Cinderella (2021)

Cinderella, an orphaned girl with an evil stepmother, has big dreams and with the help of her Fabulous Godmother, she perseveres to make them come true.

3.0 / 5

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Daleyna

September 12, 2021

3.0 / 5

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I Watched Amazon's Girlboss 'Cinderella' So You Don't Have To

The newest in a long line of Cinderella adaptations, Amazon’s Cinderella (2021) prizes girlbossification above the very story it tries to adapt. In this newest adaptation from Amazon, Camila Cabello stars as the titular character who wants not to dance with the prince, but to run her own business selling handmade dresses. This idea is admirable, and maybe would’ve been entertaining and interesting to watch, had the motivations behind this movie not been so shallow and the execution so poor. Let’s just get it out of the way first: the music is one of the worst things about this movie. This is a jukebox musical, which are notoriously difficult to pull off. Needless to say, Cinderella (2021) does not pull it off. Often, songs feel forced into the story for the sake of matching plotlines. Others are chosen simply because the filmmakers wanted to include them, such as Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation,” ravaged by the poor singing and music composition. A song that feels completely out of place is the inclusion of “Seven Nation Army,” inserted into the prince’s “battle” against a multitude of courting princesses. Other songs are too on the nose, like when the prince sings Queen’s “Somebody To Love” (and does a great disservice to it) or when the evil stepmother sings Madonna’s “Material Girl” to her daughters to convince them to marry rich. This felt like an injustice to both Madonna and Idina Menzel. Many of the actors singing the songs do not have very strong voices — to the detriment of those songs — particularly the two leads. Camila Cabello was seemingly chosen for this role for her singing. While she is adequate, her voice is not very strong and neither is her acting. Both leads are mediocre actors, and the characters they play don’t help them. Cabello’s Cinderella is merely a tool for this film to further its girlboss agenda, so she never feels like a real, living person. And the prince comes off more as lazy and douche-y than rebellious and charming. While other actors may have been able to pull off the “love at first sight,” these two do not. The prince only falls in love with Cinderella because she challenges the status quo he hates (yet benefits from) and later pressures her to give into it anyway. He really uses Cinderella to get back at his father more than anything else, thus Cinderella becomes an object again within the film’s narrative.

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Movie Information

Cinderella, an orphaned girl with an evil stepmother, has big dreams and with the help of her Fabulous Godmother, she perseveres to make them come true.

Rating:PG

Genre:Fantasy, Romance, Comedy

Directed By:Kay Cannon

Written By:Kay Cannon

In Theaters:9/3/2021

Box Office:$42,494

Runtime:112 minutes

Studio:Fulwell 73 Productions, Columbia Pictures