Cruella (2021)

Cast: Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Mark Strong, Paul Walter Hauser, and John McCrea

Director: Craig Gillespie

Synopsis: The movie presents Cruella as a young child named Stella, daughter of Catherine. Stella
was born with a rare condition in her hair which made it half black, half white. Because of that and
some attitudes of her, she constantly got herself in trouble at school, with both her classmates and
teachers. For that reason, she was constantly changed from school to school so that she can finally
adapt in one of them, never happened.

At some point her mother, tired of her stubborn, rebel attitude, decided to move with her to
London as a drastic attempt to start over with her problematic child. During the trip, an
inconvenient occurred. Catherine unfortunately perished and Stella remained as an orphan.

Stella grew up in company of her new family: Jasper and Horace who she encountered after her
mother´s perish. Years passed and now they live as silent thieves through the London streets,
robbing silently without alerting the police.

One day while committing misdeeds Stella ended up looking at an announcement on the street.
Announcement that encouraged her to apply for a job at a recognized fashion house. Job that she
actually got. Past the days she started to get tired of it, as she wasn´t in charge of anything related
in fashion but instead of keeping the floors reluctant while constantly being despised by her boss.

After some other problems she got hired in a more prestigious fashion house, which was managed
by the Baroness, an extremely narcissist women who treated others as garbage. Even with that, he
loved the job. Finally, her hands were able to make fabulous dresses that surprisingly meant
“something” to the Baroness.

While working for her, one day she noticed a peculiar detail. She was wearing a good-looking
necklace that used to be of her mom, Catherine used to say it´s a “familiar relic.” Anger and
impotence started to flourish on her mind, it was hers! She wanted it back.

Unfortunately for her that was easier said than done, the Baroness had a huge amount of security
at hand. She and her properties were surely well protected. Stella needed a plan, a single fussy
detail couldn´t get off her hands, or else, she would surely regret it.

As if a miracle had happened, she achieved her goal… well kind of. She achieved to take the
necklace from the Baroness´s neck, but in the process one of her dogs accidentally swallow it.
Afterwards, she managed to escape and even kidnap the Baroness´s dogs in search of the
appreciated object.

Days passed and Stella, jaded and slowly getting more obsessed with control, became rootless
upon the tiny number of values she had in the first minutes of the film. Her personality was almost
antagonistic if compared with the young woman we saw a few minutes before. She became self-
centered, rude to Jasper and Horace, and a near perfect copy of the Baroness. All this macabre
process made her take a huge risk and open a secrete fashion boutique by the nickname “Cruella,”
which started a competition against the Baroness´s.
This ferocious contest finished after the Baroness finally discovered the truth. Cruella was the
same person as Stella. Her most valuable employee was also her most abhorred enemy. In
question of seconds the curtain finally unveils to the Baroness and will surely not lose any second.

I should not tell you the end my dear followers. You shall discover by yourselves what happens
next in this dramatic story.

Review: Moving on to the characters I shall say that Emma Stone does a fantabulous job as
Cruella. It gives us a fresh vision of the character. A more detailed one than the one seen in the
ninety´s movie.

Here Cruella, as the main character, presents a nice evolution as a character where you can see
her not becoming eviler as time passes, but rather unveils who she really is. That rebel, stubborn,
oblivious attitude she had as a child was just the mere beginning of her destiny.

She was born brilliant, bad, and a little bit mad. Characteristics that ensemble to make a
memorable villain, or better, a truly annoying “stone” on the Baroness´s shoes. She´s not seen as a
villain on the move, despite from all the robbery, lying and manipulating acts she committed. This
is reasonable, as the Baroness surely occupies the place of the devil himself during this film.

She´s bad in all the connotation of the word. Her objectives are simple and well presented:
Demolish and banish every single person that collocates themselves against her financial success
and recognition around the globe.

The only issue I have with her character is exactly that point. Yeah, she´s extremely bad and selfish
but besides from that the character lacks personality and shades. Cruella had memorable
moments of reflection, repentance and even kindness in some parts. For example, a scene of the
movie, we can observe the sadness and misery in her eyes when Jasper and Horace aren´t able to
recognize the woman in front of them, as if she were an outsider willing to enter their lives at
force.

But the Baroness, even in the last moment of the movie still adopts a preponderant character
upon others. There´s no regret in her eyes. She just stares at the front with a mediocre sight.

Jasper and Horace… are ok but not much more than that. They are the main supporters and pillars
of Cruella´s mental stability. They are her family at the end of the day. Sometimes they do shine
with funny jokes or pranks that make you laugh once in a while. Besides from that they are just the
secondary characters that motivate Cruella to be a better version of herself. They have no history,
no evolution as time goes on in the movie, no reflection or lesson is given by them.

Furthermore, we can talk about the astonishing visual section this movie presumes. Going from
the delightful dresses to the demonic, elegant car Cruella obtains. Every visual in this movie was
surely well thought and needs acclamation from the public.

Personal Recommendation: I personally got delighted with the film. The rhythm of it is slow
enough to avoid missing any detail or not understanding something completely, however it´s also
not as slow as a monotonous movie which gets you bored within the first minutes of it.
You constantly empathize with the characters and the tough situations they constantly have to
confront with. Cruella for examples seems to me as a humorous corrupted mind that sometimes
does the correct thing and makes you feel proud of her, even when its just a character. Jasper and
Horace, I have to admit are for me two of the few characters in the movie that are worth enough
to be your friends. They rob and all that stuff, but you can see they have still innocence and loyalty
inside their hearts. All those scenes where they acted almost childish made me feel I´d be so
comfortable around them.

The end, however, was a little bit too complex. It could have had a much simpler resolution of the
conflict and have an actual perfect ending, instead of the complex one we received. Even with that
it´s still a notably enjoyable movie appropriate for almost any kind of public.

Saying “almost” because it has some scenes that may be a little too explicit for the young
audiences. Catherine falling down a cliff, Stella also falling down a cliff or a police persecution.