Cruella Review: The Devil Wears Bondage Pants

Back Into The Vault

After a series of live-action and CGI “reimaginings” of past animated hits like The Lion King and Aladdin in recent years (with varying degrees of success), Disney has now gone back to the vault to explore the origins of Cruella de Vil, the fashionista dog-skinning villain from 101 Dalmatians.

On paper, Cruella has a lot going for it. The film is helmed by the talented director Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya) and stars the always-dependable Emma Stone as Estella, a troubled young woman living on the fringes of society who slowly morphs into the over-the-top Cruella de Vil.

London Calling

The film begins with a young Estella (Tipper Seifert-Cleveland) having a rough go of things at school following the accidental death of her mother, who was pushed off a cliff by a trio of Dalmatians (a pretty elaborate parent death, even by Disney standards). She rebels by dyeing her hair bright red, but soon discovers a talent for being a petty thief after running into Horace (Joe MacDonald) and Jasper (Ziggy Gardner). The three youngsters (and their puppy helpers) begin pulling off elaborate thefts on the streets of London, which often involve Estella designing an intricate wardrobe for herself to throw off their chosen marks.

We then jump forward nearly a decade to find that not much has changed for the quick-witted street urchins. Now set in 70’s London, Jasper (Joel Fry) arranges for Estella (Stone) to get a proper job at the high-end boutique Liberty, where she can concentrate on making a living off of her wild clothing designs. Horace (played by a scene-stealing Paul Walter Hauser) assumes there has to be a catch, but Estella eagerly sets out to begin what she hopes will be a fulfilling creative career in fashion.

Unfortunately, things don’t go exactly as Estella envisioned. Her tight-lipped superior is more interested in her cleaning toilets than in designing the next season’s lineup. Brimming with frustration, one night she has a surge of inspiration and completely redecorates the store’s window display. The stately and elegantly dressed mannequin gets a full ’77 punk glamour makeover, and even the surrounding painted walls look like something from an early Clash video.

Estella wakes up in the window the next morning to a verbal berating from her boss who immediately fires her. However, in walks The Baroness (Emma Thompson), a wildly wealthy and influential fashion designer who is bitten by Estella’s bold design and immediately offers her a job working for her.

The Devil Wears Bondage Pants

In a clear nod to The Devil Wears Prada, Estella quickly learns that working for The Baroness is not all it’s cracked up to be. The Baroness raids Estella’s ideas for her designs with no credit, and genuinely treats her as a useful tool, but not much more. Fed up with her treatment from The Baroness, Estella soon notices her wearing a necklace that she is convinced belonged to her mother. While trying to unwrap the mystery of how The Baroness came into possession of a cherished heirloom from her deceased mother, Estella hatches a plan to reunite the thieving trio and steal the necklace at the upcoming Black and White Ball.

After a quick makeover from a vintage clothing shop run by a Bowie-like figure named Artie (John McCrea), Estella makes the full transformation into Cruella, and attends the ball with an eye-catching black and white haircut and a blood-red gown. It’s an entrance on the level of something like Katniss making her fiery debut in The Hunger Games, a full-blown declarative statement meant to shock and wow The Baroness and her highfalutin guests as she attempts to steal her mother’s cherished necklace back.

While that sounds like the climax of the movie, the mega-heist occurs only about halfway through this needlessly long and overwrought film. What follows is a protracted PR battle between Cruella’s increasingly chaotic and attention-grabbing pop-up fashion shows and The Baroness’ more traditional gown-wear. Gillespie and the film’s excellent design team have a lot of fun setting up Cruella’s wild stunts, which include her literally rolling out of the back of a garbage truck in a block-long trailing gown.

Two Warring Ideas

That unbridled energy, set to some of the best hard rock and proto-punk songs of the era, is one of the most exciting aspects about Cruella, which is saddled with having to tell an origin story that absolutely no one was clamouring for. In many ways, this is a film with two distinct and warring identities, just like its titular character. There’s the story of a brilliant Vivienne Westwood-like fashion designer pushing back against London’s staid morals amidst the emerging punk explosion, which is by far the most interesting and visually striking element of the film. Unfortunately, because this is an origin story tied to a beloved piece of IP, the film has to connect a number of dots to bring Cruella up to the dog-skinning villain we know from the original film (or Glenn Close’s outrageous live-action portrayal).

Even though the audience has a clear image of Cruella in their minds, the film tries to have it both ways – it wants to provide an explanation for the notoriously evil Cruella we know from the other films, while also attempting to make her a sympathetic character. That dichotomy leaves the film with a mishmash tone that never quite makes the case for either side of Cruella’s decline (or ascension) into villainy.

Without delving into specifics, Cruella is responsible for moments of cruelty in this film that make it nearly impossible for the audience to side with her. We do learn why she hates Dalmatians so much, but the knowledge that she’ll simply use that to try to make a coat out of them down the road isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of her character.

Cruella seems to exist just because it could. It seems doubtful this backstory has any built-in audience interest, but rather that Disney owned the rights to this character, so why not take advantage of that? On the flip side, what other studio would greenlight a director of subversive comedies to film a lavish period drama about a vamped-up punk fashion designer if it wasn’t attached to a beloved children’s franchise?

The Good

Despite a number of inherent flaws, there is a lot to like in Cruella. Emma Stone really gives it her all in a dual performance that lets her stretch out like we haven’t seen her do in ages, and the supporting cast is excellent, from the bottled-rage of Emma Thompson as The Baroness to Paul Walter Hauser’s hilarious turn as Horace, which only gets sillier and more endearing as the film progresses.

As expected, the production design is incredible, from the post-war bombed-out streets of London to the lavish costume designs and riveting makeup work.

Craig Gillespie also really lets loose on the directing front here, with some inventive and complex camera work including a roving shot through the Liberty department store that could give Scorsese a run for his money.

Biting Off More Than it Can Chew

Ultimately, Cruella is an assemblage of some strong elements that never amounts to anything greater than its parts. (You might even say its bark doesn’t match its bite.) The film is oddly paced and much too long, yet the main issue is that Cruella isn’t worth rooting for, a premise that this film seems desperate to make the audience forget by bombarding viewers with countless sub-plots and outrageous fashion face-offs.

Most adults will likely find it impossible to root for Cruella, and the film is much too dark for young kids, but it may find an audience with teens who still have a love of Disney but want something with a little more bite. But if you’ve always dreamed of learning bits of trivia like how Cruella chose her last name, this dark and strange 134-minute prequel might just be enough to sink your teeth into.

Cruella opens in select theatres and is available as a “Premium Access” purchase on Disney+ as of Friday, May 28.