Certainly the character of Cruella de Vil is compelling. She's been a cultural touchstone for more than half a century which is a testament to the enduring power of 101 Dalmatians and her brilliant portrayal in that film. Glenn Close's high camp take in the 90s film was fun pastiche. And now we have the post-modern, Maleficent style, sympathetic revisionist take on the young, up-and-coming Cruella de Vil starring Emma Stone.
I'm going to get this out of the way first. For me the most interesting Cruella is the entitled and selfish grande dame who does monstrous things not because she has some tragic back story but because she believes she has the right to do whatever she wants no matter how terrible. She scared me as a child, and honestly as an adult too, because she just had no abhorrence of cruelty, and because few tried to stop her due to their deference to her presence. We've come to see that the villains in the real world are those who act in their own interests regardless of the suffering of others. We understand what leads to this sort of behavior is not trauma but entitlement. To me that is far scarier and honestly more believable. So for me a young Cruella story that tries to give us sympathy for the de-Vil (and even plays the song at the climax to drive the point home) is far less interesting that what we could have had; a portrait of selfishness learning she can take what she wants no matter the cost to others.
But that's not what Cruella, the film, is. The fact that this film was not what I had hoped it would be does not mean I can't enjoy it. And mostly I did. Director Gillespie, who has history documenting the mad humanity of the cruel after his I, Toyna film, masterfully crafts a gorgeous camp spectacle that is hard to take your eyes off of. The film is lavish and lovely and dripping with sarcasm and sass. It is straight people playing drag for what that is worth. Stone and Thompson are a delicious pair who could give the queens on Drag Race a run for their money and watching them go at it with each other is pure saccharine entertainment. Stone gets some truly great scenes where she gets to do a little more than just vamp and, as always, she's very good, bringing an honesty to her Cruella that is refreshing.
But little in the rest of the movie comes close to that realism. It is all fantasy; none of it feels real. The story is overdrawn, getting into needless complicated twists that drag down the film a bit. I do believe a straight up battle of the broads would have been an even cooler ride than this soapy family "drama" which never quite succeeds in hitting the emotional notes needed to really sell it. The film never quite finds its tone balance. The film starts with quite a vicious death and oscillates between dark plot points and lighter flamboyant elements that never quite jive. So while Cruella ends up being rather disposable fun it never reaches the heights that this character really could have rocked.
Okay I'm going to nitpick a bit here here. John McCrea pops up as "Disney's first openly gay character" (debatable) although the film never acknowledges he's gay. Sure he's queer coded but we really have to have a discussion about what being "openly gay" in a movie actually means. He is tossed in and barely used for the story except as an accessory for Cruella. His part remains pretty inconsequential to the plot or any of the other characters. He's great in the role and in his few scenes he steals the show. But his whole role could be cut and the film would be no worse off. Someone needs to tell Disney this is not how representation works.
So in summary Cruella was light, disposable fun and I'd watch Stone and Thompson duke it out in anything. But as with most Disney these days it is terribly average and offers little to no spark of auteurism, the sort of thing a movie about Cruella de Vil really could be.
Cruella
Starring: Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser, Mark Strong, John McCrea, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Kayvan Novak
Director: Craig Gillespie
Writers: Dana Fox, Tony McNamara
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