Given what a dopey, uninspired, and tedious mess Disney’s new Cruella movie is, it’s startling to find out how much serious talent was involved in its making.

The film is directed by Craig Gillespie, who made the terrific 2017 satire I, Tonya about the infamous knee-capping of ice skater Nancy Kerrigan before the 1994 Winter Olympics. Like with I, Tonya, Cruella kicks off with a bitter, ironic voice-over offering a few minutes of false hope that Gillespie’s managed to pull it off, but unfortunately, any resemblance to that superior film ends there.

One of Cruella’s many credited writers is Tony McNamara, who’s earned the status of dark-historical-comedy auteur after giving us two brilliant works, the film The Favorite (2018) and the television series The Great (2020). And Aline Brosh McKenna, here with an original-story-by credit on Cruella, wrote the generally amusing comedy The Devil Wears Prada (2006).