10 Movies Where You Want The Villain To Win

Attempting to lionise the puppy-murdering maniac Cruella Deville was an interesting move on the part of the House of Mouse, but it’s one that seemingly paid off in 2021’s Cruella. Reframing the character as a class upstart in the British fashion scene amid the 1970s punk rock movement, this version of Cruella comes complete with earnest intentions and a tragic backstory.

The audience witnesses young Estella, played by a fittingly quirky Emma Stone, as she is orphaned at the hands of some rabid dalmatians (a groan-inducing reference, in your writer's opinion), becomes a street criminal and eventually begins a meteoric rise in the London high-fashion scene.

To become the immortal ‘Cruella’ of the film’s title, Estella’s actions become increasingly grey throughout the story, even beginning to alienate her childhood friends and criminal compatriots, Jasper and Horace.

Despite this troubling transformation we still root for her, however, as we know Cruella is as much a product of tragedy and a broken society as she is the avatar of all Estella’s talent and intelligence. The killer soundtrack and bonkers costumes definitely help, too.