A short time before I heard they were making this I remember talking about how the 1961 Cruella de Vil was so whitetrash—chainsmoking, haggard, skinny, boozy, raspy voiced. And about just how messed up it is that she wants to make a coat out of all those dogs. Why does she want to kill them all? How many does it even take to make the coat? What a great villain. Maybe the best Disney villain?
Cruella (2021, Craig Gillespie) is a punk fashion-war crime comedy. Cruella is so lively, energetic, and impassioned throughout that it makes it imperative to retire the phrase “over the top,” when considering it. Cruella is punk. There’s a difference.
Our story begins in London in the early ‘60s and technically in addition to punk, there’s also a glam influence (by way of Cruella’s Velvet Goldmine pal more later). What’s so great about the prologue that introduces us to this kid punker is we get a Disney movie not only approving of a child who hates school and gets expelled for persistent misbehavior but casting her as a hero while doing so. The whole movie even rewards grown up Cruella for cleverly devising criminal endeavors to achieve her goals—petty theft, forgery, vandalism, grand larceny. Cruella captures how fun it is to be young and punk.
The British Invasion soundtrack gives momentum to the excitement, but there’s also some storybook fairytale origin myth musicboxsymphonic original score passages that pull the empathy strings we need to root for this loveable misfit. Oh how perfect this role is to let Emma Stone fully display her range: from subtle awkward facial expressions and bumbling, meek ragamuffin, to powerful, strutting, iron-fisted dominatrix. And unlike the cartoon, Stone’s face isn’t sharp and angular. It’s round, soft and delicate.
There’s a seamless unmotivated establishing tracking shot of Liberty that rushes through a bustling crowd through an interior maze finding Cruella scrubbing the floor in the loo that’s all done in one take (or so it seems), which is pretty cool. And similarly striking from a technical aspect is the guerrilla fashion show montage—probably highlight of the movie, seriously, goosebumbs.
Cruella as a comedy mostly hits hardest with its hero’s insolent wit, and disdainful insults—when she smacks that box of Cocoa Krispies off the table, what pitch perfect timing and execution. But the actor who plays HORACE got the most laughs from me. I’d only seen this dude in Richard Jewell (2019, Clint Eastwood), and the tone in that movie was so serious I never felt like I could laugh at him. (Also rare instance where Eastwood cast an “unknown” in a lead I think.) But in Cruella he’s basically cast as the same type as far as his ineptitude and sincerity chemistry goes, yet it’s finally okay to laugh at him. Something about that guy kills me.
Another scene worth mentioning in regard to the Lubitsch touch working by way of Cruella’s sophisticated wit is at the end. When she’s at the fountain, visiting the ghost, and she’s giving her monologue, Cruella concludes it beginning with a line that starts out with: “Must dash…” Then after another scene, when Cruella is back, she’s got a moustache. I mean for real, wow. Love it.
In conclusion, the hero’s goal is to best her adversary—a heartless, cold, homicidal megalomaniac. And we love her for it. Yeah I know the bit with the rat served on a covered dish comes from What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962, Robert Aldrich), but I gotta exploit this loose connection to an advert from the director I believe brought punk into cinema better than any other:
Prediction: 2022 Oscar for Best Costume Design
5/27/2021 AMC Madison Yards 8
Atlanta, GA
DCP
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