Domus 1930s
Book
Modernist quintessence: The birth of the International StyleOffering an unrivaled record of...
The Alchemists: Inside the Secret World of Central Bankers
Book
When the first rumblings of the coming financial crisis were heard in August 2007, three men who...
Hidden Hemingway: Inside the Ernest Hemingway Archives of Oak Park
Robert K. Elder, Mark Cirino and Aaron Vetch
Book
Thinking of Ernest Hemingway often brings to mind his travels around the world, documenting war and...
Salamander Sun and Other Poems
Book
Pia Tafdrup is one of Denmark's leading poets. She has received the Nordic Literature Prize -...
The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden
Book
Written with the same light-hearted satirical voice as Jonas Jonasson's bestselling debut novel,...
The Refugees
Book
From the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2016 'A powerful antidote to all the...
George Szell: A Life of Music
Book
This book is the first full biography of George Szell, one of the greatest orchestra and opera...
Heroines of the Medieval World
Book
The lives and actions of medieval women were carefully controlled and restricted by the men who...
Queering Families: The Postmodern Partnerships of Cisgender Women and Transgender Men
Book
Ozzie and Harriet, move over. A new couple is moving into the neighborhood. In the postmodern era,...
Erika (17789 KP) rated Cruella (2021) in Movies
Jun 1, 2021 (Updated Jun 1, 2021)
At an overly-long, bloated run time of 2 hours and 12 minutes, we get the entire life story of Cruella, prior to 101 Dalmatians, whose real name is Estella. Of course, it starts with the stereotypical birth scene, continuing through childhood to adulthood. She becomes orphaned, and meets her two future henchmen, played by Paul Walter Hauser and Joel Fry. They were pretty bumbling, and I found myself both amused and annoyed by them.
Estella dreams of a career in fashion, and by a series of events, ends up at the fashion house of the Baroness. There’s a connection from the Baroness to the events that caused Estella to be orphaned, and when that connection is made by Estella, she goes full on Cruella. I think Disney was attempting to show that Estella/Cruella has some sort of hereditary personality disorder, and I don’t know how I felt about that being used as a plot device. Cruella’s vendetta and revenge are sort of fun to watch, but there’s just too much. Every time you thought the movie was ending, something else happened.
Emma Stone does make Cruella interesting, which is a positive. Emma Thompson as the Baroness was so over the top, but at least Thompson seemed to enjoy playing someone that deranged.
For me, the only positives of this film were the costumes and music. The 60s/70s soundtrack was sick (in a good way), and the fashion was over the top and outrageous. The run time was so long, and Disney should have just slapped it on Disney+, for free, as a miniseries. The movie was not worth the price of a ticket, and definitely not worth that crazy premium pricing on VOD. If you’re interested, wait a couple of months and watch it for free when it joins the Disney+ library.

