new cinderella movie reviews

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

A modern movie musical with a bold take on the classic fairy tale. Our ambitious heroine has big dreams and with the help of her fab Godmother, she perseveres to make them come true. A modern movie musical with a bold take on the classic fairy tale. Our ambitious heroine has big dreams and with the help of her fab Godmother, she perseveres to make them come true. A modern movie musical with a bold take on the classic fairy tale. Our ambitious heroine has big dreams and with the help of her fab Godmother, she perseveres to make them come true.

• Camila Cabello
• Billy Porter
• Nicholas Galitzine
• 2K User reviews
• 107 Critic reviews
• 41 Metascore
• 1 win & 6 nominations

Top cast 99+

• Fabulous Godmother

• Prince Robert

• Queen Beatrice

• Princess Gwen

• Thomas Cecil

• Count Wilbur
• Princess Laura
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia Costume designer Ellen Mirojnick previously designed the costumes for Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella (1997) .
• Goofs While there are some aspects of the film that would fit into the 19th century, the show isn't set in a specific time frame. The costumes range from medieval styles through 17th, 18th, and even 1950s styles.

Queen Beatrice : [about King Rowan] Oh, no, he's going to sing.

• Crazy credits The Fabulous Godmother says one more thing after the end credits.
• Connections Featured in The Late Late Show with James Corden: Camila Cabello/Rufus Du Sol (2021)
• Soundtracks Rhythm Nation/You Gotta Be Written by Janet Jackson , Jimmy Jam (as James Harris III), Terry Lewis , Des'ree (as Des'ree Annette Weekes) and Ashley Ingram Performed by Camila Cabello , Idina Menzel , Charlotte Spencer and Maddie Baillio

User reviews 2K

This movie is everything i hate about modern day.

• Sep 18, 2021
• How long is Cinderella? Powered by Alexa
• Will this version of Cinderella take place in current times?
• Didn't Disney already do a live-action remake just 5-6 years ago, or why is this coming so soon after that last one?
• Since this is categorised as a musical, is it using the same musical numbers as in Disney's animated 1950's version, or is there going to be new songs written specifically for this version?
• September 3, 2021 (United States)
• United States
• United Kingdom
• Official site
• Lọ Lem Thời Đại
• Waddesdon Manor, Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire, England, UK (Palace Interior and exterior)
• Columbia Pictures
• DMG Entertainment
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• Runtime 1 hour 52 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Atmos

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• IMDb Answers: Help fill gaps in our data
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed.

‘Cinderella’ Review: Camila Cabello Shines in Progressive but Prosaic Reimagining of a Familiar Fairy Tale

A struggling servant dreams of seamstress superstardom despite a sinister stepmother’s sabotage in this mediocre musical.

By Courtney Howard

Courtney Howard

• ‘Hot Frosty’ Review: Lacey Chabert Trades Fruitcake for Beefcake in Netflix’s Heartwarming Holiday Romp 6 days ago
• ‘Freedom’ Review: Mélanie Laurent’s Smash-and-Grab Fictionalization Pays Homage to the Art of the Heist 3 weeks ago
• ‘Lonely Planet’ Review: Laura Dern and Liam Hemsworth Rock the Kasbah in Netflix’s Age Gap Romance 1 month ago

From the outset of Amazon Studios’ new “ Cinderella ” movie, writer-director Kay Cannon welcomes audiences into a fantasy unlike any before it, putting a glimmering girl-boss gloss on the oft-adapted fairy tale. In this heightened unreality, characters can break into song with a Janet Jackson chart-topper as easily as they belt out a new Broadway-style power ballad. This latest retelling of the Charles Perrault classic offers a feminist-friendly update as its titular heroine dreams of a career, not a man, to whisk her away. While Cannon’s inspired creative approach and jukebox musical style all point to an elegant and empowering redesign of this most familiar of garments, her execution puts quite a few tears in the fabric.

Ella ( Camila Cabello ) has been relegated to a life of servitude after her father died years prior, leaving her in the care of his cruel second wife Vivian (Idina Menzel), further scrutinized by her obnoxious stepsisters Malvolia (Maddie Baillio) and Narissa (Charlotte Spencer). Nicknamed Cinderella because of the layer of soot she acquires doing household chores, she dreams of breaking out of the home’s dingy basement and into the world of fashion as a dressmaker. But since the times are not conducive to a career-minded woman, and the townsfolk are set in their old-fashioned ways, all she can do is sing to vent about her burning desires.

Related Stories

Why YouTube Spending Signals a Changing Content Market

After 'Woman of the Hour' Directing Success, Anna Kendrick Is Hearing From Filmmakers Who Didn't Cast Her When She Auditioned for Them Years Ago

Meanwhile, potential soulmate Prince Robert (Nicholas Galitzine) is trapped in a life he’s reticent to lead as his arrogant father King Rowen (Pierce Brosnan) and kindly mother Queen Beatrice (Minnie Driver) are demanding that he find a bride and take the throne. He’d rather slack off with his band of merry men than marry and wear the crown. His smart sister Princess Gwen (Tallulah Greive) is the more suitable sibling to lead the kingdom, except she’s up against unabashed male chauvinism guiding the king’s call.

Popular on Variety

The plan is to throw a grand ball, with invitations sent to the entire kingdom, giving the reluctant royal ample options from which to select his perfect match. Yet he meets true love Ella before the lavish affair is set to take place, first discovering her at the announcement ceremony and then later, in disguise, bumping into her at the marketplace, buying an evening gown from her. As fate and Ella’s fabulous fairy godmother Fab G (Billy Porter) work their magic, conflicts surrounding her career goals surface, threatening to separate the dynamic duo.

Cannon takes great craft and care to ensure that her heroine’s internal and external motivations serve to drive the story forward. This modernized take has the sympathetic protagonist wrestle with a compelling conundrum, figuring out how Ella and her prince can continue to love each other while attaining their respective career ambitions (or hers, at least, since he maddeningly never verbalizes what he wants in that regard). Their superficial struggle, surrounding class structure and wealth disparity, is assuredly still part of the tale’s DNA, culminating in an empowering musical number (“Dream Girl”) in which all the women, led by Vivian, join together to sing about the stifling, suffocating societal sexism they’ve endured. This showstopper hits like a sledgehammer to the glass ceiling that restrains them all. Humanizing Ella’s tormenter in the process may seem ill-advised, but it winds up being one of the film’s blessed surprises.

Still, for all the innovative, intelligent decisions made, there are an overwhelming number of frustrating creative choices. The movie’s pacing is inconsistent, especially when it comes to character development, which can feel at once underdeveloped and overstuffed. From the stepsisters (who are softened to the point of serving little to no purpose) to the members of the royal court (whose arcs are extraneous), practically everyone beyond Ella and Vivian suffers greatly from tissue-paper-thin character motivations that pivot on a whim, making the audience question why these superfluous story threads are there at all. It’s clear Ella is the underlying force inspiring change in these folks, but the reasons instigating those changes defy logic.

Lavish musical set-pieces, this film’s bread and butter, fail to immerse or transport audiences as intended. Though designed to conjure energy and bewitching wonderment in their design, there’s a pervasive lack of aesthetic intrigue and individual identity. These numbers are exhausting, not enthralling. Composed like music videos, with quick, sharp cuts alternating between wide and medium shots, these sequences do a disservice to Ashley Wallen’s wonderfully anachronistic choreography and Ellen Mirojnick’s breathtaking costumes. The wonderful wardrobe is valued for its poignancy and power in the creation of Ella’s magical ball gown, only to be undermined in later scenes, as the film plows through palpable moments like Ella’s designer debut.

While some of the material sags, a few performances uplift the indomitable spirit of the time-honored tale and its refashioned sentiments. Cabello is a magnetic screen presence who demonstrates a natural sense of comedic timing, infusing her character with vulnerability, compassion and effervescence. She and Galitzine share a sweet, chaste chemistry. But it’s Porter who steals the show. He does not disappoint. He’s vivacious, vibrant and knows precisely how to deliver a satisfying “well, well, well” — so much so that younger audiences might assume he invented its usage. His charisma sparkles as brightly as his sequined ensemble, and his sole physical appearance (he also partially narrates this journey) is filled with magnificent, magical splendor.

Even though prior iterations of this tale — such as “Ever After,” Disney’s TV movie adaptation “Cinderella” and Kenneth Branagh’s live-action “Cinderella” — offered similarly enlightened, forward-thinking commentary, Cannon’s, for better and worse, is far more obtuse about its machinations. And while it’s a noble effort from a capable director, this glass slipper proves frustratingly ill-fitting.

Reviewed online, Los Angeles, August 30, 2021. Rating: PG. Running time: 113 MIN.

• Production: An Amazon Studios release of a Sony Pictures, Fulwell 73 production. Producer: Leo Pearlman, James Corden, Jonathan Kadin, Shannon McIntosh. Executive producers: Louise Rosner, Josephine Rose.
• Crew: Director: Kay Cannon. Screenplay: Kay Cannon. Camera: Henry Braham. Editor: Stacey Schroeder. Music: Mychael Danna, Jessica Rose Weiss.
• With: Camila Cabello, Idina Menzel, Nicholas Galitzine, Maddie Baillio, Charlotte Spencer, Tallulah Greive, Minnie Driver, Billy Porter, Pierce Brosnan.

More from Variety

Why Activision’s Test of ‘True Success’ With ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’ Isn’t Sales, but Cultural Awareness

Why SAG-AFTRA Is Smart to Threaten Holiday Gaming Boycott

‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’ Scores Franchise’s Biggest-Ever Launch Weekend, Microsoft Gaming Says

Latest Production Stats Paint Grim Picture for Reality TV

More from our brands, ‘why’s mike doing this’: on the ground at paul vs. tyson, the fight america deserves.

This New 75-Foot Yacht Has Transformer-Like Terraces That Drop Down to Expand the Aft Deck

Why Northwestern Wants Big-Time Football’s Smallest Venue

The Best Loofahs and Body Scrubbers, According to Dermatologists

TNT Sports to Continue Producing Inside the NBA Under New Agreement — But Where Will It Air?

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

Camila cabello and billy porter in amazon’s ‘cinderella’: film review.

In this take on the classic fairy tale, the princess doesn’t need a man.

By Lovia Gyarkye

Lovia Gyarkye

Arts & Culture Critic

• Share on Facebook
• Share to Flipboard
• Send an Email
• Show additional share options
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Pinterest
• Share on Reddit
• Share on Tumblr
• Share on Whats App
• Print the Article
• Post a Comment

Cinderella suffers from a host of problems, but its real curse is terrible timing. If this most recent reboot, with its heavy-handed feminist messaging, had been released decades ago, it might have stood a chance at being subversive. But it’s 2021, and additions to the crowded and underwhelming field of #girlboss narratives require a bit more style and depth to keep even young audiences engaged.

Written and created by Kay Cannon ( Pitch Perfect ), this new but not so improved Cinderella recasts the heroine (played by Camila Cabello ) as a career-driven woman. In the rare moments when her exigent stepmother (Idina Menzel) and her barely wretched stepsisters (Maddie Baillio as Anastasia and Charlotte Spencer as Drisella) aren’t yelling for her, Cinderella hides away in her basement, sketching gowns. She wants to be a designer, and, by the looks of the pages strewn across her work desk and tacked to the walls of her sun-flooded basement room, she seems close to realizing that dream. This Cinderella, ambitious and quick-witted, has no time for a prince.

Related Stories

Camila cabello gives angsty "june gloom" performance at the 2024 mtv music video awards, lenny kravitz, halsey join vma performers lineup.

Release Date: Friday, Sept. 3 Cast: Camila Cabello, Billy Porter, Idina Menzel, Pierce Brosnan, Minnie Driver, Nicholas Galitzine Director-screenwriter: Kay Cannon

As promising as that premise sounds, Cinderella buckles under the weight of its intentions, and not even its formidable cast — Menzel, Billy Porter , Minnie Driver and Pierce Brosnan — can save it. It lacks magic and elegance, the magnetic qualities that made the 1997 Rodgers and Hammerstein reboot, for example, irresistible. In that version of the film, starring Brandy and Whitney Houston, a Black Cinderella marries a Filipino prince (Paolo Montalban). Her feminism isn’t reduced to a choice between a man and a career, and when asked by her royal soon-to-be husband how a girl should be treated, Cinderella, shy but assertive, says, “Like a person, with kindness and respect.” By comparison, with its ham-fisted script and uninspired production, the new Cinderella goes down like medicine.

The musical film opens with the townspeople singing Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” and Cinderella herself belting Des’ree’s classic “You Gotta Be.” The energetic medley — one of many throughout the film, all arranged by Keith Harrison — is a timely shortcut, nudging viewers in the right emotional direction. Here you should feel optimistic and inspired, there sad but hopeful. Despite the talented performances (I’m sure the soundtrack album will be a hit), the music does not help make sense of the rules governing this fictional universe.

In this world, where the cruelty of the stepmother and stepsisters is considerably softened, the script doubles as an extended motivational Instagram post. “I think you look so pretty, but honestly who cares what I think, who cares what anyone thinks,” Cinderella lovingly says to one stepsister as they stare at their reflections in the mirror. “What matters is how you feel when you look in the mirror.” When Prince Robert (Nicholas Galitzine) and Cinderella meet for the first time in the town square, he, disguised as a commoner, asks her why women should be allowed to own businesses. An irritated Cinderella rolls her eyes before triumphantly exclaiming, “We women give birth, we run entire households. Surely we can run a business — it can’t be that hard!” Cinderella possesses enough self-awareness to clock its own ridiculousness, and statements like these are sprinkled throughout the movie with a wink and a smile. But without the foundation of a reliable narrative (after all, kids aren’t stupid), the jokes don’t land.

Where Cinderella could have made a splash but doesn’t is in its design elements. It’s hard to see the overall vision for the sets and costumes, which feel like they’ve been plucked at random and assembled with little thought as to how any of this would work within the story’s world. Nothing defies expectations, and everything looks cheaply made: The palace decor abuses the use of velvet and gold, and the royal family — with the exception of the Prince’s sister, Gwen (Tallulah Greive) — dons stiff garments that don’t tickle the imagination; the townspeople, for the most part, wear muted colors. There are hints of what could have been, however, as when Cinderella’s fairy godparent (played by Porter) rocks a structured diamond-studded orange piece that is matched only by the actor’s vibrant presence.

As a big-budget film with a star-studded cast, Cinderella meets the relatively low bar set by most contemporary reboots, but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing. The classic fairy tale and its straightforward but powerful lessons in self-confidence, perseverance and the power of imagination provide an alluring foundation for ambitious and visually stunning storytelling. It’s sad that, watching this version, you wouldn’t be able to tell.

Full credits

Distributor: Amazon Production company: Columbia Pictures Cast: Camila Cabello, Billy Porter, Idina Menzel, Pierce Brosnan, Minnie Driver, Nicholas Galitzine Director: Kay Cannon Screenwriter: Kay Cannon Based on the story by Charles Perrault Producers: James Corden, Jonathan Kadin, Shannon McIntosh, Leo Pearlman Executive producers: Josephine Rose, Louise Rosner Director of photography: Henry Braham Production designer: Paul Kirby Costume designer: Ellen Mirojnick Editor: Stacey Schroeder Composer: Jessica Weiss Casting directors: Pat Goodwin, Reg Poerscout-Edgerton, Bernard Telsey

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

More from The Hollywood Reporter

How xixi pictures is tapping universal themes to go global, michael mann’s ‘heat’ set for red sea film festival treasures program, governors awards: oscar hopefuls pack room as bond producers, richard curtis, juliet taylor and the late quincy jones are honored, pierce brosnan on becoming a 92-year-old vet for ‘last rifleman’ and the latest about ‘mamma mia 3’, does the length of a festival standing ovation really matter, hollywood flashback: ‘the cardinal’ drew high praise at the golden globes in 1964.