. At first you think Cruella is the devil, but after time has worn away the shock – you come to realize you’ve seen her kind of eyes, watching you from underneath a rock. So sings sweet spotty dog owner, Roger Radcliffe, about his wife’s wicked, fur-obsessed school friend in Disney’s 1961 animated feature, 101 Dalmatians.
Introduced as a careless chain-smoking driver with an unhealthy interest in the Radcliffes’ imminent puppies and social niceties as chaotic as her two-tone hair, Cruella is set up from the get-go as an archetypal baddie. Her dog-napping and plans to skin numerous pups for coats has ensured she’s made umpteen villain lists over the years and inspired numerous iterations, but though we knew from Dodie Smith’s 1956 book that Cruella was expelled from school for drinking ink, she has always previously arrived on screen as a fully formed adult. So if at first, as Roger trills, we think she is the devil – what will we think once we’ve been educated
Mostly, this is a character study. Jeanne (Merlant) lives in a provincial Belgian town with her single mom, Margarette (Emmanuelle Bercot), a no-nonsense bartender with more romantic regrets than she can count. It’s implied but never stated outright that Jeanne isn’t like other people; the armchair diagnosis is that she’s on the autism spectrum, given her discomfort in social settings, obsessive interest in machines, and difficulty with eye contact. Margarette keeps trying to set her up with local boys, but Jeanne’s never had romantic feelings toward anyone that is, until the amusement park where she works introduces a new ride, a tilt-a-whirl Jeanne nicknames “Jumbo.”
What to Watch on Cable and Streaming Instead of the Super Bowl
Mónica Marie Zorrilla, provided by
Feb. 7, 2021
FacebookTwitterEmail
Not even remotely interested in seeing Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes or The Weeknd do their thing at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium?
We’ve got you. Instead of watching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs go helmet-to-helmet for a shiny Vince Lombardi, head to these platforms and channels to get your Sunday evening fix of series and flicks.
More from Variety
Streaming Alternatives
Shows: “Kid Cosmic,” “Firefly Lane,” “Hache” (Season 2), “Invisible City,” “The Sinner” (Season 3)
Films: “The Bank Job,” “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” “Zathura: A Space Adventure,” “Shutter Island,” “The Patriot,” “Little Big Women,” “Space Sweepers,” “Strip Down, Rise Up,” “The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity”
Judas and the Black Messiah and
Tom & Jerry, plus more. You can see the full list below which includes the above films, which will hit HBO Max on the same day they arrive in theaters and stay on the service for 31 days. Also in the list are the Director’s Cuts of the
Saw franchise, a whole bunch of
Batman films,
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, and more.
Meanwhile, exiting the service in February will be the just-arrived
The Little Things starring Denzel Washington, the director’s cut of
Doctor Sleep,
TITLES COMING TO HBO MAX IN FEBRUARY
Exact Dates to be Announced: