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Film directors walk viewers through one scene of their movies, showing the magic, motives and the mistakes from behind the camera.Film directors walk viewers through one scene of their movies, showing the magic, motives and the mistakes from behind the camera. More
The director Craig Gillespie discusses the formation of the title character in a scene from his film, which also features Emma Thompson.In “Anatomy of a Scene,” we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series on Fridays. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel.Fashion and intrigue and giant rats all make an appearance in this scene from “Cruella.”The sequence has the title character (Emma Stone) making a surprising entrance at an event thrown by the Baroness (Emma Thompson), a fashion mogul with a mean streak. Stone’s character has arrived with two of her cohorts, Horace and Jasper (Paul Walter Hauser and Joel Fry), in disguise to pull off a heist.Spinning several plates in the scene, the director Craig Gillespie shows the formulation of the persona Cruella, tracks Horace and Jasper’s improvisational plan to cause a distraction, and makes use of dogs and rats (and dogs posing as rats) in creative ways.In this video, Gillespie explains how he worked with Stone to capture a performance that had to include a level of “bad” acting for the character, and discusses the negotiations he had with Disney about how many rats would be too many for the scene.Read the “Cruella” review.Read an interview with Emma Stone.Watch “Cruella” in theaters or on Disney+Sign up for the Movies Update newsletter and get a roundup of reviews, news, Critics’ Picks and more. More
No one would call it a huge leap on the evolutionary ladder, but the animated sequel “The Croods: A New Age” is slightly funnier than its serviceable 2013 predecessor. That movie followed a family of cave persons — whose patriarch was the lunkheaded but big-hearted Grug (voiced by Nicolas Cage) — as they left the safety of the rocky alcove they called home and, thanks to the creativity of an outsider, Guy (Ryan Reynolds), embraced more innovative ways of thinking.“The Croods: A New Age,” directed by Joel Crawford, accelerates the Crood family’s clash with modernity. The clan stumbles into a verdant utopia that’s a cross between Shangri-La and Gilligan’s Island. This paradise is maintained by a family called the Bettermans, headed by Hope (Leslie Mann) and Phil (Peter Dinklage), who wear new-age garb and snobbishly show off their advanced ideas, like private rooms, windows and fruit baskets.[embedded content]They also have plans to set up Guy, who has been going steady with Eep (Emma Stone), the Croods’ eldest, with their daughter, Dawn (Kelly Marie Tran), in a subplot that the writers — perhaps because the world’s still-tiny population left them without enough characters to pair off — leave at least partly unresolved.While Dawn and Eep become besties, the dueling dads negotiate the common ground between Grug’s vestigial Cro-Magnonism and Phil’s proto-metrosexuality. Paradoxically, the movie’s energy ebbs as the proceedings turn more antic. The culture clash comedy becomes secondary once “A New Age” introduces a tribe of pugnacious, subtitled monkeys who appear to have a fairly advanced society of their own.The Croods: A New AgeRated PG. Hybrid animals — such as wolf spiders — that might frighten children. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters. More
