Film Review: Cruella

 Film: Cruella

Stars: 4 (just)

Cinema: Hoyts Victoria Gardens

I've been hanging out for this film for a while. Yes, a Disney film that gives the back story of one of it's most delicious and most reviled villains, Cruella De Vil. I nearly made it just before lockdown, but thought the better of it with COVID ramping up at the time. 

I also recommended this to a colleague who was looking for something to take his daughters, aged four and six to. I received a text over the weekend to say he loved it, the girls loved it and he was in line for 'Best Dad Ever". So there.

Anyway, this does not disappoint. 

RottenTomatoes.com gives brief as such:

"Academy Award winner Emma Stone stars in Disney's "Cruella," an all-new live-action feature film about the rebellious early days of one of cinemas most notorious - and notoriously fashionable - villains, the legendary Cruella de Vil. Cruella is set in 1970s London amidst the punk rock revolution, follows a young grifter named Estella, a clever and creative girl determined to make a name for herself with her designs. She befriends a pair of young thieves who appreciate her appetite for mischief, and together they are able to build a life for themselves on the London streets. One day, Estella's flair for fashion catches the eye of the Baroness von Hellman, a fashion legend who is devastatingly chic and terrifyingly haute, played by Emma Thompson. But their relationship sets in motion a course of events and revelations that will cause Estella to embrace her wicked side and become the raucous, fashionable and revenge-bent Cruella."

The great things about this film: 

• It is gorgeous to look at. 
• It's very amusing. 
• Emma Stone is fantastic as Estella and her "evil twin" Cruella. 
• The clothes are amazing
• Cruella's friend Jasper and Horace (Joel Fry and Paul Walter Hauser) are her wonderful friends who stick with her through thick and thin. 
• Cruella really isn't that bad, just a bit misunderstood.
• And no animals were harmed in the making of this film
• Wink the one-eyed chiahuahua  steals every scene he's in

Craig Gillespie's direction is sound. He's responsible for some other great films including I, Tonya and Lars and the Real Girl. This one is just as quirky in a Disney sort of way. 

I know, as a child, that the original 101 Dalmations really freaked me out. Thankfully, this didn't. It's just big, campy fun. 

I reckon there's half a chance Emma Stone may get an Oscar nod for this. She and Emma Thompson carry the film. Mark Strong is Mark Strong, the overprotective bodyguard - the role he's been playing for 20 years. I also loved Artie, (John McCrea) the opportunity shop owner who befriends Estella and helps her out in the end. 

A lot of the gags will go over the heads of the little ones. Some of the jokes take longer than they need to, and by the end of the film, you pretty much knew where everything was going to end up. 

I think my only criticism of the film is that it could be 15 minutes shorter with ease. 

But it's a great diversion - everything you expect from a Disney film and more.

Kids, especially young girls, will love it. 

Today's song: