‘Cinderella’ Review: Camila Cabello Delivers An Absurdly Hilarious Fairy Tale

Like most film critics with a Twitter account, I went into the new Cinderella film—which will begin streaming free on Amazon Prime this Friday—with low expectations. The musical comedy has already been a dubbed tacky, off-base “girl boss” version of Cinderella, produced by the increasingly unpopular late-night host, James Corden. And yet, there’s just one problem with this cursory assessment that has most of the internet’s mind made up: This Cinderella is genuinely hilarious.

Perhaps this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone familiar with writer/director Kay Cannon‘s previous work, which includes Blockers, all three Pitch Perfect films, and New Girl. Cannon works her one-liner magic on Cinderella, and while this doesn’t quite justify the film’s existence, it does make it far more enjoyable than it has any right to be.

Pop star Camila Cabello is in the lead role, in a surprisingly charismatic feature film debut. It’s doubtful you need the plot of one of the oldest fairytales in the book summarized for you, though there are a few changes made in the name of feminism—namely, Cinderella is now an aspiring dress-maker who is more interested in becoming a fashion designer than the next queen of the land. That works out, because Prince Charming (Nicholas Galitzine), aka Prince Robert, isn’t actually that interested in becoming the next king. Unfortunately for him, his parents Queen Beatrice and King Rowan (played by the pitch-perfect Minnie Driver and Pierce Brosnan) expect him to find a wife and settle down into the role of royal ruler.

You know the next part—the prince hosts a royal ball, which Cinderella is forbidden from attending by her evil step-mother (played by Broadway legend Idina Menzel). Then Billy Porter shows up, looking fabulous as ever, as Cinderella’s fairy godmother—aka “Fab G”—gives her a dress, a carriage, and some footmen transformed from mice (James Acaster, James Corden, and Romesh Ranganathan). The rest is history.

I started chuckling when Cinderella’s step-sisters (Maddie Baillio and Charlotte Spencer) had a fourth-wall-breaking conversation behind their mother’s back. I was stifling full-blown laughter when Brosnan admitted to making his throne just a few centimeters taller than Driver’s, then again when Galitzine cried, “You can’t leave actors alone without attention! They’ll die!” By the time the royal chorus started singing “Bum bum bum” after Brosnan said something particularly dramatic, I was ready to admit to myself that I was having a great time.

This is not the condescending, self-righteous girl boss version of Cinderella that you think it is. OK, yes, there is a teensy bit of girl bossing—but this movie doesn’t take itself even a little bit seriously, and that’s how it should be. The vibe is reminiscent of the 1984 action comedy Top Secret! Cannon’s take on the fairytale is absurd, over-the-top, self-referential, and at times, parody. The jokes—too many to count—are consistently laugh-out-loud funny. It couldn’t be clearer that this is a script penned by a comedy veteran, someone who has studied the craft. We even get some old-school, Chaplin-esque visual gags, like the Princess (Tallulah Greive) making her entrance via the cut-out eyes of a painting.

The downside is the production. This movie, with its overly bright lighting and bare-bones production design, looks more like a low-budget Disney Channel Original than a star-studded studio film. The music, too, is a tad disappointing. (Mostly covers, with a few originals thrown in.) That said, the presence of crowd-pleasing hits from rock bands like Queen and The White Stripes somewhat makes up for the basic arrangements and overuse of autotune. (Who in their right mind autotunes Idina Menzel!?)

But 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.

Look. Did we need another Cinderella? Of course not. The original story is not nearly interesting enough to earn even half of the retellings it’s seen over the years. But while it wouldn’t have been my first (or second, or third) choice for Cannon’s next project, this is what the people with the money wanted. And what Cannon delivered is far better than what the internet has led you to assume. Don’t believe every tweet you read!

Watch Cinderella on Amazon Prime