Written by Andreas Babiolakis

During the awards season, I will be covering films that are a part of the discussion that have been out for a while.

The obvious: Cruella is an incredibly stylish film with deep inspiration from the London punk scene of yesteryear, and I have no issue with this attempted revival of such a wave of music and culture. There’s a reason why I’m reviewing it at the tail end of the first month of a year after the film came out: it is a mainstay of all costume categories of this awards season, with a very high chance of winning many awards (including the Oscar). It’s true. Jenny Beavan’s wardrobe work here is easily some of the best of the year, and Cruella exploits her talents as much as possible (particularly by having a young Cruella, born Estella, become a fashion aficionado). Even the “everyday” clothes here are incredibly well made, but it’s the lineup of jaw dropping designs — especially when there is a battle of outfits midway through the film — that seal the deal. Cruella is a sensationally dressed film, and its creative garments are worth the price of admission alone.

These clothes make their way onto a cast of characters, some we know from 101 Dalmatians (Cruella herself as a young troublemaker whose mother is murdered by the titular canines [hence her resentment towards them], as well as thieves Horace and Jasper who grew up orphaned just like our leading villain), and some we don’t (this film’s antagonist “The Baroness”: a difficult haute couture empress that treats everyone around her like dirt). I feel like all of the little details sprinkled throughout this film are interesting, and I actually don’t have a major problem with the film’s runtime (despite how it is well over two hours and is a Disney film, which seemed incredibly troublesome on paper) because of how much work went into trying to make this origin story work. I’ve often seen that we didn’t need a Cruella de Vil story, and I do agree with that (please revisit 101 Dalmatians, and you’ll find that one of Disney’s beloved villains really isn’t in the film that long at all). However, it is pop culture that has made Cruella a figure that is bigger than even the film that she came from, and I don’t see the harm in having her have some proper substance given to her lore. I’d rather this than a rehash of a film with a complete lack of soul, like The Lion King. This is at least an attempt at something original with an older Disney property. I respect that. We didn’t need Cruella, but I’m not going to pretend that I am bothered that this exists, especially after having seen it.

Where Cruella loses me is with some of its more unbelievable moments, and how the film doesn’t go all-the-way dark (I suppose Disney won’t ever cross over this line); an example I can think of is a sequence where Cruella’s spotted coat was only meant to threaten The Baroness into thinking her dogs have been skinned, rather than actually going the extra mile (I don’t condone animal cruelty, but if we’re making a monster here, let’s make a monster, especially if she does want to skin dogs in her source material). The film does get a bit sloppy here and there, maybe because of its long duration (a shorter film may have had less room for slippage).

However, to get us through all of the low points, we have Emma Stone in a phenomenal performance that frankly feels too good for a Disney live action flick. As Estella/Cruella, Stone is so convincingly conflicted, with a believable duality to her as well. A standout moment is when she has a startling revelation of her point of no return: a monologue that is spoken to no one in the middle of a foggy terrain, with a camera right up to her face and not cutting away. I know that Craig Gillespie loves to toss in little flourishes in his film (see the many identities of I, Tonya), and this feels like his opportunity to get Emma Stone talked about. Well, I’ll go out on a limb and say that Stone being considered for awards for this role doesn’t seem so stupid after all. If Cruella’s costumes are getting all of the love, I’m going to point towards Stone and will say that she is also worth checking out the film for. Even if you don’t think its duration is justified, its existence is required, or its ideas are noteworthy. There is some legitimacy in Cruella: a film I didn’t expect to be worth a damn.

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.