Cruella. (12.)
Directed by Craig Gillespie.
Starring Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser, Emily Beecham and Mark Strong. In Cinemas or available on Disney+ Premier Access from May 28th. 134 mins
A live-action origins tale about the villain in 101 Dalmations could be seen as evidence of a risk-averse production strategy, Disney's almost incestuous desire to keep everything in the family. Then again, if this were a midweek Channel 4 makeover show the presenter would be fawning wildly over the skill with which life has been brought back into a tired old property. It's an inspired creation that's been scraped from the bottom of the barrel.
Let's get our hybrids out of the way first: Cruella is Joker made in the style of a Paddington movie; Tim Burton's version of The Devil Wears Prada. It's a traditional Disney tale of a scrappy orphan trying to make her way in the world set in a picture book 60s/70s London about a battle of wits between two sociopaths. After the death of her mother Estella (Stone) grows up on the streets until she gets a job with The Baroness (Thompson), an incredibly evil fashion designer. They initially seem like kindred spirits until certain revelations provoke the creation of an alter-ego, fashion terrorist Cruella to take down the tyrant.
Because nobody was crying out to find out about Cruella de Vil's early days, the film knows that it has to make the running, coax a sceptical audience round. It does this by being enormously seductive. The soundtrack is a relentless jukebox of period classics: Supertramp/ ELO/ Bowie/ Stones/Doors etc. A performance of Iggy's I Wanna Be Your Dog is an integral part of one of the film's key set pieces. There's never a dull moment with plenty of elegant sweeping camera movements across beautifully designed sets. It's eager to please, yet very sure of its self. (It does though run out of steam in the last half hour.)
And the cast is tremendous. Thompson outdoes Meryl's Prada turn; Fry and Hauser are perfect as childhood friends turned henchmen – cartoons figures made flesh, but with real humanity. But most of all there is Stone. A decade ago she seemed too old to be playing high school girls, that husky voice suggesting a Mae West version of Freaky Friday. Now that beguiling mix of youthful innocence and world-weary cynicism, plus her aptitude for accents (not one but two perfect English ones) find its perfect outlet in this role.
Cruella is a very odd creation, a joyous romp fashioned around something rancid. At one point The Baroness has a speech about how the struggle to succeed in a man's world has forced all the pity out of her and though the film is Disney inclusive and flirts with presenting Cruella's story as one of female empowerment, ultimately (spoiler) it's about two entitled privileged people treading over everybody else in their battle for supremacy.
Directed by Craig Gillespie.
Starring Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser, Emily Beecham and Mark Strong. In Cinemas or available on Disney+ Premier Access from May 28th. 134 mins
A live-action origins tale about the villain in 101 Dalmations could be seen as evidence of a risk-averse production strategy, Disney's almost incestuous desire to keep everything in the family. Then again, if this were a midweek Channel 4 makeover show the presenter would be fawning wildly over the skill with which life has been brought back into a tired old property. It's an inspired creation that's been scraped from the bottom of the barrel.
Let's get our hybrids out of the way first: Cruella is Joker made in the style of a Paddington movie; Tim Burton's version of The Devil Wears Prada. It's a traditional Disney tale of a scrappy orphan trying to make her way in the world set in a picture book 60s/70s London about a battle of wits between two sociopaths. After the death of her mother Estella (Stone) grows up on the streets until she gets a job with The Baroness (Thompson), an incredibly evil fashion designer. They initially seem like kindred spirits until certain revelations provoke the creation of an alter-ego, fashion terrorist Cruella to take down the tyrant.
Because nobody was crying out to find out about Cruella de Vil's early days, the film knows that it has to make the running, coax a sceptical audience round. It does this by being enormously seductive. The soundtrack is a relentless jukebox of period classics: Supertramp/ ELO/ Bowie/ Stones/Doors etc. A performance of Iggy's I Wanna Be Your Dog is an integral part of one of the film's key set pieces. There's never a dull moment with plenty of elegant sweeping camera movements across beautifully designed sets. It's eager to please, yet very sure of its self. (It does though run out of steam in the last half hour.)
And the cast is tremendous. Thompson outdoes Meryl's Prada turn; Fry and Hauser are perfect as childhood friends turned henchmen – cartoons figures made flesh, but with real humanity. But most of all there is Stone. A decade ago she seemed too old to be playing high school girls, that husky voice suggesting a Mae West version of Freaky Friday. Now that beguiling mix of youthful innocence and world-weary cynicism, plus her aptitude for accents (not one but two perfect English ones) find its perfect outlet in this role.
Cruella is a very odd creation, a joyous romp fashioned around something rancid. At one point The Baroness has a speech about how the struggle to succeed in a man's world has forced all the pity out of her and though the film is Disney inclusive and flirts with presenting Cruella's story as one of female empowerment, ultimately (spoiler) it's about two entitled privileged people treading over everybody else in their battle for supremacy.
