Cruella is an ostentatiously over-directed female-centric movie centering on two successful women in the 1970s London fashion scene rifle with popular tunes. Had it not been made by Disney and necessarily attached to pre-existing material, it would be the type of film hyped by the Academy. If “Oscar adjacent” earns clout with you, Cruella may be worth the steep rental price; if it doesn’t, skip it entirely. 

In a live-action villain origin story, the symmetrically divided black and white hair of Cruella from One Hundred and One Dalmatians is held bewitchingly by Emma Stone in a manner akin to a Helena Bonham Carter in a Tim Burton movie, but with more pizazz. Orphaned as a child, Estella has a knack for all things fashion and finds herself two fellow orphaned friends. The three of them age into adulthood through conniving and thieving until her friends manage to get her foot in the door of the fashion world, where she meets the imposing Baroness (Emma Thompson). Well, we’re told they broach adulthood: Stone’s character is approximately 18 despite the fact Stone is approaching her mid-30s.

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