Cruella

Craig Gillespie’s Cruella sets a new standard for live-action adaptations of Disney animated classics, thanks in large part to the surprising amount of commonalities it shares with the director’s previous film.

Both I, Tonya and the story of how Estella (Emma Stone) became the eponymous Dalmatian-hating monster feature prodigies, caustic mothers, and comic relief from Paul Walter Hauser, plus stylistic touches all but unseen from Gillespie prior to his figure skater biopic.

As Estella and her cohorts Horace (Hauser) and Jasper (Joel Fry, Yesterday) pivot from simple thieves to Banksy-esque provocateurs, staging elaborate public fashion stunts to one-up evil designer The Baroness (Emma Thompson), Gillespie amplifies the already entertaining action with a prodigious amount of needle drops — bordering on three times as much as I, Tonya — and visual flourishes ranging from an active camera to Zodiac-like onscreen newspaper text.

Toe-tapping though the copious late ‘60s/early ‘70s musical cues are, they’re in the service of an overstuffed narrative that could stand to be at least 15 minutes shorter, in turn chopping the runtime to a more apt two hours (or less).

Even so, whenever the two Emmas are onscreen together, they push each other to greatness — particularly Thompson, who clearly relishes playing a villain. There’s also just the right amount of fidelity and callbacks to 101 Dalmatians, allowing Cruella to boldly exist on its own without being overly beholden to it source material.

Grade: B-plus. Rated PG-13. Now playing at AMC River Hills 10, Biltmore Grande, and Carolina Cinemark. Also available to stream via Disney+ Premier Accesss

(Photo: Walt Disney Pictures)