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Did you ever wonder how Cruella De Vil, the vampy fiend from Disney's "101 Dalmatians," became evil enough to want to kill puppies and skin them for fur coats? You didn't? Ah, well—there's a movie about it, "Cruella." It stars two Oscar-winning actresses, runs two hours and 14 minutes, and reportedly cost $200 million, a good chunk of it spent on an expansive soundtrack of familiar sixties and seventies pop songs. It never answers the burning question posed by its own existence, though: what new information could possibly make us sympathize with the original movie's nuclear family-loathing, wannabe-dog-killing monster? The further away from "Cruella" that you get, the more its connection to "101 Dalmatians" seems a cynical attempt to leash an existing Disney intellectual property to a story that has no organic connection with it.

Directed by Craig Gillespie —who does a discount Scorsese, keeping the camera flying and the phonograph needles dropping, much as he did in " I, Tonya "—"Cruella" awkwardly combines a couple of popular modes. One is the origin story of a long-lived, brand-name character that didn't need an origin story: think " Solo: A Star Wars Story ," " Pan ," and the third Indiana Jones (the opening sequence of “The Last Crusade" showed Indy acquiring his whip, his chin scar, his hat, and his fear of snakes in the space of 10 minutes).

The other mode is the "give the Devil his due" story, represented on TV by dramas such as " Bates Motel " and "Ratched" and in cinema, with greater or lesser degrees of artistry, by Rob Zombie's "Halloween" remakes, which explored the abusive childhood of serial killer Michael Myers; by the billion-dollar grossing, Oscar-winning " Joker "; by Tim Burton's " Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ," which gave Roald Dahl's inscrutable, faintly sinister clown Willy Wonka a tragic childhood; by the " Maleficent " films (the first of which had soul, at least); and by Broadway's Wicked , which presented the Wicked Witch as a victim of bigotry who embraced her own stereotype and used it as a weapon against tormenters.

The "Cruella" screenplay is in that vein, or sometimes it tries to be. But it's a mess, and it often seems to pause to remind itself that it's supposed to have something to do with "101 Dalmatians." The script is credited to Dana Fox and Tony McNamara , from a story by Aline Brosh McKenna , Kelly Marcel , and Steve Zissis . But although it was theoretically inspired by a Disney cartoon feature adapted from Dodie Smith's book, you could change the heroine's name and take out a handful of iconic production design elements (such as Cruella's yin-yang hair and Bentley roadster, and the spotted dogs) and have a serviceable feature in the vein of " Matilda ," " Madeline ," or " Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events "—or, for that matter, countless Charles Dickens film adaptations, wherein a plucky child or teenager navigates a world of useless or treacherous adults, becoming embroiled in plots to steal this object or expose that bad person.

Far from wanting to kill and skin dogs, a pre-Cruella girl named Estella ( Emma Stone ) owns one and dotes on it. As the story unfolds, we never see her being cruel to an animal or even saying an unkind word about them. She blames Dalmatians for the accidental death of her mother, a poor laundrywoman played by Emily Beecham ; but that's more of a reflexive loathing, like hating the ocean if you'd lost a loved one to drowning. It's not as if she's sworn vengeance against canines generally. Our heroine (or antiheroine) is a sassy, plucky orphan who overcomes a life of deprivation on London's swingin' streets, joining up with a couple of buddies, Jasper ( Joel Fry ) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser) and running grifts and scams. A brilliant draftswoman with an eye for style, Estella gets a job at a big department store. In a fit of pique, she reconfigures a shop window display because it showcases a gown she thinks is ugly (altering it in the process), and is summarily hired by the store's biggest vendor, fashion designer Baroness von Hellman ( Emma Thompson ). The Baroness is a staff-abusing control freak who nevertheless becomes the closest thing to a mentor and mother that Estella has had since her own mum's death.

Through a combination of incidents too tangled to recount here, the story morphs into an " All About Eve " riff about intergenerational rivalry between women in a creative workplace. Estella becomes increasingly resentful of the Baroness abusing her and stealing her glory; in time, she gradually learns what a vile person the Baroness is, and vows to humiliate and destroy her and usurp her spot as the top fashionista in London. All in all, not a bad setup for a knockabout comedy-drama set in what feels like an alternate universe—one that's more clever and colorful than the one we're stuck with, although Jasper and Fry never quite feel like more than obligatory sidekicks, and Cruella is given a childhood best friend, Maya ( Kirby Howell-Baptiste ), a photojournalist and gossip columnist who is reduced to the status of a plot device in the film's second half.

But Estella needs to become Cruella De Vil, just as Arthur Fleck had to become the Joker and Anakin Skywalker had to become Darth Vader, otherwise the production can't end up in theaters and on Disney+. And so "Cruella," much like the half-charming, half-pointless "Solo," has to shoehorn bits of lore and backstory and fanwankery into the narrative, none more risible than the moment where the heroine decides that Cruella needs an equally colorful last name and takes it from a certain model of automobile. Did we need that? Isn't the wordplay on "Devil" and "da vil(lain)" sufficient? Apparently not, and of course, young children are going to eat that sort of thing right up, even though it’s (amazingly) even worse than the scene in "Solo" where the intergalactic customs official assigns the hero his last name because he's traveling alone.

It's a bummer, really, because—like many a "How did this person become the character we already know?" films—"Cruella" is filled with situations, set pieces, and moments of characterization and performance that suggest it had everything required to stand on its own two high-heeled feet, minus the guardrails of intellectual property owned by the largest entertainment conglomerate the world has ever seen.

Estella's rightful desire to punish a bad person, for example, is intertwined with her drive to succeed in business, a touch of psychological complexity that the script isn't interested in unpacking because it already has its hands full making Estella a lively character in her own right and simultaneously setting her up to become Cruella de Vil—a transformation that makes increasingly less sense the more you learn about the character. A pity, that. People in real life often do good things for bad reasons and vice versa, or use their trauma as an excuse to lower themselves to the level of the person they've decided is (to quote Bond's nemesis Blofeld) the author of all their pain. Because the film can’t, or won’t, deal with the material that’s right in front of it, it comes across seeming as if it wants credit for a sophistication it does not possess.

There's no denying that "Cruella" is stylish and kinetic, with a nasty edge that's unusual for a recent Disney live-action feature. But it's also exhausting, disorganized, and frustratingly inert, considering how hard it works to assure you that it's thrilling and cheeky. You get forty minutes into it and realize the main story hasn't started yet. Were it not for the acrobatic camerawork, the game lead performances by two Emmas, and the parade of eye-popping costumes by Jenny Beavan —eighty knockouts in 134 minutes, not counting the period-inspired background garb on the extras—it would be a nonsensical heap of broken images, as aesthetically bankrupt as " Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker " and the first " Suicide Squad ."

More vexing is the film’s reluctance to own the fact that—as one of many obvious song cues assure us—it has Sympathy for the Devil. She's not really the devil—not even remotely, as the script keeps telling us—but she is an awful person in many ways, and we are expected to adore her because the Baroness is so much worse.

The movie hits a giddy peak in its final act when it becomes a contest of wills. It’s here that the leads cut loose. Thompson in particular achieves cartoonish grandiosity, a supervillain armored in haute couture. Every head tilt, sneer, and side-eye is a non-physical assault on the Baroness' enemies and underlings, some of who don't realize they've been symbolically executed until their heads hit the basket. The effect is similar to what Cate Blanchett achieved in " Thor: Ragnarok ," another film where the costumes were practically giving performances of their own, and the smartest actors in the cast knew how to merge with them.

But "Cruella" never embraces darkness in the way it keeps threatening to. There's nothing in this film remotely as powerful as the moment in the first "Maleficent" when the heroine awakens on a hilltop after spending the night with a duplicitous man and finds that her wings have been chopped off. It's an atrocity that reads as a sexual and psychological assault even though the movie never frames it that way, and it powers us through the rest of the story, freeing us to root for a traumatized, outcast monster. "Maleficent" eventually compromises, too, pulling back from its heroine's grimmest tendencies. But it's still as close as Disney has gotten to letting Satan footnote the Bible, and it looks better every time the studio releases something like "Cruella," a movie that flinches from its own premise, even as it looks great doing it.

"Cruella" will release simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access for a onetime additional fee on Friday, May 28.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

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Cruella (2021)

Rated PG-13 for some violence and thematic elements.

134 minutes

Emma Stone as Cruella de Vil / Estella

Emma Thompson as Baroness von Hellman

Mark Strong as Boris

Joel Fry as Jasper

Paul Walter Hauser as Horace

Emily Beecham as Catherine

Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Anita

Jamie Demetriou as Gerald

John McCrea as Artie

Abraham Popoola as George

Craig Gillespie

Writer (based upon the novel "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" by)

Dodie Smith

Writer (story by)

Aline Brosh McKenna
Kelly Marcel
Steve Zissis
Tony McNamara

Cinematographer

Nicolas Karakatsanis
Tatiana S. Riegel
Nicholas Britell

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‘Cruella’ Review: A Disney Villain Gets a Backstory. It’s Spotty.

Emma Stone stars in the film that feels fresher than most recent Disney live-action efforts.

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‘Cruella’ | Anatomy of a Scene

The director craig gillespie narrates a sequence from his film featuring emma stone and emma thompson..

“Hi, my name is Craig Gillespie and I’m the director of Cruella.” “Who are you? You look vaguely familiar.” “I look stunning. I don’t know about familiar, darling.” “At this point in the film, we’re pretty much halfway through the film. And it’s the first time the audience is going to meet Cruella. It’s the first time the characters in the film meet Cruella. And it’s born out of a necessity for a certain revenge. And we get to see this group pulling off a heist. And it’s something that they’ve grown up doing and they’re very good at it. But this has sort of escalated to a whole other level for them. So we have Emma Stone playing Cruella. And we have Emma Thompson playing the Baroness. The Baroness is a fashion icon and she’s hosting a party here, which is a black and white ball. And as you can see, Emma Stone has turned up in a red dress. This scene has sort of everything— every juggling act going on in the film, which is tonally, there’s a lot of humor. But there’s also a lot of emotional stakes.” “Yes. Aren’t they gorgeous and vicious? It’s my favorite combination.” “Within this scene, we’re going to actually see the transformation of Cruella from an external character, because she’s putting on a character here and having to do that dance as an actor, to having a profound, emotional reaction to some news that she discovers throughout. But in the midst of it all, there’s a heist going on.” “You’re a very powerful woman.” “First and foremost was the dynamic between the Baroness and Cruella. But to complicate that, we have Cruella, who has gotten trapped in this situation of having a conversation with the Baroness. And she’s having to put on a character that she’s not familiar with, which is Cruella. So she’s improvising in that situation. It was kind of nerve wracking to figure out that character with Emma, because it’s its own character. It’s like separate from the other Cruellas that she plays. And it’s like a heightened version, where she’s not supposed to be good at it. So you start to get into this dangerous idea of like, bad acting and overcompensating. And so you always feel a little bit like you’re hanging out on the line a little bit as an actor, I think, when you’re going for that. But she’s very gracious with that work. And then, within all of that, you’ve got her two cohorts, Horace and Jasper, that are trying to improvise with the situation. We have Paul Walter Hauser, who is playing Horace. And then we have Joel Fry playing Jasper. Part of that improvisation for Jasper is using rats, which walks a very fine line of becoming too grotesque or too much for the audience. It was something Disney was concerned about. But I felt like we could walk that line. And there was many conversations about how many rats could we have in this scene. And then you just start to get how these characters can work together so well and improvise. It was almost like a jazz situation.” “Someone’s stolen my necklace.” “So I loved that we were going through all of these dances. And every character brings a different humor to it.” “Now it’s a party.”

By A.O. Scott

“Cruella” is a vaguely retro costume party with a doggedly retro playlist — a treat for fashion-curious kids whipped up by the boomers and Gen Xers who hold the keys to the Disney I.P. storage locker. And there’s a millennial Oscar winner in the titular role. When I say it has something for everyone I’m not being sarcastic, though I’m also not being entirely complimentary.

This revisionist supervillain origin story, directed by Craig Gillespie (“I, Tonya”), doesn’t offer much that is genuinely new, but it nonetheless feels fresher than most recent Disney live-action efforts. There’s some visual wit and pop sparkle in the mildly Dickensian tale of how Cruella DeVil, the notorious pooch-hater of “One Hundred and One Dalmatians,” came to be that way.

Reviewing the original animated adaptation of Dodie Smith’s novel for The Times in 1961, Howard Thompson observed that “the kids who survived ‘Psycho’ should survive Cruella.” Pretty scary stuff! Times change: No puppies, C.G.I. or otherwise, are harmed in this movie. Cruella — originally known as Estella and played by a harmlessly snarly Emma Stone — actually likes dogs (though she does have a specific grudge against Dalmatians).

This is not “Joker,” so Cruella’s transgressive energies are kept within the bounds of social acceptability and the PG-13 rating. Her motive is revenge, and her methods include fraud, theft and deceit, but the closest she comes to evil is occasional selfish insensitivity to her friends. She isn’t a monster. She’s an artist, and her theatrically outrageous misbehavior is a sign of her uncompromising creativity.

Cruella’s swaggering, eclectic spirit aligns with the film’s idea of London in the 1970s, its alleged setting. The aesthetic is raffish, glammish and also punkish, and the musical selections zigzag through the years from “Their Satanic Majesties Request” to “London Calling.” No deep cuts here, just an eclectic sampling of Dad Rock Essentials. The choices can be a little on the nose — Stone’s first appearance as the grown-up Estella, with hair dyed crimson, is heralded by “She’s a Rainbow” — but my middle-aged ears were not offended. Special kudos to Gillespie and Susan Jacobs, the music supervisor, for including the Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” a song with no kinky subtext whatsoever and as such a perfect fit for a “Dalmatians” spinoff.

The oldies greatest-hits package, linked by Nicholas Britell’s elegant score, keeps things lively even when the plot turns draggy or hectic. Jenny Beavan’s costumes and Fiona Crombie’s production design, festooning posh department stores, bohemian thrift shops and couture palaces, engage the eye even when the characters wander through the city in search of coherent motives.

Estella starts out as a renegade schoolgirl (played by Tipper Seifert-Cleveland) with two-tone hair, and soon lands in London, orphaned and alone. She befriends a pair of pickpockets, Jasper and Horace, who grow up to be Joel Fry and Paul Walter Hauser, providing cartoon-sidekick japery as the horizon of Estella’s ambition shifts from petty crime to high fashion. At that point, she adds a journalist (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) and a used-clothing aficionado (John McCrea) to her retinue.

Estella’s nemesis and role model is a famous designer known as the Baroness, a self-described genius who recalls Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada,” Daniel Day-Lewis in “Phantom Thread” and, of course, Cruella DeVil in both her cartoon and Glenn Close incarnations . Luckily, the role belongs to Emma Thompson, who plays her as a haughty, feline predator alternately annoyed, enraged and charmed by Stone’s angry mouse.

The film itself traffics in less intense emotions, which makes it easy enough to watch but hard to care much about. Its main purpose is to remind you that other movies exist, which might describe Disney’s current business strategy as a whole. At best, it might also inspire you to spin some old records or play dress up with those weird clothes that have languished in the back of the closet through these grim athleisure months.

Cruella Rated PG-13. Danger to and from dogs. Running time: 2 hours 14 minutes. In theaters and available to purchase on Disney+ .

A.O. Scott is a critic at large and the co-chief film critic. He joined The Times in 2000 and has written for the Book Review and The New York Times Magazine. He is also the author of “Better Living Through Criticism.” More about A.O. Scott

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Common sense media reviewers.

Disney villain is de Vilishly delightful, daring, and dark.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Clear themes of friendship, teamwork, perseverance

Estella is fearless, working hard and persevering

Murder and murderous intent. A mother falls to her

"Hell" is seen on a sign, referring to a place. "S

Elaborate parties and stylish couture gowns repres

Swigs from a decanter imply drinking and drunkenne

Positive Messages

Clear themes of friendship, teamwork, perseverance, resilience -- but, still, at heart it's a story about trauma and revenge. Potentially problematic messages about identity and tying someone's "true" nature to their parental deeds.

Positive Role Models

Estella is fearless, working hard and persevering to achieve her goals -- but many of those goals are iffy (revenge, theft, etc.); she's destined, it seems, for villainy. Jasper and Horace are loyal friends. The Baroness is unrepentantly cold, calculating, selfish, manipulative. Positive representations include racially diverse supporting characters (a welcome update from previous films involving these characters) and one representing the LGBTQ+ community.

Violence & Scariness

Murder and murderous intent. A mother falls to her death on camera while her child watches (impact not shown). Main character in deep peril, with death assumed by others at one point and implied at another. Attack dogs put characters in peril, snapping and snarling. A couple of punches and (comedic) tackles. An intentionally set fire. Shock device used for comic effect. Cruel/abusive behavior, both in present and past. Arguing. Children bully a girl because she's different.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

"Hell" is seen on a sign, referring to a place. "Stupid," "psycho," "farts." One character calls others "short" and "fat."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Elaborate parties and stylish couture gowns represent a posh lifestyle.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Swigs from a decanter imply drinking and drunkenness, which ultimately lead to positive consequences for the character involved. Champagne served at parties and celebrations.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Cruella is Disney's stylish but dark live-action origin story about the dog-napping villain from Disney's 1961 classic 101 Dalmatians . Set in the early 1970s, it attempts to explain Cruella's ( Emma Stone ) nefarious behavior in a way that will spark empathy in viewers. Think of it as Wicked by way of The Devil Wears Prada , with healthy dashes of Dickens and Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) . While there's very little iffy content in terms of sex, language, or substance use (aside from one scene of implied drunkenness) -- and a couple of punches and tackles are played for comedic effect -- this is definitely a murderous revenge story. Cruella's life is in danger more than once, and a parent dies (partially on camera) as her child watches. The circumstances around Cruella becoming an orphan may be upsetting for kids who've lost or been separated from their own parents/families. Also, children bully young Cruella because she's different, and both Cruella and her eventual boss, The Baroness ( Emma Thompson ), are wickedly funny -- i.e., they're mean and treat others terribly in ways that may make viewers laugh but certainly aren't kind. On the positive side, the film is notably more diverse than previous Dalmatians movies, and Cruella clearly demonstrates perseverance. (Oh, and about that dog coat? You don't have to worry about it. At least not in this film.) To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

Parents say (63)
Kids say (177)

Based on 63 parent reviews

How this can be rated as Okay for kids, is beyond me

While not the worst disney remake, it still suffers from many of the same problems., what's the story.

Before she became known as a criminal with a savage affinity for dog-skin clothing, CRUELLA de Vil was known as Estella ( Emma Stone ), an orphaned girl living on the streets of London in the early 1970s, getting by on petty thefts and creative costumes. Her luck turns after she becomes an apprentice to London's most in-demand fashion designer, Baroness von Hellman ( Emma Thompson ). But just when it seems Estella's dreams are about to come true, she's confronted by her tragic past.

Is It Any Good?

Sinisterly superb, this is a well-crafted, phenomenally acted, artistically drenched triumph that's a whole lot more responsible than most other villain-as-main-character films. And yet it does make a hero out of a criminal. So, there's that. It's easy to see why Disney might feel that the accolades for Joker and the merchandising bonanza for Harley Quinn should belong to them: They started this trend of reexamining villains with Maleficent in 2014. But Angelina Jolie's evil fairy wasn't relatable or aspirational, whereas many young fans wanted to be vandal Harley Quinn . Just like many cinematic villains before her, Cruella is portrayed here as misunderstood, the product of trying to survive in a cold, unsympathetic world. She overcomes Oliver Twist - like adversity to find herself in a Great Expectations -like relationship with her boss, Baroness von Hellman. When the past she's worked to put behind her comes back with a (literal) vengeance, she "snaps." And she becomes awful, as in awfully glamorous and rebellious. Deliciously played by Stone, Cruella seeks her revenge with such smashing style that it's easy to think that it might encourage some kids to embrace their own mischevious side.

That likelihood is encouraged by the fact that the movie is just so great, in every way. The art direction feels lifted straight from a Vogue shoot, and the fashion is fabulous. Just as punk rock was taking over Carnaby Street in London during the '70s, Cruella stands up to wreck entrenched sensibilities of stuffy haute design through bold, glam, rock-inspired creations, delivered with defiant disruption. The movie's robust soundtrack is loaded with iconic music from the 1970s; it feels exciting every time a note starts to play. The script is divine, and the actors seem to delight in their characters. Thompson's narcissistic fashion designer is such an ingenious character creation, and Paul Walter Hauser 's take on henchman Horace is both authentic to the original animated depiction and a brilliant improvement. Another welcome modernization: bringing more diversity to Cruella's world. Some moments from the 1961 animated classic are revisited (Cruella driving recklessly with Jasper and Horace in her grand Panther De Ville), while the repugnant concept of turning dogs into a coat is dealt with in a satisfying way. There's no question that it's much harder to tell a dark story about a hero turned bad and keep it appropriate for younger audiences who love the source material, but the magnificent craftsmanship shown by director Craig Gillespie proves it can be done. Darling, let the black-and-white hair trend commence!

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how Cruella experiments with treating others in a mean fashion but pulls back when she realizes she's hurting her friends. How does this compare to kids pushing social boundaries? How can we prevent or stop bullying behavior?

Why are villains/antiheroes often as compelling as heroes? Does Cruella's backstory make her more sympathetic? How does Cruella compare to other villain-as-main-character movies?

How does this prequel honor the original animated film? What scenes were similar, and what was changed?

What are the movie's messages around identity? Are those messages positive ones? Are people's personalities and choices determined by who their parents are?

How does Estella persevere through adversity to achieve her goals?

Movie Details

In theaters : May 28, 2021
On DVD or streaming : August 27, 2021
Cast : Emma Stone , Emma Thompson , Mark Strong
Director : Craig Gillespie
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Walt Disney Studios
Genre : Comedy
Topics : Cats, Dogs, and Mice , Friendship
Character Strengths : Perseverance
Run time : 134 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : some violence and thematic elements
Award : Academy Award
Last updated : August 30, 2023

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Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Emma stone in ‘cruella’: film review.

The actress plays 'One Hundred and One Dalmatians' villain Cruella de Vil in this origin story directed by Craig Gillespie and co-starring Emma Thompson.

By Lovia Gyarkye

Lovia Gyarkye

Arts & Culture Critic

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Emma Stone as Cruella in Disney’s live-action CRUELLA.

In case you needed reminding: The One Hundred and One Dalmatians franchise has never been about the dogs. No — its real star is Cruella de Vil, the acerbic, deliciously biting antagonist with an unhinged fur obsession.

Betty Lou Gerson voiced the character in the 1961 Disney animated film, investing the villain with wit, haughtiness and an understated charm. Glenn Close came next in 1996’s live-action 101 Dalmatians , all but — excuse the hyperbole — revolutionizing the role. Cruella, in Close’s claws, was sharper, more menacing and, with her untamed, two-tone black-and-white hair, scarlet lipstick and maniacal laugh, frankly iconic. To fill her shoes — or should I say her furs — is a daunting undertaking. But it’s one Emma Stone tackles with admirable hustle and considerable charisma in Disney’s new Cruella .

Full credits

Distributor: Disney Production companyies: Gunn Films, Marc Platt Productions, TSG Entertainment, Walt Disney Pictures Cast: Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser, Emily Beecham, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Mark Strong Director: Craig Gillespie Screenwriters: screenplay by Dana Fox, Tony McNamara; story by Aline Brosh McKenna, Kelly Marcel, Steve Zissis Producers: Andrew Gunn, Kristin Burr, Marc Platt, Mark Mostyn Executive producers: Emma Stone, Michelle Wright, Jared LeBoff, Glenn Close,Aline Brosh McKenna, Jessica Virtue, Director of photography: Nicolas Karakatsanis Production designer: Fiona Crombie Costume designer: Jenny Beavan Editor: Tatiana S. Riegel Composer: Nicholas Britell Casting director: Lucy Bevan, Mary Vernieu

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Cruella Reviews

Set in the emerging punk scene of 1970s London, the Craig Gillespie-directed prequel of the iconic Cruella De Vil is the perfect film to bring people back to the theater.

Full Review | Aug 22, 2023

As beautifully shot, written and acted as it is full of personality and style, Disney’s Cruella is a graphic novel-worthy origin story that beautifully captures its protagonist’s dichotomy.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 15, 2023

Boasting terrific lead performances and incredible costume design, Cruella is undeniably one of the better live action stories Disney has given us. However, the pacing issues and shoddy first half stop this from reaching true greatness.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 6, 2023

A creative, stylish, & snappy Disney Live Action Film yet. A must see in theaters for the fascinating directing & INCREDIBLE performance from EMMA STONE

Full Review | Jul 26, 2023

An incredibly captivating origin(al) story about one of Disney's classic villains. Emma Stone delivers an award-worthy display, interpreting two personalities in impressive fashion, stealing the spotlight from the other outstanding interpretations.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jul 25, 2023

Ultimately, it’s impossible to deny that Cruella is fun. Stone is clearly enjoying being eccentric as she flounces around London in her outlandish costumes, bringing mayhem wherever she goes.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 25, 2023

Cruella doesn’t just retell an old story. It creates a lavish comic-book villain-style origin that opens up the film to an even larger audience.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 31, 2023

Cruella manages to overcome its inherent flaws with tremendous style and just enough of a flirtation with tearing down the Disney machinery to make it feel edgier than it actually is.

Full Review | Dec 7, 2022

Cruella is pure, perfect big studio escapism. It’s a witty, suspenseful, ultra-cool, killer Disney live-action triumph.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Oct 9, 2022

A stylish new spin to an iconic character.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 17, 2022

Cruella is absolute trashy cinema, but it certainly is my kind of trash. Basically, The Devil Wears Prada for the queer crowd who loves to stan a messy villain.

Full Review | May 30, 2022

Cruella doesn't really feel like a Disney movie, and I truly mean that as a compliment. It's much darker than one might expect but never takes itself too seriously.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | May 18, 2022

The best way to enjoy and even understand Cruella is to see it as a punk opera, in which what moves the needle are not so much the musical segments but the dresses on display.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 30, 2022

A kind of family friendly Joker a retro tale of a misfit searching for identity, before giving into the madness. Did we need to know how Cruella became such a devil? Probably not. Then again, darlings, it was a lot of fun.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 2, 2022

Despite a strong effort from Emma Stone, Cruella does little to justify meaning in a story that turns irredeemable Disney villains into well-meaning, underdog antiheroes.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Feb 18, 2022

If there is one thing this movie did best in terms of remaking 101 Dalmatians, its perfectly capturing Cruellas insanity, not just for the character herself, but for the entire picture.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Feb 16, 2022

It is incredibly easy to get lost within Cruella's world and have a fun time with the characters and camp that exist within the film's runtime.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Feb 12, 2022

This soundtrack was wild...Stone was good, but not fantastic.

Full Review | Jan 12, 2022

Unnecessary but still fun...

Once the plot's major twist is unveiled, we're watching a duel between Emma Stone as Estella and Emma Thompson as the Baroness, and the two divas revel in their roles, chewing scenery and striking dramatic poses and just being super fabulous.

Full Review | Jan 3, 2022

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Cruella review: Disney's live-action revamp hangs great performances on a chaotic premise

They're not bad, they were just drawn that way . Or at least that's what the current big-screen mini-boom in villain origin stories from Joker to Venom and Birds of Prey 's Harley Quinn seems to suggest — a trend so far-reaching now, it's even touched Disney. So what does it look like when the house that happily-ever-afters built gets into the antihero business?

The answer, apparently, is a movie as shiny and hectic as Cruella : a heady exercise in style and scenery-chewing whose high-gloss chaos seems designed less for cohesive storytelling or world-building than for looking super-cool in previews. Though the production is rich in other things, including Oscar-winning Emmas: Emma Stone stars as the iconic title character, an orphaned urchin with a flair for fashion and a marked distaste for certain canine breeds; Emma Thompson is the Baroness von Hellman, her erstwhile employer, mentor, and nemesis.

Only one of them is actually British, though Stone has adopted a plummy theatrical rasp for Estella (played in the opening scenes by Tipper Seifert-Cleveland) — an odd, unruly little girl whose stormy temperament and bifurcated hair marks her from birth as an outcast. ("I've always made a statement," she purrs early on. "Not everyone appreciated that. But I wasn't for everyone.") Her tenderhearted mother (Emily Beecham) tries her best to protect her, but when those efforts end in tragedy, young Estella is left to make her own way in the mean (if conspicuously clean) streets of swinging 1960s London.

That's where she befriends fellow ragamuffins Jasper ( Joel Fry ), and Horace ( Richard Jewell 's Paul Walter Hauser ), the boys who will become her found family and future partners in grift. They may be petty criminals, but they're also loyal to a fault; it's their machinations that eventually help land her a low-level job in the atelier of the Baroness, imperious queen of ladies' dressmaking. Her ladyship, it's soon made clear, is a ruthless co-opter of other people's talents, and Estella's inspired sketches are exactly the kind of looks she's more than happy to kill for.

Thus from the ashes of a disillusioned Estella — and several calamitous plot revelations to come — is Cruella born: a goddess of vengeance, righteous in her fury and fake (or are they?) furs. Director Craig Gillespie, who skirted camp so nimbly in 2017's I, Tonya , pits his lead actresses against each other in a dynamic maybe best described as The Devil Wears Dalmation (and in fact, Devil Wears Prada scribe Aline Brosh McKenna is one of six writers credited here).

He never fully nails down the tone, but there's more than a little Meryl Streep in Thompson's glacial Baroness, and at least a little anxious Anne Hathaway beneath Stone's operatic snarls and elaborate wiggery. (To watch Thompson pop an olive in her mouth or casually crush the spirit of an underling is a gift not even a mute button could take away.)

The costumes, by Jenny Beavan ( Mad Max: Fury Road , Sherlock Holmes ), blossom into full fantasy as the story moves into the '70s: a Vivienne Westwood fever dream of punk-rock couture, swathed in yards of trash-bag latex and chiffon. The soundtrack, too, is a gold-plated celebration of the era; you can almost hear the Disney dollars ding as the canonized hits of Blondie and the Stooges and the Rolling Stones pour through the speakers.

But those endless pieces of flair can also feel like a noisy substitute for a story line that never quite materializes, subsumed instead by showpiece moments that seem to lurch from scene to scene: a collection of pin-drop lines and killer GIFs pressed haphazardly into movie form. That may be at least in part a product of trying to be all PG-13 things to all people by giving them a reimagined villainess who is both worthy of empathy (she doesn't just skin puppies for fun ) and naughty enough to be safely but certifiably outrageous. So Cruella comes off as a curious animal; eager to change its spots, and trying a little bit of everything along the way. Grade: B –

Cruella hits theaters and Disney+ Premier Access on May 28.

Cruella review – De Vil wears Prada in outrageous punk prequel

Aspiring fashionista Cruella is out for her boss’s skin in a riotous 101 Dalmatians origin-myth set in 70s London, starring Emmas Stone and Thompson in dynamic form

Kindly step back and make way for a sensational couple of Emmas: Stone and Thompson. Together, they are the highly strung dysfunctional double-act that post-lockdown cinema didn’t know it needed.

There’s an unexpectedly huge amount of old-fashioned fun to be had in Disney’s spectacular new origin-myth story from screenwriters Aline Brosh McKenna, Kelly Marcel and Steve Zissis, prebooting Cruella de Vil, the wicked dognapper from One Hundred and One Dalmatians. She is now an icily supercool supervillain, and Stone gives it everything she’s got – which is a considerable amount – as Estella, a young orphan girl with a genetic quirk of black-and-white hair. I was hoping for some Susan Sontag gags, but you can’t have everything. She grows up in glam-rock London of the mid-1970s, a world of Izal loo paper, Ford Anglia police cars and Golden Wonder crisps, living in a Faginesque thieves’ lair presided over by two dodgy scallywags, Jasper (Joel Fry) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser), who took her in when she was a stroppy homeless waif and schooled her in the ways of thievery.

And Thompson gives it everything’s she’s got – which is a considerable amount, and then some – as an imperious fashion designer called the Baroness with a prestige outlet at Liberty’s department store in London’s stately West End. Young Estella idolises this aristocrat of couture because she wants to be a fashionista just like her. So when supportive Jasper and Horace fake her a CV, claiming that she played polo with Prince Charles, Estella nabs a Cruella-de-Vil-wears-Prada apprenticeship with this grande dame. But then she is consumed with a need to destroy her haughty mentor, to reinvent herself as a punk-genius brand-named “Cruella”; it’s all got something to do with Estella’s poor, well-meaning mum, played by Emily Beecham, and the Baroness’s ferocious three Dalmatians to which Estella takes a dislike.

It’s all extremely entertaining, although I do have to say that in these snowflakey days of emotional correctness and respect for animals, this movie rather fudges the whole question of Cruella actually wanting, now or in the future, to kill Dalamatians for their skins. Maybe there’s a bit too much Hannibal Lecter energy, because the film sidesteps and pirouettes around that bit of nastiness, which was a feature both of the 1961 animation and of course Dodie Smith’s 1956 novel . You’ll have to hang on for the post-credits sting by the way, but that just makes the animal “cruelty” in Cruella even more puzzling by implication.

But what a lavish display, with repeated jukebox slams on the soundtrack keeping the movie’s blood-sugar levels high, although they didn’t use a certain Michael Jackson track which surely would have been perfect for a Dalmatians-themed film. The big screen is surely the place to marvel at the film’s digital recreation of London in the mid-70s, with top-notch work from costume designer Jenny Beavan and production designer Fiona Crombie, who lay on the outrageous accoutrements with a trowel. There are times when Cruella’s young womanhood is a mixture of Sleeping Beauty and Heath Ledger’s Joker.

Nowadays, there is hardly a classic female villain who hasn’t been reinvented or origin-mythed on a quasi-feminist basis. (Maybe the three witches in Macbeth should get this treatment, starring Millie Bobby Brown, Elle Fanning and Kirby Howell-Baptiste – who’s actually in this film, playing Estella’s smart mate, Anita.) But the politics of Cruella de Vil are more generational than sexual. She wants to be like her role-model heroine and then wipe her out. It’s not the dog’s skin Cruella wants to rip off and wear, it’s the Baroness’s. She wants to inhabit and destroy.

Emma Thompson
Walt Disney Company
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Cruella Review

28 May 2021

In the original, animated 101 Dalmatians , there was nothing black-and-white about Cruella de Vil. As her name less implied, more flat-out screamed, she was a Disney villain drawn delightfully, deliciously dark. Kudos, then, to director Craig Gillespie for pulling off a live-action prequel that adds a few shades of grey without muddying the character one bit, leaning into Cruella’s inherent flamboyance for a slick and stylish clothing caper.

Unlike the Sleeping Beauty villain-reimagining Maleficent , which tied itself in narrative knots attempting to retool the classic fairy tale, Cruella wisely divorces itself from the context of the original film. Where that was released in 1961, based on Dodie Smith’s novel from the ’50s, this largely takes place in the 1970s — recontextualising Cruella’s raucous sartorial stylings as a punk explosion, railing against conformity and scoffing at the safety of the Swinging Sixties. It’s a colourful background for a reimagined origin story that takes a young Estella (an impressive Tipper Seifert-Cleveland in an opening act coursing with Matilda -esque mischief) and morphs her into the cackling Cruella via a life of crime, a stint on the shop floor of Liberty, and a job at the most fearsome fashion house in London.

What could have been a mere IP cash-in instead becomes an unexpectedly cinematic crime-and-couture romp.

The result is a tale of two Emmas. Central, of course, is Stone , teasing out Estella’s encroaching evil while retaining all the charismatic screen presence that’s defined her career so far — and pulling off a decent British accent to boot. Among the theatricality (in one scene she tumbles onto a red carpet from a bin lorry in a giant rubbish-dress) and the two-tone wigs, she finds moments of humanity without diminishing Cruella’s delectable extremity. But it’s Emma Thompson who threatens to steal the film as The Baroness — a fashion boss whose cutthroat nature extends well beyond the catwalk. Whether she’s slashing at garments with a straight razor, loudly reading her own rave reviews, or calling people “imbeciles” with fatal levels of derision, she’s a killer creation. Thompson plays it to absolute perfection, running away with every scene she’s in.

The pair are so much fun that other players struggle to get a look-in. Joel Fry and Paul Walter Hauser entertain as Estella’s comrades-in-crime, but Mark Strong ’s valet, John, sinks into the background, Kirby Howell-Baptiste’s journalist Anita (a nod to the original Dalmatians ) appears often while saying little, and John McCrea’s Bowie-esque, androgynous boutique owner Artie is a disappointingly fleeting presence — he’s intriguing enough to deserve his own film.

Though Cruella could easily lose 20 minutes, Gillespie keeps the energy high throughout. The Scorsesean riffs he brought to I, Tonya continue here, from a stacked soundtrack of ’60s and ’70s greats (The Clash, Blondie, The Stooges), to a stunning extended tracking shot through the halls of Liberty. What could have been a mere IP cash-in instead becomes an unexpectedly cinematic crime-and-couture romp, delivered with the sort of style, snarl and eccentricity that Cruella herself would likely applaud. She makes being bad look very good.

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A Battle of Wits and Knits: Despite Its Intentions, ‘Cruella’ Proves Why the Baddies Are More Fun

By K. Austin Collins

K. Austin Collins

“Your name is Estella,” her mother says. “Not Cruella .” Not yet, anyway. Disney’s Cruella , headlined by Emma Stone , is named for its would-be villain rather than for the 90-something Dalmatian puppies she’s tried to dognap in the name of fashion, time and again, over the years. The original Cruella would probably have preferred a biopic more akin to The Devil Wears Pongo . But in line with Maleficent , another of Disney’s recent villain revamps, it’s our old ideas about these bad guys — these bad women — that are getting skewered rather than the women themselves. Those old caricatures have been rendered into last season’s sales rack relics — because Disney isn’t in the business of glorifying villains. At least, not anymore. And not directly.

Related: How to Stream Cruella Online

But there’s the rub. The old villains are fun! Rather, they became fun. No one, probably not even deer hunters, wound up rooting for the guy who killed Bambi’s mother. But Uncle Scar? A saucy bitch. Jafar? A literal snake by the end but, really, from the start. Ursula: my octopus teacher. These legendary baddies are all a little more interesting than the heroes of their respective stories. Enticingly vampy, stylishly cruel, stocked with character motivations, surely, but not of the kind that offer much in the way of an appeal to their inner psychologies. The arched-brow barbs of their wit, the claws so befitting of their personalities: This was the pleasure and the purpose, the engineering that allowed us to align ourselves with the unlikely triumphs of the good guys while reveling — curious, tantalized, entertained — in the outlandishness of the bad.

Cruella de Vil: no exception. Originally envisioned by Dodie Smith, in her 1956 novel, The Hundred and One Dalmatians ; modeled in the 1961 animated adaptation of that book after the demonized but notoriously fascinating Tallulah Bankhead ; then later revived in the 1996 live-action feature and its sequel into a gorgeous piece of pop grotesque — even her gloves were adorned with acrylic claws — by a campy, unhinged Glenn Close: Cruella has seen her share of renditions and mild revisions. But not until the new Cruella was her ostensible evil given a purpose, a backstory, a solution to the problem of her bloodthirst for spotted-pup skins — none of which seemed especially mysterious for a rich fashion maven whose taste predates the ethics of modern anti-fur campaigns, but here we are.

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Cruella takes us back — way back, to the time before Cruella lived up to that name, and way, way before she could afford a ride as chic as a Panther De Ville. It takes it back to a time when “Cruella” was just a mother’s nickname for a misbehaving young girl, a child whose intelligence and love of fashion were clear from the get, but whose constant trips to the headmaster’s office and growing scroll of demerits at school threatened to prevent any of that promise from paying off in adulthood. She was, as we too often say, a “rebel,” constantly letting her mother down. But it wasn’t her mother she was challenging, the adult Cruella, narrating her life story, tells us early on. “It was the world.”

And so: the world. Through a series of unfortunate events — a tragic shock, a shabby London childhood fit for a Dickens novel, and so on — we get the ins and outs of Cruella’s slow embrace of her mischievous alter ego, as well as a tour of her growing wiles, her still-burning aspirations for a career in fashion. We learn just how it is that a pair of co-conspirator lugs, Jasper (Joel Fry) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser, funny as ever), become mainstays in her life. Most pertinent, however, is her rise to power — a story built, surprisingly and not, on a veritable death match against another woman: Baroness von Hellman (Emma Thompson), titular icon of Estella’s dream job, the House of Baroness.

So begins a battle of wits and knits, a vying for power in which the “villain” doesn’t get a clean makeover so much as displace the badness onto another villain — in this case, another woman. Cruella was directed by Craig Gillespie, best known, until now, for the image-reorienting I, Tonya , which, very much like Cruella , wrested a public enemy’s story back from the public and and gave the enemy a chance to tell that story on her own terms, racking up all the slights and humiliations that made her who she is . Maybe she’s born with it? Nope — she, like Cruella, was manufactured by circumstance. But the movie made sure to give her just enough inner light, that pinch of redemptive potential, to overcome it all, no matter the movie’s attitude toward the other women in her life, no matter its caricatures of that looming pile of loaded “circumstance.”

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Cruella Movie Review: A decent origin story of how a Disney princess turns sinister

Rating: ( 3 / 5).

Prequels are a tricky business, especially when it involves the unknown life story of a much-known character. One such character was surely Cruella de Vil, one of Disney's best villains, and someone who managed to even find a place in the American Film Institutes' best villains list. So when a film is said to be the origin story of the spoiled heiress who would go to any lengths for her love for fur, a kid-friendly film like Cruella isn't what one would expect.

The film is based on Dodie Smith's 1956 novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians , which was made into feature films in 1961 and 1996. Unlike the 1996 film 101 Dalmatians , Cruella is set in 1970s London when the punk counterculture was at its peak. While there was a transformation in ideologies and art, it was also an important time for the evolution of fashion. It is in this world where we meet Estella Miller (Emma Stone), an aspiring fashion designer who also has a cruel alternate personality named Cruella by her mother. A series of incidents land her a job under the watchful eyes of narcissistic haute couture designer Baroness (Emma Thompson). Carrying the brunt of a past mistake that cost her her only family member, Estella tries to make a career in the world of fashion and in due course, makes some personal revelations.

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

Director: Craig Gillespie

Streaming on: Disney+ Hotstar

Right off the bat, Cruella sets the mood as one of the darkest films that have come out of the Mouse House, but that’s minus the violence and gore one might think of, given Cruella's love of fur. The film does a lovely job of establishing the origins of our protagonist - we learn about her struggle with poliosis that makes her hair black and white, her troubled childhood, and even her hate towards dalmatians. In fact, apart from her hate towards the spotted breed, Cruella ticks all the boxes for becoming a Disney Princess. She is a beautiful little girl, who is plucked from a loving family, and thrown into the streets as an orphan, only to survive and become a success story. Cruella adheres to several archetypes made famous by the likes of Snow White, Cinderella, Mulan and Moana.

Considering we are well-acquainted with Cruella De Vil, her associates, and the plotlines courtesy of the previous films, Cruella does a fine job of reacquainting us with them. We are shown how the trusted henchmen — Jasper and Horace — came in contact with her. They save Estella as a kid and love her as their own, but despise the alter ego which, in her own words, is "born brilliant, born bad, and a little bit mad". There is also a beautiful reference to Psycho ’s Norman Bates through Estella’s turn as a janitor. It is interesting how director Craig Gillespie toys with the idea of black and white by delving deep into her hate for the dalmatians. We are shown how Estella, as a mischievous kid, was someone who got a lot of black dots on the white page of her school register. The pronounced black and white of her life are almost like yin and yang — the sweet little Estella and the crazy Cruella. At the end of the film, Cruella gifts two hampers to two secondary characters, a move that sows the seeds for the next instalment towards a story that we are aware of. Even the car Cruella steals in this film, the Panther De Ville, is the model the character owns in the animated film and the live-action one in the 90s. The film also ties up the knot when the car's name becomes Cruella's surname that's known and revered for years, Cruella de Vil!

One of many interesting aspects of Cruella is how the titular star loathes the arrogance and egocentricity of her boss Baroness but eventually turns into someone she loathed the most. The power dynamics and the fight for dominance between the two characters form the crux of this film and the face-off sequences make for some of the best moments of Cruella. Both the Emmas don't hold their punches when it comes to flaunting their acting prowess. While Stone's performance is sure to remind fans of a toned-down version of Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn, Thompson's resembled an amped-up version of Meryl Streep's Miranda Priestly from another film on fashion, based on a novel, The Devil Wears Prada . The duo put out stunning performances as they both dwell deep into their wickedness with a dash of sophistication. Full points to some brilliantly written dialogues that enhance their showdowns. In one particular scene where the Baroness advises Estella, she says, "You can't care about anyone else. Everyone else is an obstacle. You care what an obstacle wants or feels, you're dead. If I cared about anyone or thing I might have died like so many brilliant women with a drawer full of unseen genius and a heart full of sad bitterness." Costumes by the Mad Max: Fury Road -fame Jenny Beavan is as paramount as the leads and the three women prove their mettle on why they all have Academy Awards common with each other.

ALSO READ | Cruella costume designer Jenny Beavan: I like to tell stories through costumes

While the necessity of an origins story for a figure that has been a part of film history for 60 years is a debatable topic, Cruella is still a fun standalone film that humanises a character that later becomes the embodiment of her surname. Cruella , on the whole, restarts the franchise with new vigour, despite sporting its niggles proud over its skin, like black dots on a white coat.

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Did you know

Trivia Glenn Close , who played the first live-action Cruella DeVil in 101 Dalmatians (1996) and 102 Dalmatians (2000) , serves as executive producer for this movie.
Goofs Cruella crashes a car into an old-fashioned British red phone box, which buckles on impact. These phone boxes were made of cast iron which would, with sufficient force, break, not bend.

Cruella de Vil : They say there are five stages of grief. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Well, I'd like to add one more. Revenge

Crazy credits There are scenes in the closing credits: Anita and Roger receive a gift of two Dalmatians (one each) from Cruella. The dogs are named Pongo and Perdita, the parent dogs from 101 Dalmatians. Roger then starts to play the Cruella de Vil song from One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) .
Connections Featured in AniMat's Crazy Cartoon Cast: D23 Expo 2019 Extravaganza (2019)
Soundtracks Bloody Well Right Written by Rick Davies (as Richard Davies) and Roger Hodgson Performed by Supertramp Courtesy of A&M Records Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

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Cruella de Vil
Old Royal Naval College, King William Walk, Greenwich, London, Greater London, England, UK (Rock Concert and Fountain at Regent's Park)
Walt Disney Pictures
Marc Platt Productions
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$100,000,000 (estimated)
$86,103,234
$21,496,997
May 30, 2021
$233,503,234

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Runtime 2 hours 14 minutes
Dolby Atmos
Dolby Digital
Dolby Surround 7.1

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Review: ‘Cruella’ is dazzling fun but shows too much sympathy for the de Vil

Emma Stone vamps in shiny black couture in "Cruella"

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It may seem counterintuitive, but the easiest way to enjoy “Cruella” — and it’s plenty enjoyable, even when it overstays its welcome — is to try and forget that it has much of anything to do with “One Hundred and One Dalmatians.” The filmmakers, of course, do not always make this easy. In line with the Walt Disney Company’s nostalgia-tickling, franchise-building corporate imperatives, they have been tasked with revisiting that 1961 animated chestnut and spinning off a live-action origin story for its memorable fascist-fashionista villain, Cruella de Vil. And so they pile on the tie-in references galore. Those famous spotted dogs make an appearance. You’ll recognize key supporting characters from their names, like Roger and Anita, Horace and Jasper, and you’ll likely also pick up on a snippet of the original film’s signature tune: “Cruella de Vil / Cruella de Vil / If she doesn’t scare you, no evil thing will … ”

The muddled but intriguing revelation of “Cruella” is that the thing in question isn’t really all that evil. Like so many other storybook villains subjected to elaborate image makeovers, from “Wicked” to “Maleficent,” Cruella — played here by a wholly committed, glammed-to-the-nines Emma Stone — isn’t much of a monster. Certainly she’s a far cry from the shrieking fur-clad demon played by Glenn Close in 1996’s live-action “101 Dalmatians” (and its best-unmentioned sequel). She’s just impatient, perpetually misunderstood and unwilling to play by the rules of a world that fails to recognize her brilliance.

Emma Stone, in red hair and beret, in "Cruella."

What this leaves us with, practically speaking, isn’t a prequel or an origin story so much as the product of an alternate timeline. By movie’s end, this Cruella seems as likely to skin a dog as she is to wear a T-shirt to the Met Gala. Puppycidal maniacs don’t make sympathetic protagonists — and “Cruella,” above all, wants you to sympathize.

To that end, our protagonist is introduced as a likably mischievous English tot named Estella (played by Tipper Seifert-Cleveland) who has keen fashion sense, a telltale black-and-white bob of hair and a loving mother (Emily Beecham) who tries to suppress her naturally rebellious streak. But then, before you can say “Lemony Snicket,” a series of ghastly incidents leave Estella tragically orphaned and running for her life on the streets of London. When we catch up with her several years later, she’s a seasoned grifter (now played by Stone), her hair dyed a less obtrusive crimson and her table piled high with magnificent sartorial creations. A master of DIY couture, she sews brilliant disguises for herself and her partners in crime, the bumbling Horace (Paul Walter Hauser, very good) and the sensitive Jasper (Joel Fry, ditto).

These scenes set us adrift in a 1970s London that, like the actual 1970s London, is considerably more racially diverse than earlier Disney entertainments might have bothered to register. The director, Craig Gillespie, and his cinematographer, Nicolas Karakatsanis, send their camera soaring and whooshing through the streets in a movie that surges with infectious punk energy. If the two-guys-and-a-girl antics pack some of the New Wave vitality of “Band of Outsiders,” the serpentine tracking shots and nonstop needle drops often seem to be channeling “Goodfellas.” (The Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” is merely the most on-the-nose choice on a rebellion-themed soundtrack crammed with ’60s and ’70s hits like “Feeling Good,” “Should I Stay or Should I Go” and, fittingly for this leading lady, “Stone Cold Crazy.”)

Emma Thompson glares through chic sunglasses in "Cruella."

Gillespie makes a pretty snug fit for this material after his darkly comic Tonya Harding biopic, “I, Tonya” ; you could think of this superior follow-up as “I, Cruella,” another cracked portrait of a downtrodden but determined young woman none-too-reliably narrating the story of her many rises and falls. But then, you could also see it as the latest variation on a classic fairy-tale template: The screenwriters, Dana Fox and Tony McNamara (a writer on Stone’s 2018 film, “The Favourite”), shrewdly position Estella as a kind of shabby-chic Cinderella, albeit one who dresses up for a different ball every night and dreams of revenge rather than Prince Charming.

Every Cinderella needs a wicked stepmother, and here that role falls to the imperious Baroness von Hellman, played by an impossibly elegant and diabolical Emma Thompson. (The Miranda Priestly vibes are far from coincidental; Aline Brosh McKenna, who receives a story credit here, also wrote “The Devil Wears Prada.” ) When Estella lucks her way into a job as a designer at the Baroness’ ultra-prestigious label, she initially can’t believe her good fortune — but then, through a series of cleverly interlocking revelations, she comes to learn that the Baroness is more than just an unusually demanding boss. She’s a dangerous narcissist and an unambiguous monster, someone who deserves to be humiliated, disgraced and finally toppled from her throne.

And so Estella unleashes her long-dormant alter ego, Cruella, who begins crashing the Baroness’ nightly galas with a succession of stunning gowns and a natural flair for shock-the-runway theatrics. Whether she’s strutting about in shiny black leather, incorporating wearable flammables or — in a jaw-dropping visual highlight — trailing a mile-long chiffon train from the back of a garbage truck, Cruella soon establishes herself as the glam-punk performance artist of the fashion world. Besides relying on muscle from Horace and Jasper, she borrows some queer-eye inspiration from Artie, a vintage dress-shop owner played by a fine if underused John McCrea. (The genius behind Cruella’s artistry is the endlessly inventive costume designer Jenny Beavan, in her most extravagant showcase since “Mad Max: Fury Road.” )

Emma Stone with black-and-white hair in "Cruella"

The battle of the Emmas is as hard to resist on-screen as it must have been on paper, even if it’s not exactly a fair fight. In the context of the story, Cruella’s headline-grabbing stunts make her a persistent thorn in the Baroness’ side; in terms of pure on-screen magnetism, it’s a different story. Few can do withering arrogance with more offhand conviction than Thompson, the kind of actor who can raise a glass to herself (“Here’s to me ”) as if it were the most logical thing in the world. She’s a total hoot. She also winds up illuminating a deeper conceptual flaw in “Cruella” and perhaps the larger cottage industry of recasting memorable baddies as tortured antiheroes. In a movie ostensibly about the origins of a great villain, it’s Thompson’s Baroness who comes off as the actual great villain.

Stone of course has trickier, more complicated notes to play. Curiously enough, her most satisfying moments belong to Estella, quietly biding her time and plotting her next move, rather than to Cruella, an indistinct presence who often seems in danger of being upstaged — sometimes upholstered — by her own couture. But if Stone has trouble navigating her inner Jekyll-and-Hyde dynamic, that’s largely due to the herky-jerky imprecisions in the script, which seems uncertain whether to make the emergent Cruella merely misguided, borderline unhinged or genuinely unscrupulous — and finally settles on a coy, unsatisfying mix of all three.

It’s instructive that in “The Favourite,” one of a few recent films to feature as many ruffled gowns and sky-high wigs as this one, Stone nailed every nuance as another lowly young woman turned ambitious schemer. That movie reveled in its moral ambiguities; “Cruella,” trying to do something similar, is ultimately stymied by them. While its surface pleasures are dazzling — if a bit protracted, at well north of two hours — it finally suggests that memorable screen villainy and complex inner humanity may be forced into a kind of stalemate, at least when there’s a corporate-branded intellectual property involved. “Cruella” isn’t a bad movie, even if its heroine is nowhere near bad enough.

Rated: PG-13, for some violence and thematic elements Running time: 2 hours, 14 minutes Playing: Opens May 28 in theaters and streaming as PVOD on Disney+

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DVD & Streaming
Comedy , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

May 28, 2021
Emma Stone as Estella/Cruella de Vil; Emma Thompson as The Baroness; Joel Fry as Jasper; Paul Walter Hauser as Horace; John McCrea as Artie; Emily Beecham as Catherine (Estella’s mother); Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Anita

Home Release Date

Craig Gillespie

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Movie review.

Life is never just black and white. Hair, though, is another matter.

Estella was born with her shock of locks—jet black on one side, snow white on the other. It’s an unusual look, but fitting. After all, it does seem to reflect a certain sharp contrast in her mental makeup.

Her mother knew her daughter was different, and she did her best to shape her into a more socially acceptable form. “Be polite, and good, and friendly!” Mom encouraged her. And Estella tried. She really did.

But the world itself is not always polite and good and friendly. And when it pushed her, Estella would push back—unleashing a near split personality that the girl herself called Cruella. In a boarding school full of bullies, Cruella was happy to bully right back.

“Being a genius is one thing,” Cruella would later recount. “ Raising a genius has its challenges.” Estella/Cruella and the school’s headmaster got to know each other quite well in the short time they were together. Estella’s mom eventually could see the school just wasn’t the place for her headstrong daughter (a split-second before Estella was expelled), and the two left for London and a fresh start.

But Mom was not a wealthy woman. So on the way, she made a stop to ask—beg, really—for a little money from an old “friend.” Just enough to help herself and Estella find their footing again. They arrived at the palatial Hellman Hall during a costume party: Mum squashed a hat on Estella’s distinctive locks, gave her a family heirloom (a necklace) for safekeeping and told her to stay put in the car.

Estella did not listen.

She and her pup, Buddy, made their escape from the auto moments later and quickly made, shall we say, quite an impression on the ball’s glittering masses. In the ensuing hubbub, Estella lost the necklace and had to run for her life as a trio of vicious Dalmatians chased her out of the mansion. In desperation, she and Buddy dove into a hedge and waited for the dogs’ fangs to clamp down on her.

But instead, the dogs leaped over the hedge and galloped straight for two women standing on the bannistered edge of a cliff; a strange, regal-looking woman and Estelle’s mother.

The dogs did not stop. They lept instead, barreling into the mother, who fell to the rocks below. Estella was now an orphan.

“Don’t worry,” narrator Cruella soon tells her audience. “We’re just getting started. There’s lots more bad things coming.”

And she’s right.

Positive Elements

When your protagonist is one of the most notorious villains in all of Disneydom, you’re not necessarily going to have a lot to work with in this section. Indeed, the movie’s most honorable character is the same one who takes that lethal tumble off the cliff early on: Estella’s mom. She’s very kind and devoted to her daughter, despite the many challenges that Estella faces because of her unusual hair. In fact, the softest spot in Estella’s heart remains reserved for her.

But Estella finds another family of sorts in the London streets. Jasper and Horace, two pint-sized grifters, take strange little Estella in after she’s been orphaned, and the three spend many years together, thick as thieves (literally). When Estella’s Cruella personality takes over, she has little room for anyone but herself and her wicked schemes. But when she’s fully Estella, she harbors deep affection for her partners in crime, and they return the favor. One even gives her a special birthday present one year—an entry-level position at London’s poshest department store. That gig sets the rest of the movie in motion.

You find a bit of an unintentional pro-life message in the film as it wears on.

Spiritual Elements

All the spiritual references in Cruella are just plain dark—but not much different in tone or character than what was present in the original 1961 One Hundred and One Dalmatians .

Hellman Hall eventually undergoes a name change, becoming Hell Hall. Cruella takes the last name of “de Vil,” and her car is branded with those same five letters—all capitalized.

Sexual Content

Much of Cruella takes place in the mid-1970s, just as punk and glam rock were taking off in London. David Bowie was at the forefront of the latter, embodied by his androgynous Ziggy Stardust persona.

All of that serves as a backdrop for Artie, a fashion designer whom Estella meets early on and becomes her close confidant. With his effeminate nature and gender-bending clothes, Artie tells Estella that to say that one is “normal is the cruelest insult of all, and I never get that.”

Some of the fashions on display here feature exposed shoulders and, more rarely, a bit of cleavage. A male character disguises himself in drag.

Violent Content

Characters fall from some pretty dizzying heights, sometimes with fatal results. A building is set on fire, threatening the life of a character tied up inside. As a child, Estella gets into lots of fights with schoolmates (which we see in a montage). Several women are tackled by security guards. There are indications that someone may be something of a psychopathic killer. Cruella thwacks plenty of people with a cane, and she pricks someone with a needle.

Dogs, particularly Buddy, suffer some bumps and bruises here. Some are quite menacing, baring snarling fangs at times. When Cruella shows up in a spotted coat, there’s some question (and frank accusation) as to whether she killed Dalmatians in order to make it. A dump truck crashes into a police station. Cruella is a terrible driver, and her car nicks plenty of other vehicles as she careens down the streets. People are punched and pushed. We see a bit of blood on someone’s arm. A guy gets thwacked in the eye with a champagne cork. A tower of champagne glasses collapses spectacularly.

Crude or Profane Language

We hear the British profanity “bloody” once or twice (not to mention in a song in the background). There’s also a use of the word “h—” (in addition to the written references I mention in spiritual content), two misuses of God’s name and some slightly vulgar exclamations.

Drug and Alcohol Content

We see plenty of alcohol here, and often its use takes on a glamorous sheen.

Estella works for a time as a janitor in a posh department store, hoping to get a shot at some design work. Her ambitions are constantly squelched until, one evening while cleaning her boss’s office, she breaks into his liquor cabinet and drinks heavily from a crystal decanter. Under the influence, she redesigns one of the store’s window displays and passes out there.

Champagne (including a tower of filled champagne glasses) is a constant presence in the film’s many parties. The Baroness and Estella drink a cocktail over lunch. Estella’s department-store boss daintily sniffs and sips what may be port.

Other Negative Elements

Though the movie tries to excuse or laugh it off at times, Estella/Cruella has some problems. As a kid, she fights constantly (though her classmates were jerks). After she comes to London, she and her pals steal things almost daily (with the movie portraying all this wall-to-wall larceny as a bit of a lark). They break into buildings, pick pockets, mislead innocent people and—by Cruella’s own admission—make a pretty good living at it.

As an adult—embracing the age’s punk ethos—Cruella revels in anarchic stunts, many of which are illegal.

A Dalmatian swallows an important family heirloom, and characters spend quite a bit of time waiting for it to pass through the other end. In one scene, we see one of the dogs appear to squat, as if doing its business, and then a character wave a metal detector over the (off-camera) mess. Later, we hear that the object has been found a cleaned.

Spitballs fly and sometimes lodge on people’s faces. Garbage-inhabiting banana slices stick on someone’s cheek, to be blithely eaten by the cheek’s owner. Characters lie. We hear references regarding characters’ odors. Estella spends quite a bit of time cleaning toilets (retching at one point). The Baroness is as selfish as anyone can be and says at one point that “gratitude is for losers.”

Being bad has rarely looked so good. Therein lies this Disney reboot’s charm … and its problems.

Though it stays well within its PG-13 rating fence and doesn’t have that many overt content issues, Cruella is all style, little substance—all glam, no mass. Fitting it should revolve around the world of fashion, given that the film itself is sequin deep.

While it does pay lip service to caring for others, such efforts feel more like a window display.

Yes, the movie looks marvelous. It stars two famous Emmas—Stone and Thompson—and it’s really fun to watch. But inside, it feels a bit rotten, just like its central characters. And when the Rolling Stones’ song “Sympathy for the Devil” plays near the end, it seems like the movie is, in a way, asking us to offer the same—not just our tough-luck antihero Estella/Cruella, but for most of the bad decisions she made along the way.

Let’s get back to the two characters that dominated the introduction: Estella—the brilliant-but-extreme girl, and her loving, long-suffering mother. Mom does her best to rein in her daughter’s worst inclinations. Be friendly, Estella is told. Polite. Decent.

And isn’t this what parents are, in large part, supposed to do? Teach their children how to behave and get along with others? Without guidance, most kids would behave pretty horribly.

But even though both Estella and the movie stress how good Estella’s mother is, her efforts to curb Estella smack of not of healthy parenting but conformity, one of the worst sins in our individualistic age. Don’t you know? The movie seems to say (if you’ll bear with the cliché). You can’t stuff a square peg in a round hole.

Now, as a square peg myself, this is not a message I inherently recoil from. God made us all different, after all, to fulfill different parts of His overarching plan.

But there’s a difference between being different and being bad —like legally and ethically bad. And the movie, if it gets the distinction, doesn’t do a very good job of stressing it.

And there’s another, related problem to mention here, too—one predicated on the longstanding nature vs. nurture paradigm.

Cruella tells us that she was “born bad.” That may be true. And while her mom didn’t have Cruella’s full childhood to raise the girl, she had several years to make a dent in Estella’s character. But Cruella, as much as she loved her mom, flushed away whatever her mom tried to teach her. She couldn’t be the person her mother wanted her to be. The “badness” she was born with, her inherent nonconformity, was just too strong.

The movie seems to suggest that kids are gonna grow up to be who they’re born to be. And parents—no matter how hard they try—don’t have a lot of say otherwise. And maybe—instead of trying to teach their kids to be polite and friendly and kind—they should just let ‘em follow their instincts.

This would be an inherently discouraging message to many parents, especially foster or adoptive ones. And it’s a potentially damaging message, too. Because we gotta remember, Cruella turns out to be a villain.

God tells us that our differences make us special, but our sins make us flawed. We should embrace our uniqueness while shedding our sins, constantly molding ourselves (and allowing others to mold us) into people more closely aligned with God’s purpose.

Cruella tells us that our differences make us special, too—but so do our sins. Being bad might not be good, but it sure can be cool. And for many kids, good and cool are practically synonymous.

We’ve seen plenty of movies—including from Disney—that deconstruct villains and to turn them into something more pleasing to the eye and heart. Maleficent —perhaps Disney’s ultimate baddie—finds not just compassion, but redemption in her Angelina Jolie retrofits.

But Cruella takes a different tack. At one point, the story’s antihero says, “People do need a villain to believe in, so I’m happy to fit the bill.” Sympathy for Ms. DeVil? We feel it, and we should. But the movie asks us to take a step further and respect her, even admire her—not in spite of her sins but because of them. And that’s a problem, no matter how glamorous it looks on screen.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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Movie Review: Cruella (2021)

Vincent Gaine
Movie Reviews
--> August 2, 2021

While Cruella de Vil is an iconic Disney villain, is there much potential in showing the origin story of a character whose fashion sense leads to her wanting to skin 101 Dalmatians? The answer is a yes as prominent as the eponymous character’s bi-colored hair, as director Craig Gillespie and screenwriters Dana Fox and Tony McNamara, along with a killer cast, deliver a delightfully dynamic and deliciously de Villish dance macabre of duality, identity and fashion, plus bits with dogs.

Much like the director’s previous feature “ I, Tonya ,” Cruella tells the story of a familiar character but gives her some new twists. The young Cruella (Tipper Seifert-Cleveland, “Emily and the Magical Journey”), or Estella as she starts out, is given a tragic but not overly sentimental backstory. Raised by a loving and supportive mother Catherine (Emily Beecham, “ Berlin, I Love You ”), Estella is precocious without being annoying and mature without being creepy. Her early school career demonstrates her defiance and encounters with authority, and while she is not without love or compassion, a raw deal leads her to an opportunistic life of crime where dreams give way to pragmatism. As a young adult, Estella’s (Emma Stone, “ The Favourite ”) burgeoning ambition and ruthlessness are balanced with loyalty and devotion, and it helps that her adversary the Baroness (Emma Thompson, “ Last Christmas ”) proves to be far worse in the questionable character stakes. The battle of wits between Estella and the Baroness is hugely enjoyable, and develops the film’s interest in identity as Cruella emerges as a weapon for Estella and then steadily takes over the film, without losing the audience’s sympathy.

Emma Stone energizes Estella/Cruella with a magnificent relish, her genius, ambition and charisma crackling around her like an electromagnetic field that both draws and repels those she encounters. In this Battle of the Emmas, Thompson matches Stone for every arched eyebrow and haughty put-down, leaving no scenery unchewed as she withers those around her with supreme superciliousness. Jasper (Joel Fry, “ In the Earth ”) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser, “ BlacKkKlansman ”) are expanded beyond their original roles as bumbling sidekicks, becoming the family that Estella/Cruella lacks. Mark Strong (“ 1917 ”) is on reliably solid form as the Baroness’ valet John, and there is great support from the likes of John McCrea (“The Sandman” TV series), Kayvan Novak (“ Four Lions ”) and Kirby Howell-Baptiste (“ A Dog’s Purpose ”). There’s also perhaps a surprisingly fond treatment of dogs, who feature as threats, companions and obstacles, with the digital rendering of these animals only briefly distracting.

The film does have its flaws. The story could have been more efficiently told which would have given the film a beneficially shorter running time, whereas at two hours fourteen minutes there are points where it drags. There is a late reveal that is so deus ex machina that it may induce groans of “Really?” from the viewer. Some nods to “101 Dalmatians” feel like nothing more than nods, and a mid-credits sequence might point to the familiar story but frankly another film focused on Cruella herself seems like more fun, due to the delicious designs and Machiavellian machinations on display here.

On the display front, Gillespie and director of photography Nicolas Karakatsanis deliver stunning visuals throughout. A tumble down a slope is intercut with charging dogs; a crane shot follows a trio of intrepid children in and out of an abandoned building; a montage of Estella trying to make suggestions to her boss is both funny and touching; a stellar prolonged single take through the various floors and corridors of a department store truly brings the viewer into Estella’s world.

Getting into this world is important, because appreciating her position helps align the viewer with her schemes and ambition. In this regard, Cruella is an important feminist film because it takes the position that girls don’t have to be sugar and spice and all things nice. The Baroness is a tough adversary, but Cruella is no Cinderella, with little interest in having courage or being kind. Ambition and revenge, and to a lesser extent fame and fortune, are her driving forces. In the context of a crime caper, which interweaves fashion designs with heists and confidence tricks, this is quite standard for male protagonists but still relatively rare for women. Cruella has no romantic interest, and her various associates are drawn into her orbit largely by force of will. As a result, the audience are also drawn in, and particular moments (especially one involving a vault and a delivery from South America) might have the viewer giggling with glee because of the triumph of our antiheroine. Cruella is a thoroughly female protagonist (rather than a woman filling a man’s role), literally decides who she is and what she is going to do. As well as the stylistic flourishes noted earlier, Gillespie wisely reins it in at times: A long take on Cruella’s face as she delivers a monologue expresses a clear and unapologetic acceptance of her lot in life as well as a declaration of identity and her role in the world. Would that all characters of any gender were permitted such authority.

Furthermore, the film continues Disney’s surprisingly progressive identity politics. The supporting cast includes various people of color, who get to be people rather than tokens. More intriguingly, Cruella delivers an inclusive approach to gender fluidity. Estella/Cruella herself indicates that identity is influenced by choice, and McCrea’s character Art is explicitly non-binary. The relationship between Art and Cruella makes Art far more than a cypher, and it makes a sequel (already in preproduction) all the more enticing. The inclusivity of Cruella demonstrates the potential for established intellectual property like this — the audience come for the familiarity, and then we leave with something more.

Tagged: criminal , fashion , novel adaptation , orphan , prequel

Dr. Vincent M. Gaine is a film and television researcher. His first book, Existentialism and Social Engagement in the Films of Michael Mann was published by Palgrave MacMillan in 2011. His work on film and media has been published in Cinema Journal and The Journal of Technology , Theology and Religion , as well as edited collections including The 21st Century Superhero and The Directory of World Cinema .

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Movie Review: The colossal melancholy of Ceylan’s ‘About Dry Grasses’

This image released by Janus and Sideshow Films shows a scene from “About Dry Grasses.” (Sideshow and Janus Films via AP)

This image released by Janus and Sideshow Films shows, from left, Merve Dizdarin, Deniz Celiloğlu and Musab Ekici in a scene from “About Dry Grasses.” (Sideshow and Janus Films via AP)

This image released by Janus and Sideshow Films shows Deniz Celiloğlu, left, and Musab Ekici in a scene from “About Dry Grasses.” (Sideshow and Janus Films via AP)

This image released by Janus and Sideshow Films shows Merve Dizdarin, left, and Deniz Celiloğlu, left, and Musab Ekici in a scene from “About Dry Grasses.” (Sideshow and Janus Films via AP)

This image released by Janus and Sideshow Films shows Merve Dizdarin a scene from “About Dry Grasses.” (Sideshow and Janus Films via AP)

This image released by Janus and Sideshow Films shows, from left, Deniz Celiloğlu, Musab Ekici and Merve Dizdar in a scene from “About Dry Grasses.” (Sideshow and Janus Films via AP)

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Nuri Bilge Ceylan makes long films , by movie standards, but short ones by Russian literature standards.

There may be no filmmaker more consciously working in a novelistic tradition. The Turkish director counts reading “Crime and Punishment” as a formative experience. His Palme d’Or-winning 2014 film “Winter Sleep” adapted a pair of Chekhov short stories. But regardless of any direct correlations, Ceylan’s films — colossal, existential, talky — reach for (and often attain) an enveloping vastness that recalls those big 19th century books. He sets thorny stories peppered with prickly philosophical questions against expansive landscapes. His films don’t burrow into you, you burrow into them.

Ceylan’s latest, “About Dry Grasses,” bears a name that — like his “The Wild Pear Tree” or “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” — would do well as a parody arthouse title. The opening — in which a dark figure, seen from afar, steps off a bus onto a snow-blanketed plain on the Eastern Anatolian steppes — is likewise not hiding its tone of solemnity.

Our solitary man is Samet (Deniz Celiloğlu), who, like Paul Giamatti’s protagonist in “The Holdovers,” is a snobbish, misanthropic educator in a malcontented winter. Countless movies like “The Holdovers” have conditioned us to feel an automatic sympathy for such teacher characters, but doubts steadily accrue about Samet.

This image released by The Avenue shows Kit Harington in a scene from the film "Blood for Dust." (The Avenue via AP)

He’s not especially friendly with his colleague and roommate Kenan (Musab Eki̇ci̇). When he’s reluctantly set up for tea with a fellow teacher, Nuray (an exceptional Merve Dizdar, winner of best actress at Cannes ), from a nearby village, he mostly moans about the backwardness of their rural region. His four-year term is nearly up, and he says he’s bound for Istanbul. At school, Samet styles himself as a less rule-bound teacher, looking down on some of his colleagues. But he’s no inspiring leader to his young students, either. “None of you will become artists,” he says in one rant.

Later, Samet will ask: “Does everyone have to be a hero?” He, certainly, is more of the anti-hero variety, but he’s also one of the most complicated main characters I’ve seen in years. He’s quite bitter, particularly after the student he has the warmest relationship with — Sevim (Ece Bağci) — accuses him of inappropriate behavior. She does it as a way to get back at him for concealing a love letter she wrote that was confiscated. He appears to be innocent, but there’s also something unmistakably intimate about their interactions. He gives her discrete gifts and and purposefully leaves the door open when she visits his office.

Samet is investigated for not “respecting distance” with Sevin and her classmates, a somewhat ironic charge given that Samet, a sour pessimist, seems to be keeping himself at a distance to most everything. “About Dry Grasses” tracks the investigation of Samet, yet it hinges more on his relationship with Nuray.

She bears a limp, a result of a suicide bombing during a protest in Ankara. In the film’s centerpiece scene, they spar over dinner in an extended dialogue about politics. She has fight and spirit still in her, and believes in the benefits of community. Samet is more hopeless and jaded, a quality that attracts Nuray, almost against her wishes. Not because she agrees with Samet but because she fears, maybe, that he’s right.

Ceylan has a knack for prolonging such debates in his films past their natural end point, turning the exchanges into something that can feel too dryly essayist. But it also may be his nature to bring a film to the very brink of philosophical quandary. In “About Dry Grasses,” he goes a step further with a fourth-wall flourish at the height of Samet and Nuray’s conversation. Why, at this point, does Ceylan insert a stark reminder that this is a movie? Is it his own Samet-like withdraw or a sudden flash of candid revelation?

Either way, it goes to the heart of Ceylan as a filmmaker. Far from just a bookish movie director, he has adopted many of cinematic modes of his heroes, Tarkovsky and Bergman, and translated them into his own unique and still evolving vernacular. As much as Russian literature may be a foundation for him, his movies are richly of Turkey. There are aspects of “About Dry Grasses” — the ID-checking police, the sexist bureaucrats in the school system — that place the Samet-Nuray dichotomy in a social context that has surely shaped them.

There’s a profound, unresolvable melancholy to “About Dry Grasses” that’s hard to shake. It’s not just that Nuray is better than Samet — though she certainly is. It’s the sad tragic quality to Samet. He takes photographic portraits that appear at moments in the film. Ceylan, too, was a still photographer. It’s hard to wonder — especially in thinking about that metafiction moment — how much he identifies with Sevim. But I wouldn’t trust any one reading of “About Dry Grasses,” even my own. It contains too many multitudes for that.

“About Dry Grasses,” a Janus Films release, is not rated PG by the Motion Picture Association. In Turkish with English subtitles. Running time: 197 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.

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