The new Amazon Prime Cinderella follows the basic bones of the old story but updates it massively. It’s now very, madly, deeply socially aware and it makes me think back to Ever After with Drew Barrymore and smile wistfully. It ain’t got nothing on the fist raised to the patriarchy on this one. The new flick twists expectations around a bunch so we know that Ella is in control and don’t need no man. Though there is a man and he’s almost as pretty as she is… so are we really upending tropes here or just following along?

The film is a jukebox musical with some original songs… and, for the most part, I enjoyed how the songs were used. It doesn’t always work and there’s sometimes some questionable singing (at least to my broken ears). On the plus side, Piers Brosnan plays the King and gets told his singing voice is atrocious… which I have to imagine is a wink to his performance in Mama Mia. Har.

I was kind of into this movie’s ultra modern and both sly and blunt self-aware jokes. This movie knows its corny and it knows its campy. It’s kind of hard to hate it for being too cute and coy at his pop-infused dialog when it meets you half way and agrees this is all one big joke.

I liked the performances, for the most part. Camila Cabello does a good job carrying the movie.. And it’s always nice to see Piers Brosnan and Minnie Driver back in action. Some of the other appearances and cameos might not be everyone’s cup of tea… some will no doubt aggravate people (I don’t have a problem with him… but James Cordon is a mouse… wasn’t too long ago he was a Cat).

The movie kind of works and was decently pleasant… but then it started to grind its plot gears and I got a little antsy and bored with the whole nonsensical affair. There’s no stakes, obviously…. we know the plot and all we were doing by the end is playing a game of “guess how they are going to subvert the plot and still keep these two pretty people together”. I was looking at the plot mechanics more than I was the story.

It’s an alright film that will probably super appeal to the musical theater kids among us. I’m not that person and there’s only so much of the vibe I can put up with, regardless of whether its winking self-referential nods are so obvious. I like the overall message even if I think we’re just conforming to the same old stereotypes in the long run. I guess what I’m saying is that Ella should want what Winona wanted in Heather…. “cool guys like you out of my life”.

Score: 74