“Cruella De Vil, Cruella De Vil, if she doesn’t scare you, no evil thing will …” One of the most memorable villains in cinema history, (12A) is probably overdue for an origins story, which opens with the young Estella (Tipper Seifter-Cleveland) witnessing the death of her mother, which she blames on herself. Running away to London, Estella falls in with a pair of Dickensian street-urchins and grows up an accomplished grifter in the company of Jasper (Joel Fry) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser).
Obsessed with the haute couture designs of the Baroness (Emma Thompson), Estella finds her ambitions thwarted, at which point she unleashes her ruthless alter ego, Cruella … Written by Dana Fox and Tony McNamara, and directed by Craig Gillespie, Cruella is a rather edgy Disney movie in that the traditional tale of good vs evil is replaced by evil vs eviler: the sociopathic Baroness terrifies everyone she encounters until she matches wits with Cruella, who is utterly single-minded in her desire to succeed.
Indeed, you don’t have to scratch the surface too deeply to realise that this is a timeless tale: Cruella and the Baroness aren’t just playing out the time-honoured roles of inter-generational conflict, but are so similar in personality and behaviour that they are virtually mirror-images who are reflected back at one another as they seek to determine who is the fairest one of all. All of which makes for an enjoyable off-kilter and psychologically sophisticated story, with Emma Stone and Emma Thompson both in tremendous form — Thompson visibly relishes the delicate savagery of her lines, while Stone is deliciously sinister when she comes to inhabit the persona of Cruella.
Throw in an offbeat take on Swinging London, a brilliant ’60s soundtrack (The Doors and the Stones, the Zombies, Nina Simone) and an eye-popping procession of frou-frou frocks, and is a Disney movie like none you’ve seen before. (Disney+)
(15A) stars Morgan Freeman as Damon, formerly ‘America’s top cop’ but now confined to a wheelchair after being gunned down by a vengeful perp. Damon, we quickly learn, is by no means squeaky-clean, and when the Feds start investigating his small army of corrupt cops, Damon acts quickly, kidnapping the young daughter of his care assistant Victoria (Ruby Rose) and blackmailing Victoria into doing five pick-ups of illicit cash in one hectic night.
And so Victoria goes roaring off into the darkness on her motorbike, monitored by Damon via the webcam on her helmet, and drives straight into a world of trouble …
Written by George Gallo and Sam Bartlett, with Gallo directing, Vanquish sounds a tad improbable in synopsis, although it’s considerably more improbable as it plays out on screen. Victoria carts around a lot of baggage on her travels – not only is her young daughter kidnapped, but dying too, and Victoria is a former drug courier for the Russian mafia, during which adventures her brother was murdered by the criminal lowlifes she’s collecting money from.
Mind you, Victoria is no shrinking violet herself, having ‘killed more people than Quentin Tarantino’ before she abandoned the Russian mafia to become a care assistant. Ruby Rose is suitably monosyllabic and brutal as she goes about her business, but it’s hard to know who to root for when the options are the killing machine Victoria, her puppet-master Damon, and the hordes of corrupt cops and scuzzy crims that get in Victoria’s way. (streaming release)
Opening in 2017, well in advance of the 2018 referendum, (12A) is a documentary that follows some of the main personalities who were campaigning for the repeal of the 8th amendment, which prohibited abortion except in the case of a serious risk to life of the mother.
Directed by Aideen Kane, Lucy Kennedy and Maeve O’Boyle, the documentary focuses on Ailbhe Smythe, whose own approach to securing a Yes vote was largely mirrored by the ‘Together for Yes’ campaign, being a blend of compassion, hard-nosed pragmatism and a long-simmering rage at Irish women being treated as second-class citizens.
As befits the even-handedness we expect from a documentary, the makers interview those in favour and against the repeal of the 8th amendment, blending straight-to-camera interviews with TV clips both contemporary and historical (the early stages provide a broad overview of Ireland’s history in relation to abortion rights).
The galvanising impact of Savita Halappanavar’s tragic death in 2012 is also explored, and while the overall tone is appropriately factual and restrained, the film becomes an emotional rollercoaster in its latter stages, and especially when the ‘Together for Yes’ campaign comes to understand that the referendum isn’t just about the 8th amendment, but a statement of intent about ‘the value of Irish women in society.’ (streaming release)
May 28, 2021 at 09:05PM
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Movie Reviews: Cruella — an enjoyable, psychologically sophisticated story - Irish Examiner
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