Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser, John McCrea, Emily Beecham, Mark Strong, Kayvan Novak, Kirby Howell-Baptiste Jamie Demetriou, Leo Bill, Tipper Seifert-Cleveland.
For all the great characters that the Disney studios have created or adapted in their time as one of the influential film makers of the last 100 years, it is perhaps the incredible villain Cruella de Vil who stands out alongside the likes of Captain Hook and The Evil Queen as ones who give children and adults alike their glimpse of how the twisted nature of humanity can be taken down a road of self-indulgence, possessed by want, and turned ugly within by their greed.
The 1956 children’s novel 101 Dalmatians by the outstanding Dodie Smith serves as an introduction to the level of cruelty at the heart of the fashion devotee, and whilst Cruella was perfectly drawn in the original outing in 1961, the backstory was perhaps at best, skipped over and not given the treatment it deserved.
Behind every cruel act is a person who was once hurt themselves, who hit back in the only way they could, fight fire with fire, fight cruelty with merciless spite, and in Cruella the writers and creatives have captured that essence of youthful nurture in all its glory and harsh reality.
As the epitome of Disney’s evil, Cruella de Vil, Emma Stone invaluably proves her sizeable contribution to cinema has not been one of fortune or luck, she is a serious actor who has seemingly never put a foot wrong in her career, her movement in the film is unshakable, her mannerisms, as the Cruella persona takes hold, is spot on, and not for the first time, the use of projected voice is outstanding.
The tale is one of exacting conflict, one fears the spite, the inhumanity of Cruella’s acts, and especially from the turn of Estella to the darker spirit within, portrayed superbly by newcomer Tipper Seifert-Cleveland in the role of the pre-teen Estella, but one in which the audience comes to understand the severity of the blows she took herself as she is rejected by her birth mother in infancy, the lack of moral guidance, and the circumstances that followed, serves as a warning that the way we treat children is one which continue to misunderstand and heartlessly react to when it is too late to solve.
With superb performances by Joel Fry as Jasper, the sublime Emily Beecham as Catherine, Paul Walter Hauser as Horace, Emma Thompson as The Baroness, and without doubt Emma Stone in one of her greatest roles, Cruella is a film of magnificence, worthy of the original novel, more than equal to the innovative animated film; Cruella is mean, moody, and sensational.
Ian D. Hall