Cruella (2021), Directed by Craig Gillespie
A review of the 2021 remake of Cruella.
This movie has been so hyped for its fashion, I had to watch it. We were talking about it in my Costume and Fashion in Film class for a hot minute, and so, when I could get my paws on a stream online, I devoured the film immediately. And, honestly, I didn’t really like this remake. Emma Stone’s a wonderful actor. The costumes are great. But the nuances that go into this film are honestly kind of destructive and fall into a trope that I’m not too sure about at the end of the day.
Let’s just jump straight into this review.
Content
If you’ve seen the original source material, 101 Dalmatians, you’ll know of Cruella de Vil. She’s a wicked woman who wants to skin Dalmatians for a coat, and she’s the main antagonist of the film. Well, in this film, we erase her need to make a Dalmatian coat (her hatred here stems from the Baroness’ Dalmatians killing her mother by pushing her over the side of a ledge and into the ocean. I felt that scene was a little too dramatic, because there’s a dark, gloomy sky, the Dalmatians are frothing, and the water…looks like a whirlpool? Not a fan, personally.) and her only purpose in life is to overthrow the Baroness and become the new head honcho of the fashion industry in London.
Which is totally fine, except they used punk culture literally as an aesthetic and a prop in this movie. Cruella is not the embodiment of punk culture, nor will she ever be in this movie. She’s just dressed like a punk to seem like “not like the other girls,” when, in fact, she wants to do exactly what most people want to do. Cruella literally wants to be the new Baroness, to be the head of the fashion industry and scene in the movie. This is literally upholding the system in place, rather than tearing it down and creating an entirely new establishment. Something very punk is dismantling the current power systems in place, and this movie just isn’t doing that with her character. Her work and fashion is used to distinguish her from the people around her, quite literally appropriating the subculture it’s originally coming from.
This film is quite interesting as well because they give Cruella a clear familial lineage (trying to avoid spoilers here) in order to probably make her more relatable to the viewer. We give her a reason for her rage and why she wants to destroy the Baroness, and, at the same time, she’s a girl struggling to make it in a big city but clearly has talent as a designer.
I think the cinematic elements are just fine in this film. Emma Stone’s acting is quite good, that’s for sure, and so are the costumes (despite them being just a superficial element of the aesthetic). Even the little dog has an eyepatch as it steals stuff with Cruella and her gang. I wasn’t really wowed with many of the shots, which was pretty cute.
Overall Thoughts
Another overhype Disney film that’s quite pretentious in itself. I say watch for the fashion design and costuming that’s within the movie, but there isn’t really much substance to the actual plot itself. We abandon the roots of Cruella in this movie, where she is just a woman who wants to make a Dalmatian coat, and try to make her into this antihero of sorts. Does it work? Yes. But does it have any actual substance to it in the long run? Not really, it’s just another loose remake to grab cash. Perhaps that’s just where Disney is going these days—make a loosely inspired backstory from an original character, have her don the name of Cruella, and then see profit for this novel concept.
