STACK #260 June 2026

MOVIE FEATURE

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FUN FACT

Jessie Buckley with director Maggie Gyllenhaal

HERE COMES THE BRIDE GENRE: Sci-fi romance RUN TIME: 2h 7m

Christian Bale’s “Frank” prosthetics took six hours to apply, while Jessie Buckley’s “Bride” took 90 minutes.

The iconic Bride of Frankenstein is reimagined in one of the year’s most polarising, dazzling and exhilarating exploits, The Bride! starring Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale. W hen we first heard that Maggie Gyllenhaal was stepping behind the

Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale

she doesn't say one word. We don't get a chance to get really inside of ‘What was she thinking?’ What was her perspective on that? So, that was the original spark of inspiration, especially because she finds herself in such an insane situation, you know, having been brought back from the dead – without her consent! - to be the wife of someone that she's never met.” But this isn’t just a remake with updated lighting and louder jump scares. Instead, Gyllenhaal leans into mood, identity, and emotion, reframing the Bride not as a side character in someone else’s gothic nightmare, but as the centre of her own story. It’s an electrifying move. And who better to portray this newly animated Bride than Hamnet actress

Jessie Buckley, with whom Gyllenhaal had become close while filming The Lost Daughter ? Talking about what drew her to The Bride! , the British actress says, “I think, firstly, it was a great opportunity to give voice to something that wasn't permitted, or hadn’t had that opportunity before. And to feel the potential of what that character might have said was really so exciting. “ You know, she doesn't get reinvigorated with a definite idea of herself. She gets reinvigorated with huge questions with a mind and body that she doesn't even expect herself, like it's so alive,

camera again for The Bride! , there was immediate curiosity. After her haunting, Oscar-nominated debut with The Lost Daughter , expectations were high. Instead of playing it safe, Gyllenhaal went bold and reimagined one of the most iconic figures in horror history. Inspired by Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein , it was a chance viewing of the 1935 gothic horror film The Bride of Frankenstein that prompted Gyllenhaal to take on – and entirely reshape - the neglected bride. “I was watching the original Bride of Frankenstein - but the Bride isn't in it!” exclaims the filmmaker, talking to STACK . “I mean, she's in it for two minutes, and

it's so monstrous in the most wild, brilliant, laser beam kind of way.” Gill Pringle

• The Bride! is out Jun 3

IF YOU LIKE THIS, YOU’LL LOVE THESE:

Lisa Frankenstein, Frankenstein, Dracula: A Love Tale, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy

GENRE: Comedy drama RUN TIME: 1h 50m JIM JARMUSCH’S FAMILY AFFAIR Cate Blanchett joins the all-star cast of Jim Jarmusch’s wonderfully old-fashioned and quietly hypnotic drama, Father Mother Sister Brother .

Fun Fact: Jim Jarmusch is the founder of a satirical secret society called The Sons of Lee Marvin, whereby all members resemble the late actor. Notable members include Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Josh Brolin, Neil Young and Iggy Pop.

Adam Driver and Mayim Bialik Inset: Director Jim Jarmusch

W ith Tom Waits and Charlotte Rampling in the roles of “Father” and “Mother”, Blanchett plays one of several estranged siblings alongside Adam Driver, Vicky Krieps and Mayim Bialik. The film feels less like a conventional drama and more like sitting in a room with people who have spent years avoiding difficult conversations - until suddenly they can’t anymore. It’s funny, melancholic, awkward, intimate, and deliberately slow in that unmistakable Jarmusch way. Structured as a triptych, the film is split into three separate stories titled Father, Mother, and Sister Brother . Each chapter takes place in a different country - Father is set in the Northeast US, Mother in Dublin, Ireland, and Sister Brother in Paris, France.

Each story takes place in present time, the film is a series of character studies, quiet, observational and non-judgmental – a comedy, but interwoven with threads of melancholy. “ Father Mother Sister Brother is a kind of anti-action film, its subtle and quiet style carefully constructed to allow small details to accumulate – almost like flowers being carefully placed in three delicate arrangements,” says the director celebrated for his movies Coffee and Cigarettes, The Dead Don’t Die, Stranger Than Paradise and Broken Flowers . Critics especially praised the final chapter for giving the movie its emotional payoff. Visually, it’s gorgeous with everyday spaces - kitchens, cafés, apartments, rainy streets - becoming strangely poetic. What makes the film particularly interesting

is its lack of melodrama, so often inherent in films about family dysfunction. Nobody screams hysterically. There are no huge revelations or

sentimental speeches. Instead, the movie captures something quieter and arguably more truthful: the uncomfortable mystery of family itself. For audiences willing to settle into its mood, the movie becomes surprisingly moving. By the end, it leaves behind that bittersweet feeling you get after a difficult family reunion - exhausting, awkward, funny, sad, and strangely comforting all at once. Gill Pringle

• Father Mother Sister Brother is out Jun 10

IF YOU LIKE THIS, YOU’LL LOVE THESE:

The Room Next Door, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

18 JUNE 2026

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