Cruella (2021)

[Eric Loves Rey]

Discuss

[Cap]

I won't front, I did not expect to like this as much as I did.

 

I'm also laughing at all of the chatter in the BOT Chat about "it has Disney's first gay character".  Girl, more like Disney's first gay movie.  Or at least "let's give the queers EVERYTHING they love" gay movie.  FASHION? Check.  FOUND FAMILY? Check.  DRAG? Check. CAMP ACTING? Check. FABULOUS BITCHY WOMEN? Check.  DOGS? Check Check. SOUNDS OF BOPS? Check.  Like other than Chris Evans' face this film is my laundry list of favorite content.

 

And DID I MENTION THE SERVES?

 

 

This woman is goddess.

 

Yeah, this is definitely my favorite Disney Live-Action remake, other than Branagh's Cinderella.  All of the characters are fun.  The movie takes its time getting the relationships right.  It's just a solid romp all around.  It wasn't a carbon copy of the original.  It definitely has its own agenda and vibe, while still having some fun references to the original. 

 

Spoiler

Having Anita's last name be "Darling" was :chefkiss:

 

My only compliant is I felt it was a tad long at times.  Not bloated in the sense of plot, more in that it took its time to get into the story, and I think they should've done a hard cut at the end about five minutes before they actually do.

 

And I saw it in a movie theater.  YAY

[Eric Loves Rey]

Mixed bag honestly. Love the heist stuff, love the fashion, and especially love Emma Thompson. Every scene she's in is perfection. Everything else is pretty awkward, and like all the other Disney remakes, its pacing is pretty atrocious. It's so weird how these movies are either way too fast or way too slow. But it has enough eye candy for my Emma-loving heart to make it an amusing timewaster that I'll forget about in like nine months.

[filmlover]

An enjoyable reimagining of the iconic 101 Dalmatians baddie. The script is a bit disjointed (perhaps not a surprise given it was written by five people), but the "Devil Wears Prada meets I, Tonya meets Maleficent" approach works pretty well overall. Emma Stone makes her mark in the role of Cruella: while she certainly doesn't engage in the go-for-broke scenery-chewing Glenn Close did, her inherent likability allows the character to become an antihero audiences can root for. She's equally matched by a gloriously bitchy Emma Thompson, while Joel Fry and Paul Walter Hauser are fun as the henchmen. The costumes are terrific work and considering most of these live-action Disney reworkings have been criticized for seemingly lacking much creative reasons to exist, this one does a good job avoiding that trap and manages to stand out in the crowd. B

[RichWS]

This movie was a SLOG. I really thought about bailing towards the end because I couldn't care less about what was happening but I'm better than that.

[Barnack]

For a movie that has a giant and obvious tension (it does not want Cruella to actually be Cruella it seem, but try to have is Cake and eat it too by having her being it with people thinking it is part of a bit and they dance an impossible line on it), maybe should have been more surrealist and have her actually be Cruella (but animated is much better for that) or not at all (what would be the point), so I think they understood all that and did the best they could with that strange task of a strange movie.

 

That said it works because of the Emma's, the big budget a bit of an over-reliance on music and so on.

 

On 5/31/2021 at 1:31 AM, filmlover said:

but the "Devil Wears Prada meets I, Tonya meets Maleficent" approach

It felt a lot American Hustle-y to me and then it felt a bit strange that they went so much for a non film look for a movie set in those eras-astheatic, that could have possibly gained to have a 35mm looking filter apply

[CoolioD1]

i think i liked this ok? maybe? it had a cool style to it that all these other disney remakes don't have but any time it would callback to the original or do origin story business it was pretty cringe. also definitely think it could've been about 6 hours shorter. the emmas were good.