Film Review - The Bride (2026)

The Bride is written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhall and based off of the Bride of Frankenstein and stars Jesse Buckley as Ida a young woman who falls to her death on a staircase and is reanimated back to life by Dr. Euphronious (Annette Bening) as a request for Frankenstein the Monster (Christian Bale) who desires a companion after a century of loneliness but their escapades catch the attention of 2 local detectives (Peter Sarsgaard and Penelope Cruz) as well as a popular movie star (Jake Gyllenhall)

The Bride is all over the place as a movie, so much so that there would be times while I was watching it where I would have a big smile on my face and then in the very next scene I would be sitting in my cinema seat going “What the Fuck is this” but before I delve more into that I want to talk about the positives as there are some.

Firstly the cinematography by Lawrence Sher, the production design by Karen Murphy and the costumes by Sandy Powell are all top notch, the sets feel real and lived in like a cross between Tim Burton (Bening’s character felt like a character from a Tim Burton movie) and Guillermo Del Toro (who coincidentally just made a Frankenstein movie for Netflix), the costumes feel very authentic to the 1930’s setting so much so that you can almost feel the wool of the uniforms and the fine silk of the suits and the cinematography lights these well including the night scenes.

The film also has a great performance by Jesse Buckley as well and she goes for it 115% ranging from vulnerability to dark humour to sadisticness with ease and if this movie didn’t have her in it it would be nigh on unwatchable.

Because the real problem here is the screenplay and the more I thought about this movie I kept thinking “So What”

Yes this movie has great cinematography,

Yes this movie has great production design,

Yes this movie has great costumes,

And it has a committed performance by an actress who knows what movie she’s making.

But so what without a script that has a firm sense of narrative direction, a consistent tone and a clear structure all of that means nothing and this movie lacks all of those, the narrative direction is absent as it feels like Gyllenhall just throws every idea she had for this movie into the script in the hope that something/anything might stick, the tone ranges from sadness to action to seriousness to black comedy with all the subtlety of a car driving at fast speed and there is no clear structure to the storytelling at all it goes from one plotline to the next without taking the time to develop any of them.

Well except the detective storyline where the woman does all the work like she’s Penny from Inspector Gadget and gets none of the credit and this is a real waste of a world class talent in Penelope Cruz.

As for Christian Bale as Frankenstein well his performance ranges from brooding silence to mumbling his lines and then YELLING HIS LINES LIKE THIS AS IF HE WAS BACK ON THE FUCKING SET OF TERMINATOR SALVATION!!!! and it just got annoying after a while, as for Jake Gyllenhall and Peter Sarsgaard their fine but not in the film enough to be all that memorable.

And so that was the Bride and it has some strong elements but So What without a good script to make it all matter none of it does and as great as Buckley is she can only do so much without a firm script to carry the film, there is a reason so many movie documentaries emphasize the importance of the script and this movie is proof of that in real time, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - How to Make a Killing (2026)

How to Make a Killing stars Glen Powell as Beckett Redfellow who was born into a wealthy family led by Whitelaw Redfellow (Ed Harris) but his mother is disowned by the family after she gives birth so years later he plots to kill the remaining members of his family to take his inheritance and hopefully the love of a childhood friend (Margaret Qualley)

How to Make a Killing is okay but nothing spectacular to watch, the cast does a lot of the heavy lifting here and Glen Powell as the lead is okay but I feel he is a lot like Ryan Gosling than Tom Cruise as many thought he would be after his role in Top Gun Maverick but instead Gosling feels like the more appropriate comparison as both can be great in the right roles but when they aren’t they feel out of step though Powell is better at managing this than Gosling is and here he’s fine and serviceable.

The rest of the cast are good as well mainly Ed Harris as the patriarch of the Redfellow family, Topher Grace as a tele-evangelist esque Pastor that Beckett has to get rid of and Jessica Henwick as Ruth a woman that Beckett falls for during his escapades, as for Margaret Qualley she is good here as well and channels that femme fatale quality pretty well and would be great in that kind of role also.

As for the storyline well that did bother me a little as it felt like a variation of the “Look at the twisted loveless billionaires” motif and that works in todays society but I wish it went further than it does and also some of Beckett’s decisions made me go “He’s going to get easily caught” which pulled me out of the film a little as it went on.

But still I liked this movie enough that I thought it was fine, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Crime 101 (2026)

Crime 101 is based off of the novel by Don Winslow and stars Chris Hemsworth as James, a criminal in LA who is meticulous with his criminal work but when he wants out it after a big heist job sets off a chain reaction that ensares a police detective (Mark Ruffalo) an insurance company worker (Halle Berry) and a rival hitman (Barry Keoghan)

Crime 101 is a solid thriller that I enjoyed watching in the cinema, Hemsworth does a good job in the lead role and he anchors the film reliably well, Nick Nolte is also good in his brief appearance and I also enjoyed Mark Ruffalo as the grizzled detective and Halle Berry as the insurance worker.

But where this film didn’t win me over was the side plot with Monica Barbaro’s character, I loved her in Top Gun Maverick and A Complete Unknown but every time the film cut back to her storyline I lost interest as I felt that it took away from the heist thriller that was unfolding around it and her scenes could’ve gone to Berry’s character without too much retooling of the script for that to happen.

And so that was Crime 101 and it’s a solid thriller with a good cast if a little too long with one sideplot too many, 3 out of 5.