Cruella (2021) - Action, Comedy, Crime - Disney +
I went into this with exceedingly low expectations, I mean how can you make a film about Cruella de Vil and get the audience to actually invest in the character. We're talking about one of the, if no the most dislikeable characters ever to hit film. As a child, she gave me nightmares - then again, as a child King Rollo gave me nightmares! This is a woman whose main role in film is to hunt down Dalmatians and puppy Dalmatians at that and kidnap them so that she can kill and skin them, maybe in that order! Who treats the human heroes with distaste and scorn and bullies her employees into committing these dastardly deeds.
Fair play to Disney, they did it. They turned Cruella into a multidimensional character, a woman with a history that helps you understand, if not how she became a puppy murderer but how this persona develops. A woman wronged from birth. A woman who slowly turns from the heroine to the villain back to a character you are rooting for. I hated myself at this moment!
You can see how her relationship with Jasper and Horace turns from friendship to fear to something else. And how and why they all care for each other.
Emma Stone is perfect casting as the young Cruella, she is a likeable actress but can also give you the edge you need and by edge, I mean psychopathic tendencies creeping through! Joel Fry and Paul Walter Hauser bring Jasper and Horace into the hero category, I want to see how them and their relationship deteriorate so much, but you are rooting for these lads during this film. Joel Fry is especially good. Mark Strong remains a stalwart, an actor you can always rely on and Emma Thompson channels her inner Meryl Streep to full effect.
This is a back story with huge character development but in the opposite way, normally you get a story of someone doing the right thing and redeeming themselves, this flips it up and turns it backwards but also twists it both ways. Well worth a watch.
Fair play to Disney, they did it. They turned Cruella into a multidimensional character, a woman with a history that helps you understand, if not how she became a puppy murderer but how this persona develops. A woman wronged from birth. A woman who slowly turns from the heroine to the villain back to a character you are rooting for. I hated myself at this moment!
You can see how her relationship with Jasper and Horace turns from friendship to fear to something else. And how and why they all care for each other.
Emma Stone is perfect casting as the young Cruella, she is a likeable actress but can also give you the edge you need and by edge, I mean psychopathic tendencies creeping through! Joel Fry and Paul Walter Hauser bring Jasper and Horace into the hero category, I want to see how them and their relationship deteriorate so much, but you are rooting for these lads during this film. Joel Fry is especially good. Mark Strong remains a stalwart, an actor you can always rely on and Emma Thompson channels her inner Meryl Streep to full effect.
This is a back story with huge character development but in the opposite way, normally you get a story of someone doing the right thing and redeeming themselves, this flips it up and turns it backwards but also twists it both ways. Well worth a watch.
Tell Your Friends