Cruella 4K 2021 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

Great Britain, 1960s. Estella was an unusual child, and it was especially difficult for her to put up with all kinds of injustice. Having flown out of the next school, she and her mother went to London. On the way, they stop at the mansion of a famous fashion designer named Baroness, where her mother dies as a result of a terrible accident. Having reached London, Estella meets two boys - street swindlers Jasper and Horace.

10 years later, the same company is engaged in petty theft on the streets of the British capital, but Estella cannot give up her dream of making a career in the fashion world. Cunningly settling in a fashionable department store, the girl attracts the attention of the Baroness, and she takes her to her staff of designers.

Review 4K Movie

In short, Cruella is the best thing that has happened to Disney's gaming division in the past five years. And this despite the fact that the tape cannot be called flawlessly beautiful.

The film literally reinvents the entire basis of the Dodie Smith novel and the original cartoon, focusing on the villainess whom I hated so much in my baby teeth as a child. And damn it, it was fun to watch!

But first I want to list the factors for which you want to fall in love with 'Cruella' completely and irrevocably.

First, from the visual side, the picture looks incredibly impressive. The backstage scenery of 70s London - its gateways, abandoned houses and a fountain in Regent's Park - captivates with its atmosphere. This London is gloomy, gray, like a gloss that has lost its gloss due to the abundance of scratches, without losing its rebellious charm. The camera work more than emphasizes everything that surrounds the heroes, adding a certain flavor to what is happening and making the city a full-fledged character in history.

Not only is it visually beautiful, it also contains many interesting references to the original story. Here you and Anita and Roger, and Dalmatians in an extremely unexpected role, and even the same car with the license plate 'De Vil'. Some might call it fan service, but I’ll call it nice additions that evoke nostalgia.

The second is fashion. As for me, this is another main character along with the existing ones. Everyone who is not alien to the aesthetics of beautiful outfits and unusual fashion solutions will undoubtedly get a visual thrill from each image of Cruella or the Baroness. Costume designer Jenny Bevan (two-time Oscar winner, by the way) has done a tremendous amount of work on the style of each character - and you can see it. The Baroness's stiffness and narcissism, Horres' sillyness, Jasper's simplicity, Artie's eccentricity and Cruella's ever-changing personality are all highlighted with impeccably selected fashion looks. Of course, the Baroness and Cruella rule the ball, the opposition of which is also expressed in the fashion component. Moreover, this was done at a truly high level. Another Oscar nomination for Miss Bevan is definitely secured.

The third is music. The entire soundtrack to the picture is a real ode to the seventies. I cannot but note that there is an impossible number of truly cult hits of that era per square meter of timekeeping. The songs perfectly underline that daring, rebellious spirit of the whole picture. I want this soundtrack for myself. On vinyl. And nothing else.

And the last - the most important - is the acting of the main actress. Emma Stone is gorgeous in this role and all my applause now is in her honor. The transformation from a little girl, tormented by a sense of guilt, into a frantic fury of revenge is shown with genuine love for the character.

In the course of history, it seemed to me more than once that Emma was showing Cruella - it was her, and not the original Estella - extremely unnatural and caricatured. It is possible that the Russian dubbing contributed to this feeling, which sometimes involuntarily seemed that I was watching the Disney version of 'Harley Quinn', but I soon realized that this was just the perfect understanding of the heroine. After all, if you look, then Cruella is a fictional alter-ego that Estella so needed to survive the pain of loss, guilt and desire for revenge. What in the beginning was a hastily invented caricature, towards the end becomes a reality of flesh and blood.

The heroine has a wide range of emotions and states - from a girl lost in this life to a psychopath playing in revenge. And Emma Stone coped with the task, giving us a strong and multifaceted heroine who shows her strength not with the help of radical feminist slogans, as, for example, did the heroine of the reboot 'Charlie's Angels'. All opponents of feminism can disperse, because Cruella is, first of all, a story about overcoming life's obstacles and finding oneself. The girl, whom no one loved and who tormented herself with a sense of guilt all her childhood, grows into a woman who must reinvent herself for herself. With all her looks and actions, Emma through her character proves one thing - baby, if you want this life in your own way, then you have to become very strong. Whether anyone likes it or not, this is the cynical prose of today's life.

I also want to speak exceptionally well about the circle of the main characters. Emma Thompson gave out a truly disgusting heroine, after which I want to wash my eyes with soap and water - and this is a sign of quality work on the role. Joel Fry and Paul Walter Hauser, who became Cruella's 'henchmen', contrary to my expectations, turned out to be not cardboard, but quite textured characters.

This is where my praises end, because as I mentioned earlier, this film is not flawless. And that's where her problem lies.

The first is the cardboardness of other characters. For example, Artie, who was so vividly presented at the beginning, but who passed invisibly through the whole picture. Or Anita, around whom, in theory, her piece of the plot revolves, turned out to be unexpectedly faded and even unnecessary. Cut out these characters for editing - and this will not affect the plot in any way. It's a pity.

Second - despite the general creativity and rebellious spirit of the picture, 'Cruella' remained a hostage of Disney, which did not allow the creators of the picture to accelerate what was happening to the maximum (as they did with 'Deadpool' and the same 'Harley Quinn'), but the rating is 12+ and the basics Disney's 'remakes' left the film stuck halfway between children's and adult cinematography.

Indeed, in fact, the project can be described as 'a completely childish fairy tale'. Very young viewers of 'Cruella' will not be to their liking, and parents, accustomed to the corporate style of the House of Mouse, will certainly be surprised by such an adult presentation of the material.

Adults, on the other hand, will not be able to help but cling to over-the-ears-drawn-in moments and plot twists that can be forgiven for animation, but certainly not for feature films. After all, it is extremely difficult to combine such things as kindness and rebellion from the ashes of the past with the gloomy attributes of the behind the scenes of the fashion world - theft, fraud, even murder. Director Craig Gillespie didn't seem to decide what he was shooting - either a Disney film adaptation, or an independent film about a woman consumed with revenge in the setting of 70s London kitsch. And this is a big minus.

But in general, I just don't feel like scolding 'Cruella' for a long time. The film leaves behind a very pleasant aftertaste. And if you don't look back at these obvious mistakes of the team of creators, you can plunge into the visual aesthetics, spiced with the musical component and watch Emma Stone play her own version of what was in the beginning one of the main villains of my childhood. The picture will definitely be revisited, which means that she definitely deserved her 7 points out of 10.