Cruella
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: May 28, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 56 Critic Reviews
Positive:
30
Mixed:
21
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeMay 28, 2021
Cruella plays like the result of an endless script conference that generated only partial answers to the questions being asked. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 26, 2021
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 Read full review
60
Rolling StoneK. Austin CollinsMay 26, 2021
Cruella is never more galvanizing than its petty tit-for-tat and power wrangling. Read full review
60
We Got This CoveredScott CampbellMay 26, 2021
Cruella isn’t perfect by any means, but it’s an altogether different kind of Disney blockbuster that pivots from origin story to heist thriller via family drama and a pastiche of the cutthroat fashion industry with consummate ease, all anchored by a tour de force performance from the leading lady. Read full review
60
Time OutPhil de SemlyenMay 26, 2021
Ultimately, Cruella ends up feeling like a film torn between being daring and sticking to convention: a helium balloon that keeps getting dragged back under the weight of its own narrative ballast. Like Cruella’s occasionally piebald hair, it’s very much a movie of two halves: fun to look at, if a little fleeting. Read full review
60
SlateKaren HanMay 26, 2021
All in all, Cruella is much better than it needs to be, and is hampered primarily by the fact that it’s a Disney movie, both in the sense that it has to heel to its animated and live-action predecessors, and in that making its main character a genuine antihero isn’t an option. Read full review
60
Paste MagazineJacob OllerMay 26, 2021
Caught between these conflicting expectations, it’s hard to appreciate Cruella as a whole. It’s overlong, with endless endings, and invites more conversations about it as a curious corporate product than as a cohesive movie. But it can also be perversely enjoyable with its flashy playlist-while-playing-dress-up aesthetic and brash, heightened central actresses. Read full review
60
BBCCaryn JamesMay 26, 2021
Beavan's costumes are dazzling throughout, including Cruella's glittering red dress at the Baroness's gala. But when the costumes overwhelm the characters and story, there's something hollow at the film's centre. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeMay 26, 2021
A love of pure aesthetics will help anyone looking to appreciate the movie, whose sets and costumes are as indulgent as its soundtrack. As an opportunity for Emma Stone to purr and vamp in elaborate gowns, Cruella is plenty enjoyable. But the “too much is just enough” attitude that makes it visually pleasurable also makes it a slog in the storytelling department. Read full review
55
ABC NewsPeter TraversMay 28, 2021
Two Oscar-winning Emmas—Stone and Thompson—are dressed to wow and deliver much to enjoy in this beautifully crafted fluffball, but the end result is a decorative distraction that never runs the risks it promises. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 27, 2021
What we have here is a smoothly crafted error in judgment. Read full review
50
SlashfilmJosh SpiegelMay 26, 2021
Yes, it could’ve been worse. But as daring as this film’s costumes are, and as fun as Stone and Thompson (and Hauser and Fry, to be fair) can be, it can’t help but give into its lazier instincts. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonMay 26, 2021
While there’s energy and edge to the picture, Cruella feels stitched together from different influences in order to justify a rather blatant attempt to renew interest in a moribund property. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 26, 2021
There is never a moment I didn’t wholly buy into the Two Emmas and their delicious on-screen rivalry. But there isn’t a moment where you lean back, laugh and revel at what glorious fun this is, when it plainly could have been and should have been. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 26, 2021
Whatever good intentions were brought to bear in Cruella are lost in an overlong, awkwardly shaped mash-up of coming-of-age drama, caper flick, action adventure and fashion world sendup. Read full review
50
ScreenCrushMatt SingerMay 26, 2021
I suspect some may give Cruella a pass simply because it does have a genuinely quirky vibe, along with a slightly darker than your standard Disney fare. The gonzo period fashions are fun as well. Ultimately, though, the film feels less like a satisfying character drama than a work of corporate rebranding — for Disney as well as for Cruella herself. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzMay 26, 2021
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. Read full review
50
The Film StageGabrielle MarceauMay 26, 2021
The attempt to humanize Cruella neuters what made her so entertaining. Read full review
42
The PlaylistRobert DanielsMay 26, 2021
Cruella is a dull overwrought origin story without an audience. Read full review
40
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJun 2, 2021
Emotions are not toyed with glancingly but stretched out and blazoned forth, and the result is that the new film is nearly an hour longer than the original cartoon. Read full review
40
Vanity FairRichard LawsonMay 26, 2021
Cruella is yet another act of co-opting by the biggest entertainment company in the world, an attempt to graft a cheap rebel spirit onto a naked exercise in I.P. synergy. Read full review
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