felt hokey or distracting at all.

It actually made the film feel pretty hip and cool in an unforced way somehow, which, like I said, really surprised me. Overall though, despite the formulaic origin story approach, my expectations for this were actually exceeded a little bit, due largely in part to Stone's absolutely amazing lead performance (seriously, she's reason enough to check this film out!), as well as the captivating production and costume design throughout.