A few years ago, it didn’t feel like we really needed a Cruella de Vil origin story, but with the release of each fresh Disney trailer for this film, it sure feels like this Emma Stone-starring picture will be one of the cures to the pandemic-cinematic rut. And what a laugh we’re getting from Emma! She’s insisted that she’s not doing her version of the Joker (or Harley) here. After watching her wild cackling while hanging off a garbage truck (1:30) in a billowing dress, yes, it’s time to believe Emma. Perhaps she’s inspired by other villains, but she’s presenting her own creation, and although my stomach still lurches every time those puppies come into view, I’m here for the rebellious early days of this villainess. Young Estella’s setting her dress on fire (again), and taking over the fashion world, and I Tonya director Craig Gillespie is just the helmer for this gig.
The movie’s set against the punk-rock revolution of 1970s London. Estella befriends young thieves, they grift together, and then she comes into the life of Emma Thompson’s Baroness von Hellman, and it is on. Soon, it’ll be the Academy Award-winner-off of a Disney lifetime, and according to the synopsis, “[T]heir relationship sets in motion a course of events and revelations that will cause Estella to embrace her wicked side and become the raucous, fashionable and revenge-bent Cruella.”
Cruella will stream on Disney+ (via Premier Access) on May 28 with a simultaneous theatrical release. Here’s a mischievous new poster.
