Cruella (Craig Gillespie, 2021)

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Never Cursed
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Cruella (Craig Gillespie, 2021)

#1 Post by Never Cursed » Wed Feb 17, 2021 11:43 am


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mfunk9786
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Re: Trailers for Upcoming Films

#2 Post by mfunk9786 » Wed Feb 17, 2021 12:11 pm

Remember when kids movies weren't made for developmentally stunted 35 year olds?

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knives
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Re: Trailers for Upcoming Films

#3 Post by knives » Wed Feb 17, 2021 12:44 pm

Those still exist.

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DandyDancing
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Re: Trailers for Upcoming Films

#4 Post by DandyDancing » Wed Feb 17, 2021 2:17 pm

The actual children watching are going to be developmentally stunted before they get a chance to develop!

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furbicide
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Re: Trailers for Upcoming Films

#5 Post by furbicide » Thu Feb 18, 2021 12:19 am

Never Cursed wrote:
Wed Feb 17, 2021 11:43 am
Cruella, or Disney's Joker
Torn between thinking this is the worst thing ever and remembering that that's exactly how I felt when the actual Joker was first advertised.

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domino harvey
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Re: Trailers for Upcoming Films

#6 Post by domino harvey » Thu Feb 18, 2021 12:26 am

We live in an American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

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furbicide
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Re: Trailers for Upcoming Films

#7 Post by furbicide » Thu Feb 18, 2021 1:52 am

Very good. :lol: Bonus points to the first critic who titles their review "101 Damnations"!

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What A Disgrace
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Re: Cruella (Craig Gillespie, 2021)

#8 Post by What A Disgrace » Fri Feb 19, 2021 5:39 pm

You wanna know how I got these scarves?

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swo17
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Re: Cruella (Craig Gillespie, 2021)

#9 Post by swo17 » Fri Feb 19, 2021 5:45 pm

Trying to pretend I know nothing other than "I, Tonya follow-up starring Emma Stone and Paul Walter Hauser"

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Cruella (Craig Gillespie, 2021)

#10 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Feb 19, 2021 6:12 pm

I'm not writing this off yet- based on Gillespie's ability to weave some subtler ideas into I, Tonya to the point where many audience members (including me, first round) missed them under the seemingly-bombastic details, I could see him doing something similar in a Disney film, especially one this superficially loud.

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Re: Cruella (Craig Gillespie, 2021)

#11 Post by swo17 » Fri Feb 19, 2021 6:40 pm

I believe this will actually be his third Disney film?

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RitrovataBlue
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Re: Cruella (Craig Gillespie, 2021)

#12 Post by RitrovataBlue » Fri Feb 19, 2021 6:44 pm

The trailer like a brazen attempt to plagiarize every DC Comics adaptation since Batman Returns. I, Tanya was a good picture, but this is a Disney picture, which means that the director is basically a corporate brand manager. Here, the brand is apparently Hot Topic. Not good.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Cruella (Craig Gillespie, 2021)

#13 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Feb 19, 2021 6:45 pm

swo17 wrote:
Fri Feb 19, 2021 6:40 pm
I believe this will actually be his third Disney film?
I haven't seen the others, maybe he did some profound sneaky stuff there too and we're just all oblivious

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Cruella (Craig Gillespie, 2021)

#14 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Feb 19, 2021 6:46 pm

RitrovataBlue wrote:
Fri Feb 19, 2021 6:44 pm
Here, the brand is apparently Hot Topic. Not good.
If Paul Walter Hauser is in a Hot Topic-aestheticized movie, I'll still go see it. Emma Stone too.

felipe
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Re: Cruella (Craig Gillespie, 2021)

#15 Post by felipe » Wed Feb 24, 2021 11:17 pm

Will this be released simultaneously to cinemas and Disney+?

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Monterey Jack
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Re: Cruella (Craig Gillespie, 2021)

#16 Post by Monterey Jack » Wed Feb 24, 2021 11:45 pm

felipe wrote:
Wed Feb 24, 2021 11:17 pm
Will this be released simultaneously to cinemas and Disney+?
I believe so, albeit for the D+ $30 price point that Mulan was at.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Cruella (Craig Gillespie, 2021)

#17 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri May 28, 2021 6:49 pm

So I kinda loved this, for reasons I vaguely outlined earlier in this thread. Gillespie tackles the life of a social misfit from an aloof position of forward-momentum pacing, lavish bombastic style, and comic sensibilities, which reflexively mirrors Stone's psychological defense mechanism of compensation in self-deprecation, reflected immediately in her sardonic voiceover of passive self-assessment. The film isn't overly sentimental (in fact it takes great aims at cheekily suppressing sentiment, again like its lead) and Gillespie hides his empathy in a similarly ironic place as he did in I, Tonya, but it's there. We recognize the cards stacked against Cruella from the dual angles of congenital eccentric characteristics across innate personality and mental health implications, coupled with social conditioning in Thompson's sociopathic influence and traumatic relationship with accountability for her orphanhood, a cocktail of risk factors that didn't exactly set Cruella up for success. Now this is deliberately not a pity-party, quelling postures towards such somber states with aesthetic distractions, and the result is an admirably neutral presentation of resilience as positive and negative, born from both innocent circumstances and responsible actions following hardships.

This marks the interesting area where Gillespie is able to slyly exude creative freedom within paradoxically ultra-enforced confines. He uses Disney's rigid disinterest in exploring the disturbing depths of this psychosocial morality tale by leaving it as the grey issue it is under a deceptive coating of flair. The pattern of expressiveness fits within Disney's wheelhouse, though as a result of their highly prioritized concern of omitting indigestible content from the surface only, and through this impulse to nervously gloss over meditations on loss that reach a sober recognition of intangibility, we can detect the tragedy of our antihero for- rather than with- her. The immediacy of the narrative thrust from this despondency transitions into tangible sublimations of thievery without skipping a beat. This would be a mixed or negative message if it weren't depicted as skilled empowerment, the positive reframe of resilience despite the ethical particulars. The tragedy of Cruella's simplified, superficial explanatory trauma transmitted into vengeance is not the underlying tragedy that Gillespie is interested in- much like I, Tonya's elusive hints of disorienting emotion buried under blunt exhibitions of theatrical expressions of emotion. Since anger is a secondary emotion -often making the less tangible emotions more concrete and actionable as a result of this discomfort that we as humans, and Cruella, share with Disney- the deeper tragedy of Cruella's impoverished identity is an elision, her malleability and determined individuality serving as diversions that fails to address her anxieties from social displacement.

Although we do obviously get an emotionally-investing arc to portray Cruella as unconventionally heroic, she is only sympathetic-by-proxy, paired against an evil that lacks a multidimensional backstory of tender circumstances. Cruella wanting a motherly figure in the very person who contributed to her trauma is an interesting touch, and the desperation to escape alienation via warped expectations of idols or protectors is an psychologically apt addition, but this too is only briefly gestured at before moving ahead with more deflections. A third act reveal that brings us orbiting back to this relationship only reinforces the fatalism overwhelming Cruella from compounded angles, ushering in a self-fulfilling prophecy that devastates us as the objective observers. We can distinguish her self-delusional monologue as existing statically on the exterior level of her consciousness as we watch her disengage from indefinable emotions that she doesn't have the tools to confront. Once this fleeting instant is bypassed, her friends' comic punchline might grant audience laughs, but it also feeds the prior exclamation of anguish sourced in determinism and stigma that stings those of us paying attention to the undercurrent of the narrative. Cruella may pretend like she doesn't care, but her flaunted strengths are born from accismus, and Gillespie is thankfully familiar with, and skilled at translating, that form of irony to give it the respect it deserves.

The magic of this film is that Gillespie doesn't go full-throttle towards these themes because accentuating the ideas would overcook them in melodrama, and so his formalism checks Disney's box of fun and mimics Cruella's discomfort with facing her emotional wellness, thus neglecting the spiritual hole in her heart that will never be healed without submitting to this distressing attention. I'm sure many will say I'm giving the film too much rope, but I believe I'm meeting Gillespie's film where it's at, even if that's not the film Disney is interested in providing. The ingenious nature of Gillespie's strategy is that he isn't violating Disney's rules, and actually plays into their modus operandi of shielding adult themes under the iceberg to deliver his vision. So everyone gets to have their cake and eat it too; perhaps this is why he was hired to begin with- his résumé could only consist of his last film to qualify as a safe auteur to comfortably communicate his desired examination within Disney's ethos of avoiding innocuous penetrations.

For fans of I, Tonya who read the film as similarly creative in using technique to bury layers of truth into a Russian doll, I suggest going into this with an open mind. Gillespie utilizes his favorite intervention of soundtrack similarly as well- a ceaselessly manic classic rock playlist rivaling his last film's- that supplies the twin function of simultaneously inviting us in and diverting us away from its content. If we gauge Stone's disposition in some of these moments, we can sense the soundtrack's edits emulating her own psychological shifts. Yes, Stone's performance is labile (though this appropriately matches her undiagnosed mental illness) but her talents as an actor absolutely sell Gillespie's insights in a strong collaboration that may not have worked with a less endearing or gifted star in the titular role. And yes, Paul Walter Hauser is great in a small but hilarious part as one of Cruella's crime-partners, spouting a British accent himself! But it's the director who is the MVP here. Based off his last two works, Gillespie may be the most intriguing working director who conveys subtle empathy for humans' struggles to access our emotional depths, gratifyingly via ostentatious pop-methods of drawing ellipses over the complexities we dare not quarry. This was the last movie I expected to enjoy this year, and I can't wait to see what he does next, regardless of how aversive the idea appears on paper.

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knives
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Re: Cruella (Craig Gillespie, 2021)

#18 Post by knives » Mon May 31, 2021 4:09 pm

After seeing this I just want Stone and Michelle Pfeiffer to make a movie together. This is the best Time Burton movie in a good while. This is a real fantasia full of depth and style with a political edge that is so blatant no wonder people seem to have skipped over it. Also those performances. I’ve never wanted to see Emma Thompson stabbed so badly before. The writing is a little creaky with excessive narration, but this is a movie for young teens after all.

This takes place in a real fantasy land where ‘70s London really encompasses the ‘50s, ‘60s, and a little of the ‘80s as well giving a general sense of boomer placement, but importantly it has many contemporary features as well such as the diverse cast and politics. This shouldn’t be assumed to take place on earth, but rather a fantasy universe that differs from us alone in that racial animosity is far less a thing and apparently the sexual revolution never happened. Though I suppose selling Bertolucci’s Cruella would have been a much harder ask of Disney executives than Scorsese, who has to be one of the most influential still active directors, although that comparison serves more to illustrate what is unique here in its derivation.

Scorsese is eternally tied to the school of realism he was raised in. Look to his rules of music usage and Cassavetes inspired understanding of misenscene. Here and in Gillespie’s other films those features highlight the unreality of the story disconnecting from the setting and focusing in on the dysregulation of the characters. This lets the story also be at a remove from its basis story and instead use the iconic features in a recontextualized way ala The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs or if you need something respectable Paradise Lost.

All of this works together for an intergenerational commentary which undoubtedly has some for equating the boomers and millennials/ iGen (or whatever it’s called) in their political voice and tactics. The film is fairly explicit on this front highlighting the future hopes to Stone and disgust with the past to Thompson. The fantasy setting also allows stone to be both a representative of modern youth movements and the boomers with her political cum fashion goals and protest being modeled off of those under 40 today while the setting explicitly coincides her with the boomers. This allows for an internal meta commentary wherein the similarities across generations are highlighted for their similarities leaving the potential for criticism to apply equally. The film makes this concern especially explicit in the ways that it equates the radical Cruella to the antiquated villainy of the Baroness. This does give the film an edge of hope in that while Stone could easily become Thompson and that might even be the natural drive it doesn’t have to be that way. Forces of self awareness possible even if they are hard.


Also best use of Mark Strong in a depressingly long time.

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tehthomas
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Re: Cruella (Craig Gillespie, 2021)

#19 Post by tehthomas » Wed Jun 02, 2021 6:43 pm

Cruella is better than it deserves to be. Disney's PG-13 answer to the Joker with a dash of Pose and The Devils Wears Prada, its the origin story nobody asked for. It has plenty of style and a rockin' soundtrack (somebody watched OUATIH). The runtime is a bit long but just when you think its about to take itself too seriously, Paul Walter Hauser or Emma Thompson deliver a zinger. Mindless fun.

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Re: Cruella (Craig Gillespie, 2021)

#20 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Jun 02, 2021 6:48 pm

tehthomas wrote:
Wed Jun 02, 2021 6:43 pm
It has plenty of style and a rockin' soundtrack (somebody watched OUATIH)
Somebody hasn't seen I, Tonya - Gillespie is maintaining a consistent approach to that film (which also utilized a relentless forward momentum propelled by soundtrack cues), eschewing the perception of depth while burying it with conscious empathy in the excerpts of his superficial party of pizzazz

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tehthomas
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Re: Cruella (Craig Gillespie, 2021)

#21 Post by tehthomas » Wed Jun 02, 2021 11:34 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Wed Jun 02, 2021 6:48 pm
tehthomas wrote:
Wed Jun 02, 2021 6:43 pm
It has plenty of style and a rockin' soundtrack (somebody watched OUATIH)
Somebody hasn't seen I, Tonya - Gillespie is maintaining a consistent approach to that film (which also utilized a relentless forward momentum propelled by soundtrack cues), eschewing the perception of depth while burying it with conscious empathy in the excerpts of his superficial party of pizzazz
Hmm. Yeah. I've watched I, Tonya.

The ZZ Top scene is boss.

I was alluding to the usage of "Hush" in Cruella which reminded me of OUATIH.


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Re: Cruella (Craig Gillespie, 2021)

#23 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Jun 04, 2021 5:59 pm

He.. he doesn't even talk about why it doesn't work, it's just a weird rant.. Plus this is Exhibit A in lazily refusing to engage with the film beyond the surface level:
Anthony Lane wrote:The film is directed by Craig Gillespie, whose auteurist signature, as far as I can gather, is a recurring weakness for Supertramp.
I've read a couple thinkpieces on this, and they tend to be predetermined strikes against the trend of humanizing villains/telling backstories that alter the fiction that's come before, without any talk about what the movie does accomplish or how it internally operates as a work of different fiction. Like, if you acknowledge that it's doing something different, but you aren't interesting in approaching the work as it is, and demanding it fit the schema of your own preferred feelings, isn't that anti-intellectualism rather than film criticism?

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Re: Cruella (Craig Gillespie, 2021)

#24 Post by knives » Fri Jun 04, 2021 6:36 pm

To play devil’s advocate, since I find the criticism absurd as well, I don’t remember this criticism directed against Maleficent at least on this level so is there perhaps something however ill communicated beyond just disliking the humanization of villains, something which is rather old hat by now, and disliking it with regard to this particular villain?

If I were to hazard a guess without having read as many think pieces as you, it would see, specifically the problem is associating this character with puppy murder, ignoring that is not the case here, and puppy murder being something society has trained us to treat as a cardinal sin. As well I think critics are exhausted with children’s movies being the main sort of film that gets promoted. Particularly there’s an exhaustion with Disney type films such as this and Marvel. Also I imagine a degree of this, connected to the earlier point, is that it pays more to write about the latest Disney movie than to promote what they are actually passionate about. These people don’t want to end up like The Dissolve.

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Re: Cruella (Craig Gillespie, 2021)

#25 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Jun 04, 2021 7:54 pm

I'm not going to link it here, because I hated reading it, but Megan Garber at The Atlantic wrote an article called "The Cowardice of Cruella" that isn't even formulating an argument besides, maybe, suggesting that Disney should have created the movie around Cruella as a thin character (she actually says that because she was a "two-dimensional" character in the earlier movie, she should remain that way now). To suggest that a mainstream movie be built around the backstory of someone who should not have any detailed depth about them at all makes absolutely zero sense. That's not a pitch, or a narrative anyone wants to invest two hours in, or a reason why people go to the movies (what happened to Ebert's "empathy machines" ethos?). I can appreciate not wanting a full-throated transformation of character from good to evil, effusively empathizing as we watch the 'tragedy' diffused of accountability (which has been done way more often), but this film manages to avoid that overly softhearted meditations on the character, as I wrote about much more thoroughly in my writeup. We pivot from the sympathy almost as soon as it's issued, right with Cruella's own defense mechanisms or the plot setpieces intruding in to remove her from its effects on her, thus evading both this trite device and the endurance of self-pity for the character. The film subverts exactly what everyone is afraid of it turning into, reflexively aligning us being uncomfortable watching ceaseless sentimentality with Cruella's discomfort facing it herself, but nobody wants to pay close enough attention to notice this happening (or 'not' happening). They're just upset another movie is being made that triggers the chip on their shoulders.

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