New Film Review: Cruella

CRUELLA

Directed by Craig Gillespie

Screenplay by Craig Gillespie and Aline Brosh

This film follows the young life of Cruella De Vil

SPOILER FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This film is very odd. It is like nightmare version of The Devil Wears Prada. With a touch of Maleficent. With a big dose of Harly Quinn.

Let me get to the Positives first:

Emma Stone is great as Cruella, but then again...she is always great. She plays Cruella with a bit of sadness yes; but also a bit of a wacky violent comic book flair of Harley Quinn.

Emma Thompson, plays successful fashion designer The Baroness. She is Miranda Priestly but even colder and throw in some violence. This may be Thompson's best part and performance in years. Oscar Nom?

There are some really good costarring performances in this film also:

Joel Fry; Paul Walter Houser; and  John McCrea are wonderfully comical and bumbling as Cruella's partners in crime.

Mark Strong, great as always, as The Baroness's security and kind of assistant.

The film has a wonderful soundtrack including...no spoilers..but a modern remake of a song we know during the end credits.

The Negatives:

The story!!! It runs too long 2 hours and 15 minutes. 

The story!!!  I mentioned a Maleficent comparison earlier. What Cruella does not have however is an Aurora. This film is missing a good person. We see Cruella's rough upbringing..so I think we are suppose to cheer her on now as an adult. Well...she kills dogs lets not forget. So we have two bad people battling it out. You hope for Cruella, however you feel kind of guilty about it. Which is sort of the Harley Quinn vibe and look and feel. I left the theater feeling empty. You want to even feel more empty? Stay for the mid-credits scene. Ugh...I mean she kills dogs. She is bat shit crazy

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The Story!!! To lighten the dark mood Harly gave us humor. Here in Cruella there is not much humor, and the humor they try to add, most of the time falls flat.

The Story!!! Who is it for? DO NOT TAKE YOUR KIDS!! Adults for nostalgia? Do we miss a dalmatian killer?

Well no spoilers here but 2 1/2 stars out of 5 for Cruella. Great performances with a long, sad, flat story line. By the way, what is really funny is ..during the credits there is a message to adopt animals. Really?

From the shadows as always thanks for your time.