The trailer for Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! has officially landed (which you can catch up with below), and I think it might be my most anticipated movie of 2026.
Forget Frankenstein – including the Guillermo Del Toro Netflix version – because Gyllenhaal’s second movie takes the narrative in a completely different direction to the character we briefly met in Mary Shelley’s original novel.
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Chicago
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Release date: December 2, 2002
Cast: Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah
Runtime: 113 minutes
RT rating: 87%
Obviously, the original crime-ridden story set in 1930s Chicago is the eponymous musical-movie, starring Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Numbers like ‘Cell Block Tango’, ‘Hot Honey Rag’, and ‘All That Jazz’ are now timeless classics, and the seedy mob feel to Roxy (Zellweger) and Velma’s (Zeta-Jones) story is perfectly in line with The Bride!’s first look.
Even as an avid musical hater, I fell in love with Chicago at an early age. I even cut my hair into a bob to look like Velma when I was 14 (please don’t do this, the likelihood is that you won’t suit it). It’s a story that seeps under your skin while oozing with charm and glamour – and I’d bet good money on Gyllenhaal being able to give us some more razzle dazzle come March.
Joker: Folie à Deux
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Release date: October 4, 2024
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Harry Lawtey, Jacob Lofland
Runtime: 148 minutes
RT rating: 31%
Surely, Joker 2 is the movie that The Bride! trailer reminds us all of. An unhinged fantasy partnership between two lovers, dreamlike musical sequences and an inevitable crime spree – they’re even both Warner Bros. productions.
Not many people have the pipes of Lady Gaga, but Brits will know all too well that Buckley can indeed sing (she got her start on a West End competition show called I’d Do Anything). Buckley and Bale together as an acting partnership are a force to be reckoned with, and I bet The Bride! will be a lot more popular than Folie à Deux too.
For me, the movie was slated much more harshly than it needed to be. It didn’t hold a candle to Joker, but there’s a great deal to like here. It’s truly a fever dream, and I mean that as a compliment.
The Bride of Frankenstein
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Release date: April 19, 1935
Cast: Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson
Runtime: 95 minutes
RT rating: 98%
Obviously, I’ve got to include the original 1935 movie. It’s our best way to understand the framework of the story Gyllenhaal is working with, even if she has set it in a completely different world. Created as a sequel to 1931 movie Frankenstein, Lanchester played the Bride and a fictional version of Mary Shelley simultaneously.
Frankly, it’s all as bonkers as it sounds in the best possible way. It’s got the classic thread-through of an outsider yearning for friendship, and beautifully builds on what the 1931 film set up. In fact, it might culturally stand up as well as the original monster. Gyllenhaal got inspiration for The Bride! because she saw a man with a tattoo of the Bride of Frankenstein… say no more.
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