Cruella
2021
***½
Director: Graig Gillespie
Cast: Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser, Emily Beecham, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Mark Strong, Tipper Seifert-Cleveland, Ziggy Gardner, Joseph MacDonald
In the early 1970s, orphaned Estella is a swindler who dreams of working in fashion. She eventually catches her break and is hired by the Baroness, a famous designer who may have been behind Estella's mother death. Cruella de Vil, the famously nasty villain of 101 Dalmatians, gets her origin story, and it's not at all what I expected. This is a very long but entertaining and wonderfully designed movie, although it doesn't really explain how this resourceful and likeable young lady becomes a woman wants to turns dogs into a coat. There are two strong performances: Emma Stone is commanding as Estella/Cruella and Emma Thompson is hilarious as the cocky Baroness. The lavish costumes earned an Academy Award.
