Cruella

In 1970s London amidst the punk rock revolution, a young grifter named Estella is determined to make a name for herself with her designs. She befriends a pair of young thieves who appreciate her appetite for mischief, and together they are able to build a life for themselves on the London streets. One day, Estella’s flair for fashion catches the eye of the Baroness von Hellman, a fashion legend who is devastatingly chic and terrifyingly haute. But their relationship sets in motion a course of events and revelations that will cause Estella to embrace her wicked side and become the raucous, fashionable and revenge-bent Cruella.

Cruella lands mostly positive but genuinely divided: even fans concede the film raises the obvious question of whether this origin story needed to exist at all, and the lengthy runtime draws consistent criticism across the board. What nearly everyone agrees on is that the period costumes and production design are spectacular, and that the two Emmas — Stone and Thompson — make their rivalry the film's real reason for being.