Cinderella 2021 Movie Reviews Are Overwhelmingly Bad

The clock has chimed midnight, and the reviews for Camila Cabello’s Cinderella have started rolling in. The film, which was directed by Kay Cannon (Pitch Perfect), will be streaming on Amazon Prime starting September 3. The film will also star Billy Porter as her fairy godparent Fab G, Idina Menzel as the wicked stepmother Vivian, Minnie Driver as Queen Beatrice, Pierce Brosnan as King Rowan, and James Corden as James (Corden recently made waves in a promotional Cinderella flash mob, dancing in the street in a mouse costume).

Cinderella is a modernized musical adaptation of the classic fairy tale. It will be using a Knight’s Tale style approach to the song choice, which includes covers of pop hits like Madonna’s “Material Girl,” Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation,” and Queen’s “Somebody to Love” alongside original tracks. The film will diverge from the traditional story by having Cinderella meet her Prince, but decide to pursue her dream of becoming a dressmaker rather than run off with him.

Now that critics have finally been let loose on the film, fans can have a glimpse as to what they might be able to expect from Cinderella. One thing critics can agree on is that the movie is a superficial affair, though they seem to be split on whether that makes the film a fun turn-your-brain-off romp or leaves it a hollow experience. The cast seems to have gotten off scot-free, with many agreeing that there’s a full roster of strong performers. The only cast member who has had reviewers significantly differing is Cabello, who is surprising some in her feature film acting debut, and leaving others cold. Here are some choice quotes from critics’ reviews:

Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter

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.

Pete Hammond, Deadline

It is interesting to see this new interpretation at this time, especially considering recent events in the Royal Family with Harry and Meagan and a rethinking of priorities in that regard. This Cinderella’s timing seems right on the money, and is a harmless confection (nothing more, nothing less) for the target audience and certainly Cabello fans, who get to see this charming performer branch out into new challenges, and meet them head on.

Ella Kemp, Empire

Billy Porter is unsurprisingly entertaining, but his ‘Fab G’ — this film’s spin on the Fairy Godmother — relies on shallow empowerment slogans (“Yassss future queen,” he says, snapping his fingers as Cinderella smirks and twirls) instead of genuine magic. No number of momentous Idina Menzel showstoppers (including ‘Material Girl’, for some reason) can save a tone-deaf script.

Clarisse Loughrey, Independent 

Cinderella is sorely lacking in feminist credentials. Its protagonist recognises the limitations of her fairytale world – it’s verboten for women to own businesses – yet only works to better her own life. If she can land some foreign clientele at the ball and secure her own financial future, who needs solidarity or sisterhood?

Yolanda Machado, The Wrap

Cannon takes the classic fable and reimagines it for a generation who grew up on a mixed diet of her Pitch Perfect screenplays and the Disney Channel’s The Descendants franchise. This is a film for teenage girls, offering them a message of girl-boss feminism, and it makes no excuses about it. Structurally, Cannon composes the film almost like a lovingly curated stream of similarly styled TikToks. Bouncing from musical number to musical number, each scene showcases the incredible costume work but provides little substance or depth.

Anna Menta, Decider

No one can say that performers don’t give it their all. Cabello proves she’s a capable comedic actor, particularly when she’s fibbing her way through high society, or stumbling over her words when a queen asks where she got her dress. (“Me did… it’s what I done!”) Galitzine is charmingly arrogant as a harmless bro, Brosnan is absolutely hysterical as the narcissistic king, and Porter was clearly born to play a fairy godmother. The entire cast gels with Cannon’s signature manic sense of humor, to maximum comic effect.

Jackson McHenry, Vulture

The whole project is hermetically sealed, predictable from the moment Cabello tries to play Ella as Beauty and the Beast’s Belle as if she is attempting a TikTok challenge. A musical, theoretically, could reveal something under the surface, whatever thoughts her character isn’t able to articulate in dialogue. But there’s nothing under the surface here, just a girl trying to sell you a dress.

Caroline Siede, AV Club

Cannon combines the infectious musical spirit of her Pitch Perfect screenplays with the deadpan comedic sensibility she brought to the teen half of her directorial debut, Blockers, resulting in a movie musical that’s decidedly better than its disastrous trailer suggested. While this version of Cinderella likely won’t top anyone’s list of all-time best adaptations, it’s a winking, glittering family comedy that’s cohesive in tone and confident in what it wants to be. And mostly it just wants to be flashy, toe-tapping karaoke.

It’s not looking like Cinderella has been able to escape being negatively compared to the slew of prior adaptations of the same material. According to many critics, Cabello has a difficult time shining when compared to previous live-action Cinderellas Brandy and Lily James. Likewise, there seems to be a lack of creativity in many of the choices here (even Cinderella‘s use of the song “Somebody to Love,” which has already appeared in the Cinderella adaptation Ella Enchanted).

Fans of Cabello and Kay Cannon (who also directed the teens vs. parents comedy Blockers in 2018) will certainly still want to check out Cinderella, but they may find themselves wanting to run away down the palace steps before it’s over. However, those with a sweet tooth will probably enjoy this sugary confection despite whatever drawbacks it may have. The reviews might trend toward the negative, but even the pans can agree the film has certain strong people in front of and behind the camera pulling the whole thing together, and that is always a plus.

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