Review of Cruella (2021) by Theredsky — 04 Jun 2021

A film that I was surprised that I enjoyed. Disney Live Action remakes have never been my thing as you all know but there was something just very entertaining about this one. Whether it was ironic or unironic enjoyment, I enjoyed it just the same.

The film does have a lot that is good about it particularly Emma Stone’s performance. While it’s far from her best, she still did a good job. The film rides on her performance and she did a great job capturing the essence of Cruella.

However, there is an issue with sympathy. Most of us know that Cruella goes on to try and skin dogs and the film does try and make us empathize with here. While it isn’t a big issue, it’s a little awkward at points.

If this was a new character, then this issue wouldn’t be there. Paul Walter Hauser brought a nice sense of levity to the film and his comedic timing and the jokes I made I found to be pretty hilarious compared to everyone else.

Most of the other humor feel really flat for me. All of the other performances are fine. Emma Thompson’s performance felt pretty flat in a lot of areas especially where she is supposed to react. The script has a ton of issues with plot holes especially toward the end along with some pretty awkward dialogue.

There were some laugh out loud moments in the film that I don’t think intended to be like that at all. I noticed that there were a lot of similarities to Joker (2019) in here which took me off guard in relation to mental illness and even down to a song choice from the trailer of Joker.

At that point, it felt very on the nose about its other source of inspiration. The soundtrack was good but there were points where I wished that they hadn’t used music and the cinematography was pretty nice at points but bland overall.

Some of the CGI was really bad at times but fine for the most part and I really enjoyed the costume design. The costume design is the one aspect this film can pride itself in. This films begs the question, “Was it necessary”.

The answer? Not really but it was fun anyway. If you want a good Emma Stone performance or enjoy these remakes then you’ll probably like this but if you don’t like these remakes then pass on this.