The Bride! Review — Ambitious Swing or Total Mess?

0:00It was a sledgehammer over the head with the me-to be dropped twice. Like, Jessie, you couldn't have said really, you want me to say this twice. Like, I think these actors do need to add their input. Well, to be fair, they took out the hashtag me-to, so that was a battle that was won. Greetings and salutations and welcome to Thumb War, the show where we almost never have a war, because we agree on almost every single movie we see. I think we're worrying with the movies most of the time, maybe, has that possible? Well, certainly we'll be in this case. I'm Jason. I'm Rachel. Today we're talking about that bride! exclamation point. That might have been three exclamation points. Sorry. The bride. One. There we go. Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, also written by Maggie Gyllenhaal.

1:01Yeah, we got a ton of pretty amazing cast members as well. Yeah, let's hear it. Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, and Nat Benning, Penelope Cruz, Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgard, and a few others, but just those people alone. This should be a slam dunk, right? Hey, man, you know I'm a Sarsgard guy. Oh gosh, don't start. You're just like to say Sarsgard, Sarsgard, Sarsgard, Sarsgard. Yes, this is officially Sarsgard, her husband, and her bro, bro. And I mean, Jessie Buckley was in her other movie, The Lost Daughter, that was nominated for a few, right? I have not either. And Jessie Buckley was nominated for Best Supporting Actress and that. From the get-go, we saw this trailer about a thousand times over the last few months. And up until the last month, I was like, this is going to be a huge stinker.

2:02And then the last few trailers I saw, I was like, oh, maybe this is going to be good, actually. So they started making a little better trailers that was not quite so don't come to this movie, ish. Yeah, well, I had the exact opposite reaction because I was kind of into it when I first saw it. It was a little cringe, but I don't remember what changed or maybe it was just repetitiveness, but what changed about it that made you more excited? Like what was new in the trailer? It just, I think it was just more action scenes and more less of her seeming just, like she hit her head on something and saying stupid shit all the time. And I was like, oh, things are happening. It's not just this very kind of artsy weird head and a glass jar and then her saying weird things. Right, yeah. And it being like cringy, right, but alas, I was tricked.

3:03Well, yes and no. I mean, the later trailers were leaning into the buy-and-clidness of it. Yeah, which got me like, oh, this is going to be okay, but it wasn't okay. Still had the head in the jar. Spoilers off the bat were going to spoil this. I mean, we were talking about maybe, you know, doing what other shows do, which is have like, well, a spoiler-free section and then not. Do you want to try that? Or just try and do it. I mean, do you have the restraint? I don't know. This movie was so incoherent that I'm going to be all over the place because I normally am anyway. Yeah. I mean. Dear self-favorite, if you haven't seen The Bride, don't go see it. I mean, it's a hunk of garbage. Well, save your money for a good movie of the theater. Watch it on streaming. If you really want to get a taste of, you know, the bride of Frankenstein being reinvigorated and it didn't feel invigorating.

4:06No. It felt like a real suck time suck. It was definitely a time suck. It definitely could have been a lot shorter. The popcorn meter, so the public, it's at 73%. That popcorn is fresh. Now, the critics are at 59%, so it's just shy of being fresh, right? Somehow. So it still has a chance to go up. You had to be 65 to be fresh. I know, but that's 59 is not that far from 65. I guess. I'm being an optimist here, but I don't foresee that happening before it leaves the theaters. But who's to say? I mean, I've checked over the last two days and it's gone down by three points. It was 60, and now it's 57, I believe. Okay, so my brain is very scattered most of the time. The ADHD, you know, I'm all over the place. Plus, you couple this with Perry Manipaz. And I cannot go see a movie that is more incoherent than what I live on the daily.

5:10It was so hard and I'm grasping the entire time going. What is happening? Where are we? There's so much going on here. There everywhere. Come on, there's got to be some sort of stitched quilt this together. Make Frankenstein a whole piece of art that is cohesive, but it never happened for me. And I go, oh, maybe it's me. Maybe it's me that lacks cohesion upstairs. But it was mean, yes, but not this movie. Also, lacks cohesion. There's a real struggle. There is not a single review, negative review that I've read that does not use the word incoherent. Right. But I mean, she does seem like a mentally ill person who has escaped and should not have escaped because she's not on her meds, like this is like a couple. And maybe it would have been better that way if it was more based in reality. And it was a couple who met each other fell in love in a fucking rehab facility.

6:14And they are both so beyond the pale of mentally ill. Interesting that they end up in silence your phone. I thought I did. And I'm like, okay, we're seeing this through the eyes of a mentally ill person. So that's why it's completely incoherent. So wait, you're saying that this could be just the delusional dream of a mental patient? Is that what you're saying? Because, okay, maybe I guess. I don't know. I'm trying to come up with a way that could have made this work, but there was so many different pieces. There's just too much in it, right? She's trying to put too many ideas into one movie and it's not working, right? I'd tell me why this didn't work. Okay, there are too many ideas. You know what, I kind of reject that. You can have a lot of ideas in a film. You can have a lot of crazy ideas in a film.

7:17They have to be good ideas, though, right off the bat. The first thing that happens is we meet Mary Shelley. Right, so she's like going to possess this woman like multiple years after she's Mary Shelley has died, like decades and decades, not maybe not a full century. Okay, well, doing the math, yes, it's like 70 years, I guess. Because the movie takes place in the 1930s in Chicago, it starts in Chicago. Mary Shelley died and I don't have it in front of me. But didn't she write, Frank had signed in 18. She wrote it when she was 18 years old. Right. Anyway, and that's when Frank says he's born. But anyway, yeah, she's long dead. She's long dead. So she's addressing the audience directly and saying, This is the real story and she's fucking filled with rage. For some reason, Jill and Hall has painted her like a man diploma in Pulp Fiction,

8:17like, you motherfuckers better get on board. Because this is the story that I wanted to write. I was just, which is like an insane take. Okay, I guess I heard Maggie being interviewed, basically saying, oh, I can only imagine what she had to take out. The story was so repressed that just to get it published. And I mean, I guess, but also she was 18. And I think she wrote the book that she wanted to write. And she had to publish it anonymously at first. Yeah, right, which her husband, Percy, if the movie is correct. You're talking about Mary Shelley, the movie. Mary Shelley, yeah. I think that that part of it is accurate. I mean, from what I read, she did help him publish a lot of his stuff. And so then by her finally getting Frankenstein published, if then the movie Mary Shelley is correct. And he put a preface in there.

9:20Everybody thought it was his. So yes, there's probably a lot of rage there. But she is 18 years of age. And I don't know. I mean, I guess I was a very hormonal teenager. I'm not nearly as, not nearly as rageful as I am now. Fucking going through perimeter pause. So who has the more rage? I haven't noticed a difference. I've known you for a long time. The rage is more hot, the hot flashes. It's getting warmer in here. So is this Maggie Gyllenhaal's rage? Or yeah, 100%. And the narcissistic odacity, I guess, of saying, actually, this is what Mary Shelley, a goddamn pioneer in women's literature, literally centuries before her time, right? To say that she'd never got to tell the story that she wanted to tell when this was basically her first novel, but she wrote six novels. And she lived to be 52 or 53.

10:20So you're telling me that she didn't, she could have written more about it, or she could have written a sequel. Yeah. But she didn't. So anyway, I don't know. It does feel kind of icky in that respect. And then, and then, okay, if that's what you're going to do, that's a big swing. And you know, I love a big swing, but you better deliver on that. And you didn't. Well, is it possible that the film company kind of directed her a little or the producers in a direction she didn't want to go? And maybe a lot of the stuff was left on the cutting floor. She wanted to keep, but she bullied into this, just like all the women who rose up against the mobster with their ink stained faces? Sure, it's, it's possible, but the producer on this film, also a woman, Maggie Gyllenhaal wrote and directed this film. Then she's taking responsibility for it. Well, she's not taking responsibility for it. She's saying that everybody who doesn't like this movie

11:20is a misogynist. All right, is she, is she say that? She tweeted, she tweeted a screen grab of like the, never mind the misogyny. I can't, I can't remember exactly what it said, but she's basically saying, well, if you don't like this movie or a misogynist, oh, she's not saying that, but is she alluded to it? Big claim there, sir. I'm telling you what I saw on the internet, so take it for what, what it's worth. Her first film was well received, and also she's very well respected in the industry. Well, she must be to gather that cast for this. I also think that if you're a male studio head and you have hired somebody or you've greenlit a movie that's basically a feminist rage movie about, you know, being silenced, you can't say anything, you know what I mean? Like, how can you make notes? Right. She had a female producer. I think the movie that we're seeing, she did make changes after test screenings

12:22and she'd made it less violent. Well, I don't think the violence is the problem here. The problem is the storytelling, which I don't understand, and that's fine. So Mary Shelley, okay, let's get back to that. Mary Shelley, is it introduced to us? And then Ida, the character that Jesse Buckley is playing, she basically says, I'm going to possess this woman and that's how I'm going to tell you the rest of this story, the story that I wanted to tell you originally. Okay, I guess, but how do you possess somebody in a human that's living in a universe that you created? Do you know what I mean? I don't know what you mean, because it's crazy what you're saying. What you're saying is crazy. Right, yeah, okay. So it's not just me. Anyway, so she possesses this woman and basically she's... She's Tourette, like, Rando. Right. Heavy English accent and random thoughts

13:24that like, what the fuck is she talking about? Like, sometimes it's just like no idea what she said. And I don't think it matters, but I don't know. I don't know. I mean, there's a lot of ranting and raving. There's a lot of, you know, what she starts doing is Ida is a prostitute basically or a party girl as they were called back then in Chicago. And she's hanging out with a bunch of gangsters. And as you said, she starts having these outbursts and basically calling people out of men out of all of their misdeeds. But before the outburst happens, I mean, I guess there is one thing that I liked about that scene where she is bullied into doing things she doesn't want to do. And we know that's the theme of this. I'd prefer not to, you know, stand up for yourself. Although she is being very polite, a polite feminist until, you know, by using that phrase,

14:26which I guess was pulled from our Herman Melville short story, Bartleby and was it? Scrivener. But you see it like he's like trying to get her to eat the oysters. And it lingers enough, like I think every woman has been there where it's like, okay, well, don't make a scene, don't make a fuss, just go along with it even if you don't want to. And I did appreciate that. And I appreciate that she's trying to do these things but it's like getting lost amongst the chaos. But that did stand out to me because, you know, be a good girl and just do what you're told, which evokes a lot of rage. Sure. Anyway, I got no problem with the message she's trying to convey here. I do have a problem with the, you know, the sledgehammer it's attached to. How many times did she say me too in the end? It's like, I believe it was twice, but it felt like it felt like a hundred times. The first time was bad enough. I'm like, it's like we watched the whole movie. We get it. We get it.

15:27But yeah, a little on the nose. But anyways, yeah. So then she calls out the main mob guy and she ends up getting thrown down the stairs. Which was pretty spectacular fall. Pretty impressive. Sure. Well, this is the most fun part for me to watch. The hurry girl falling and getting killed. Well, because it was spectacular, I mean. I guess. I don't know. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. There's so much confusion and so much like, why is this happening? And it was so badly blocked, I thought, leading up to the fall. You know, it's like, oh, we're going to have this conversation at the top of the stairs, you know? And well, was she trying to drag it out because there was like a few times, I'm like, oh, I was sure he was going to knock her down that. No. And then she's going to fall down that. No. Right. Yeah, she gets slapped a few times, you know, which we don't, nobody wants to see that. But okay. But also like her, like having these seizures where she goes in and out of her, Ida, to Mary Shelley.

16:29You're going to fall down the stairs on your own, babe. Fair, fair. And why is Mary Shelley provoking these guys like that? Do you know what I mean? Like, what is the, you know, other than just letting the rage out, which sure, okay. So you're, yeah, you're going to get a woman killed. Right. Because you're dead and you didn't tell the story as you wanted to. Right. And don't try to put logic onto this. Because yeah, that's a great point. She possessed this woman five minutes ago. And now she's going to die. Like she's just going to die. Anyways, Jesse Buckley is getting a lot of shit. Like for this, some people I like it, but the people who hate it, really hate and they're, they're saying it is like a bad performance. And I'm, I'm like, no, this is a great performance. Please tell me what she should have done with that. Yeah, exactly. She was hired to do a job and she brought it, man.

17:33Be as insane as possible. And like she was working with everything she had. And so it was going from, from the Ida voice to the Mary Shelley voice, like in an instant, to totally different accent. And she's Irish. Yes, or I have no idea. That's, this is how good Jesse Buckley is. I don't know what her actual voice sounds like. But to go from, from one to the other and then back again, she is Irish. Oh, okay. Born in Kilarney County, Carrie. I wish that it's Ireland. It's a, it's almost same Patrick's day. Oh, yeah. Yes. I'm going to say this now. Everybody in this movie is great. It's like you said, they're star studded. These are pros, a listers at the top of their game. But you know what? You know how there would have been a little more chemistry. Okay. If Jacob of Lorde was the Frankenstein in this and not Christian mail. Wow. Okay.

18:33I'm just saying zero sparks. And not just because these guys were sparked from the dead. Like, I think there's nothing, nothing. I'm like, okay, well, I guess they like each other. But she doesn't know him. Well, that's another thing. I'm like, okay. So this is also okay for you to be Frankenstein's play thing. But you are a feminist so much to say. I'd prefer not to as you standing up to him. Like, I don't. What do you mean? This is about feminism. Yeah. And she's being lied to from the beginning. And in the end, she's with him. Right. And wants him. All of a sudden, you know, he's dead. And no, you need to bring him back. Okay, you're okay. Yeah, that's a very, very end. The film goes to great lengths to talk about consent and violence against women and independence and agency.

19:37And all of the things that we all like to see as feminists. And the guy you find out who you really are. Yeah. You shoot the guy that tells you who you really are and say, I want this anyway. And then you find out from the dude that he's been lying to you. And you're like, okay, well, that's cool. I'm down. Yeah. Yeah. She has this big, long speech about, you know what? I'm not Ida anymore. And I'm, I'm going to be the bride. The bride. That's the name she picks for herself. That implies that you're attached to a man like forever. Yeah, I like that. And Frank is like, oh, yes, the bride of Frankenstein. And she's like, no, just the bride. That's my name. Okay. I guess. Okay, Brad, if that's what you want, fine. And then as you say, Frank gets shot in the head. And then she's like, oh, no, my, the love of my life.

20:37She takes them back to the mad scientist. And then she's basically like, you know what? I changed my mind. I love, I love him. And I want to be with him forever. It's like, what about all this stuff you just talked about? I'm so good. You're 100% right. It subverts its own message, which what are you trying to tell us? I don't understand. It just doesn't make any sense. It literally doesn't make any sense. I don't know. I mean, what did you, did you like it turning into a musical? I did. Actually, that I enjoyed that part. This movie has a lot of, it's kind of a love letter to movies, right? It's, you know, Jake Jellinhal is probably my favorite thing in the entire movie, actually. All I want to do is watch him do a remake of Singing in the Rain. Oh my God. Or some sort of, that would be amazing. New movie that's sort of, that's all of that, right? Because God damn, he's so good at the singing and the dancing and the

21:41old, timey movie star. It's off-putting when they're in this sort of nightclub and, and Frank runs into his, his idol, the man who's in all these movies. And Frank is a real xenophob or a xenophile. And he disguises himself as a waiter by turning his disgusting jacket inside out. Wow. It is so dirty and gross. Yeah. Like, oh yeah, everyone's fooled. Perfect. And any of you has this weird awkward encounter with Jake Jellinhal. What's his name again? Ronnie Reed. Ronnie Reed. And Frank says, oh, back in the Vodville days, I saw you in Germany or whatever. And he seems to think they have like a parasocial relationship where he, again, he's acting like a psycho. He's acting like an extremely ill person. Yeah, which just fair enough, like the guy's been reanimated from the dead. Yeah, he's, he's got problems.

22:43Anyway, he's like, hey, I just wanted to let you know that, hey, I'm doing well, you know, I got a girlfriend now and we're doing great over here. And, you know, he stinks because he's dead, I guess. That part I don't really understand. Like, what is he stink? He probably stinks because he doesn't shower. Yeah. But it's sort of like, he's rotting corpse. Well, he does have bits and pieces of him that looks like the rotting. But he's been alive for a hundred years. So what's, I don't know. What's that about? Anyway, he was also brought back to life with a gunshot through his head. So I mean, I'm sure he's going to see even more moronic for the next one. If there's a, not there, don't never be another one, but they're can't be because I don't, it's not doing well. That is the understatement of the years so far. No, this will be one of the biggest bombs of the year. And it's only March.

23:43Yes, he, he talks to Jake Jellin Hall. Jake Jellin Hall basically just blows him off. And then they, it descends into this crazy dance scene to putting on the ritz. Your song you say too often or you? Well, I love that song. And I'm not being ironic. And young Frankenstein, there is a dance number with putting on the ritz. So it's obviously an homage to that production budget of 80 to 90 million plus 92 million is what Matt Bellany has reported. 65 million in marketing says it's projected to lose 90 million. It made 7.3 million domestically 13.6 million worldwide on the opening weekend. So I mean, who's going to go see this after the like, I mean, your hard press to find a good review about this? Well, it's not that hard press. It's only as you said, 57%. There are good reviews.

24:44I've seen good reviews out there. And this is what I think is happening. And I think it's, I think it's actually anti-feminist. I think the people are like very reluctant to give this a bad review, who are in the camp of like, we need more female directors and filmmakers out there. Because it's, it's, this is a fucking disaster, right? Maggie herself is like on the daily saying that the podcast is daily, not every day. But on the daily, she's like, you know, it's fine when you give a female director like, you know, $5 million go make your little movie. But people get nervous when they are given bigger budgets of 50 to 80 million dollars, which is what happened here. And maybe you should have been a little more nervous there. Maggie. The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports.

25:45Right now, the NBA is heating up, March Manus is here, and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I can follow the teams I care about, get real-time scores, breaking news, and highlights all in one place. Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment. Well, I mean, it's a bad look. It's just a bad look. It's bad for female, it gives the anti-feminists a lot of ammo. You know what I mean? It's like, well, see? Well, I listened to the next best picture podcast today. And for four out of the five, people reviewing it were ladies and not one of them liked it. I cannot find a female, I did find one. And finally, for XClaim Magazine, Rachel Ho. She liked it. The quote in Rotten Tomatoes was something

26:46are along the lines of, well, it's messy movie. But I, you know, being a woman is messy. It's like, okay, that's what you're going to say. Well, okay, yes. But when you're trying to relay that to a mass audience, you don't want them to leave going, what the fuck just happened? Everything everywhere all at once is about ADHD. I know that. And I feel it. There's coherence. There's cohesion. It comes together. Although it's, it is madness. No, I mean, look, I didn't love that movie, but at least it was coherent. And I would also say to my point before, there is a lot, there are a lot of ideas in that movie. They seem to put all of their ideas in that movie. Yeah. And it's fine. It works. There's more, there's probably triple the amount of ideas,

27:48quote unquote, in everything everywhere all at once. Then in the bride, but it still works. It's not about too many ideas. I would say, like I said, the putting on the Ritz sequence, whereas this crazy dance number, all of a sudden for no reasons, doesn't feel like a musical. But there's a weird dance sequence in the middle of it. I mean, I want kind of maybe more of that would have helped this movie. Because I really liked it when, you know, they would be at like a drive-in movie theater. And then they would take the characters, like the bride and Frank would be, would replace whoever the woman was and Jake Gyllenhaal's character. And the whatever dialogue they were saying in the theater or in the drive, drive-in was being, was happening on screen. So that's sort of like. So you're inside of his head? Correct. Right. And there's a neat part in the nightclub

28:50where Jesse Buckley is dancing. And then Frank is picturing himself dancing with her and doing this old-timey, you know, it's his fantasy of what he wants their relationship to be with him. Right. That part of it, that stuff is cool. Like I like that stuff. It wasn't like clobbering you over the head with stuff. It was just like, okay, this is cool imagery. And it's worth, it's kind of working. The dance number comes out of nowhere and you're like, what is happening here? Okay, so you think the parts that worked got derailed because she's like, oh wait, we got to put this in. And oh wait, we got to put this in. We got to, we got to get this riot of this mob of female rioters with ink stained faces, murdering guys. We got to get that in. We got to get this in. We got to, we got to get these mob, these mobsters in. We got to, we got to get these detectives in. And you're like, where are, who are these guys? Like I did think, okay, so this, he's recognized his wife or his girlfriend.

29:52Yeah. They're like, no, wait, no. No, it's just like convoluted story about him being a bad guy, which all the men are bad guys, including Frank, you know, in the film. Like, there is no redeemable man in this movie. The women are all going through it. Why are they going on a rampage, though? What has it, I mean, other than... Well, all I could figure is that all are all of those women, not the prostitutes, the party girls. For that mob, like, they're, they're hitting back. They're basically striking. Or is it just all the women in that city? Because they're like holding him down at the end. And tattooing his face is like, you're not going to kill it. Well, they cut his tongue out. They cut it his tongue. Which is, again, this guy is a mob boss. And he has a jar of what, 150 tongues behind him of women's tongues that he's cut out.

30:59You're not going to kill him? Wait, did I miss it, though? Did they kill him? No, they, why would they kill him? They're tattooing the stain. I don't know, but I don't know. It's so stupid. It's just fucking stupid. Like, he's coming after you if you let him live. And this is what I mean about, like, calling out Maggie, who I respect. I think she's a very good actor. I've not seen her other film. This is a fucking terrible movie that she wrote and directed. And we should call her out for that. That would be, that's more in line with feminists. Well, you don't just get a medal for trying it. Exactly. But that's what it feels like they're doing. Like, it's like patting her on the head and just going, good girl. Yeah, you tried sweetheart. You get tried sweetheart. That's anti-feminist. Like, exactly. I'm going to see the articles of like, hey, we shouldn't let the fact that this movie bombed, you know, discourage filmmakers from taking big swings. I'm like, yeah, of course not.

31:59Of course not. But the really sad, hard truth here is that Yorgas Lanthamus made basically the same movie three years ago for half the money. And it's way more interesting. And it's very feminist. Very feminist. There's a lot of topics about feminism and very much my body. I do what I want with it. We're not talking about poor things, but it hit. It's, it's, it's a better movie, a much better movie. And it was made by a man. And this is, this is the kind of fodder that the anti-feminists are going to grab a hold of and say, yeah, see? But really, it's just Maggie Jo and homemade a fucking terrible movie because maybe she shouldn't have put it in the hands of somebody else. I don't know. Not saying a man, it was not a good idea. Period. You can look at things like Frankenstein fatigue. You know, there is a current movie that is in the Academy Awards.

33:02Wasn't great, but I think people are sick of it. And like I said, poor things came out recently two or three years ago. Yeah. I mean, Emma Stone won an Oscar for that. Is like, did we need another one? Like, so soon, I don't know. But you get to know her and you get to know the characters. I feel like I don't know the characters in this. There's a fucking chicken with a dog's head in that movie. Like there's, it's way crazier than the bride. I don't want to compare it to that necessarily, but. Well, you can't. It's like, this is weird, but it's like it's trying to be weird. It's trying to be hard. It's trying to be punk rock. It's trying to be cool and it's not pulling it off. It's like, okay, I've got an idea. Let's start this trend. She barfed up whatever that elixir was that brought her back to life. So it's going to stain her face in actually kind of a cute little lipsticky way and smear across her face. That's going to fly and all the ladies are going to want to do it.

34:04I mean, they seriously want or saying that. They're like, don't wait for Halloween. You can do that now. This is trying to have a cultural moment by saying, hey, look at this cultural moment. That's not how cultural moments work. But as they said in the next big picture, Ida will make for a good Halloween costume this year. No, well, everybody hates that movie. No one's seeing it. I will be shocked if I see one the bride. I'm doing it. Okay, great. I mean, I think it does look cool. Like, it's a neat look. But it feels forced. Totally. And that's the problem. When you see it happening, you're not like, oh, I've got chills. Look at these women rising up. It's like, I don't understand why this is happening, but it's happening. Okay. And I understand that it's supposed to be cool because that's why a trend catches. These ladies think it's, they think this is cool. So, okay. So this, she's on a murdering rampage because she's

35:09running away from the cops. Again, I also, why do you shoot the cop? Why do you shoot the detective? Why do you do? Oh my god, like that part of it is all. Anyway, there's so many questions and it makes me crazy. Yeah, the crime spree is, I don't know, an excuse to have a road movie like Bonnie and Clyde. But again, that's so many things happening. It's so maybe if all the other things have been left aside and it was just like a romance, Bonnie and Clyde, like, I don't know. Sure, but then you got the natural boring killers or said Nancy, but that's fine. That's totally fine. I mean, not. I can't come up with a solution for this. There's so much wrong with this movie. Frankenstein's makeup. It took Christian Bayer like six hours to get it on. It's good, right? But then people are reacting to him. Like characters, random characters, react, meeting him for the first time. It's like, oh my god. It's like, it doesn't look that bad.

36:14This is off the heels of World War One. Like, there were guys walking around with no faces. You know, like, that's true. I mean, people have definitely less sensitive to people's appearance. Nowadays, you'd try not to react to somebody with a disfigurement or a deformity back then. Okay, sure. They'll, they would, you know, but also people were walking around with all sorts of ailments and like, and he didn't look that bad. He looked like Christian Bayer, dressed up as Frankenstein. With some scars, but so what? Okay. Well, did you think Annette Bedding was used to her utmost? I mean, I guess she's just supposed to be a brilliant scientist. And that whole part of it was, I don't know. It's so tedious as well. Like, the whole, oh, I need to have intercourse, and intercourse.

37:14You know, it's just saying, oh, fucking, here we go. It's like, he's tired. He's talking about having a conversation, but it's implied that he wants to fuck. Okay, I, sure. And the whole, like, leaving the nightclub and these guys are, like, harassing them. And then this is basically the inciting incident to start off the road trip, the bunny and cladness of it, where he basically curb stomps these guys. But that scene unfolds so slowly and the blocking of it is so boring. And there's almost zero tension there. It's just not well done. Is it not a well done movie? Yeah, I was not invested in either of their characters. I didn't care what happened to them. In any of the characters. Any of them. We have this, you have SARS-Guard. Like, what are my favorite actors working today? I love that guy.

38:14And Penelope Cruz. I mean, that also awesome. That, that bit of feminism was so fucking cringe. And so ridiculous in the end when she walks in to this huge gunfight in the lab, somehow and at Benning walks away unscathed. And just, just I'm the detective now. Because he just, SARS-Guard just decides to retire. So he elects her. Like, you can just do that. Like, you've got my job now, babe. I don't understand. Well, yeah. And the whole trope of she's the one that's actually doing the detective work. That's just like it. But then as you said, oh, you're such a great detective. But now you're just going to be like, okay, everybody out and let this mad scientist

39:15resurrect these two people who have been killing cops and and civilians and and creeps and stuff. But yeah, just because your ex partner was like, man, I kind of like her, but I feel guilty because I had something to do with her getting killed. Like, it doesn't make any sense. She's the one that said she just killed that cop for no reason. Like, what is happening? It's a crime scene. But this woman who has worked so hard in the shadow of SARS-Guard this whole time, the actual brains behind the operation. Like, she is the detective, the lead detective. She finally, she finally gets her badge. Like, was she not a detective before? Like, no, she was his assistant. That's how he presented her as. I thought he was joking. I thought it was a joke. No, that was like a joke to her because it's like, yeah, we know that you are doing all the work. But I have to call you this because people don't like it

40:16when girls do boys work. Right, right. And like, that scene where she's like, can I have a cigarette? Can I have a cigarette? Excuse me, can I have a cigarette? And finally, the guy gives her a cigarette. I'm like, okay, that was a waste of three minutes. Yeah, exactly. But the idea that she would just throw it all away like that. Like, as soon as she gets the badge, she becomes the worst detective ever. Like, how is that a, that's your feminist message here? Like, now I'm an detective. I've got the badge and now I'm just going to fucking throw everything about this job out the window that I'm extremely good at just so that you can revive these two fucking killers, as you say. It's, it boggles the mind. It's like, what are you fucking thinking? And Annette Benning is like, no, thank you. I'm good. I don't need to do that. Why are you making me do this? She didn't want to revive them. Right. She's like, no, thanks. Like, she even tells the entire story about how she revived her husband.

41:17And he didn't even know who she was. Right. So she wasn't going to do that. There wasn't. So why does she? Because the fucking detective is like, you know what to do. Like, what are you talking about? And she looks kind of stunned. Like, oh, what? Yeah. And then they're holding hands. He's been shot through the head. And she's on top of that. This is this is a thing about the reanimation of dead people that I don't understand because Ida falls down the stairs. She breaks her leg. Okay, they do address that. They have to she can't walk on it. So they put her in a brace. But she also broke her neck. And she had a fatal whatever happened to her falling down those stairs. It was fatal. And then all of a sudden that just that part of it just goes away. It's just her memories. Your story. So your spinal cord doesn't have to be still attached to the rest of, you know what I mean? Like, if it's severed, it doesn't matter if you're brought back to it.

42:18It's all electricity. Sure. But then you get shot in the head. You die or you die in a hail of bullets. Well, they should be as dumb as the the corpse is running around in 28 years later. I mean, just spucking totally out out out there. Because why wouldn't they be? Especially after being shot. And this is like whatever. Second, third round of being reinvigorated. Yeah. Anyways, this was, I think we've drawn this out enough. Is there any? I feel exhausted from the first time watching it. On that podcast, you're talking about I also listen to it. And one of them says, I don't know. Maybe I should rewatch this. But the idea of rewatching it is too much for her. And it's too much for me. Like, I can't imagine sitting through this thing again. I wanted to walk out. Like, if we weren't covering this for the show, I would have been like, um, you want to go like two hours and six minutes.

43:20God. I mean, it must be so hard for them to like sell this, you know? I mean, I guess not. What do you mean? I mean, like the actors, they, they must have. Okay, these actors like Christian Mail who has done this a thousand times, get a thousand awesome movies. Sure. How do you keep your mouth shut when it's like you want me to do what? Okay, I guess the paycheck is what keeps your mouth shut. But knowing you must foresee that this is not going to turn well. Well, I guess, I mean, I've heard actors talk about how they never save which projects they are, but they'll go, yeah. So I can have way through the shooting. We realize, oh, this, this director does not know what they're doing or whatever. Or this is, this is going to be bad. And sometimes, sometimes they think that, but then it turns out great. But a lot of times it's like, you know, but I think what, what it boils down to is when you're shooting,

44:24when you're shooting a movie, it's a collaboration. And I think that she called in every favor that she, like she's working with her brother, her husband, you know, Jesse Buckley, who she's worked with before and had great success with her first movie. And, you know, there's trust. You trust this person and you let go, okay, all right, it's a collaboration. We're going to do this. You don't think that that's part of being an actor is you're putting all this trust in this one person who's controlling everything or this. Who you don't anticipate will be lost in a fever dream for however many months they're trying to put this together. I mean, it feels like she was tripping out for months. I want to slap a hormone replacement that they patch on this movie. You're the same, the same age. So as, as Maggie, are you exact same age 48?

45:25Wow. Babe, babe, I don't know. Maybe some Adderall, like you have the things in focus a little more. I mean, she drops an anecdote about how a friend of hers is basically, you know, that she's talking about how they want me to take some of this violence out of this movie and the friend is like, well, would they, would they have asked a bad of a man? Like if a man directed this, would they have asked a man to change it? I mean, that's a valid question, but also why don't you ask the real question? Where are we going with this? Yeah, yeah, and my point is like, when you frame everything in that way, let's, I think it's harder for people to give notes, as I was saying before. Yeah, because you don't want to be called a misogynist. Exactly. It's like, well, you know, oh, sure, you hire a woman director to shoot this movie,

46:27but then you have to second guess everything she does. I mean, like, I don't know. I think that's what it is to be a director period. You always have people above you or who's controlling the purse strings go. I don't know about this scene. Like, does this make sense? Like, we're trying to make money here, you know? Like, we're trying to make something that everybody wants to see. And the test audiences are saying the women in the test audiences are saying, I don't want to see a woman get violated or I don't want to see this or that. And then Maggie's response is like, well, I think we should be uncomfortable, you know, watching violence. Of course, of course, but you also, you can't leave everyone confused. Right. Every other scene is like, I don't know. I don't know the magic of storytelling. I just know when I can sit and just take it in and even when I'm super uncomfortable

47:28because something makes me ball, something makes me feel sick. Yeah. By the end of it, I don't feel like I had an aneurysm and don't know how what is going on. And I have no idea what I just watched for the last two hours. Like what they were going for. We watched Mary Shelley, the film with Elle Fanning in it, just in preparation for this. A movie that I did not love, but I am a sucker for a period piece. And the third act of this movie is actually quite good, the of Mary Shelley. And it's too long. It was too long. But it gets, it's much better. It's got the same message, basically, you know, women being silenced and lacking agency and consent and being... And you do feel helpless when you're watching it. You know what's being relayed. You know the sadness that's being relayed. You know the rage that's being relayed.

48:29Without, you know, being all punk rock about it. And completely confused. That's right. It's way more emotionally impactful. So I would recommend you watch Mary Shelley. Yeah, I mean, it gives you a little insight into Mary Shelley, even if it's not completely accurate. It hit me in some spots that I would have liked to have been hit with this movie because it was, like you said, it was a sledgehammer over the head with the me too being dropped twice. Like Jesse, you couldn't have said, really? I mean, to say this twice, like, I think these actors do need to add their input. Well, to be fair, they took out the hashtag me too. So that was a, that was a battle that was one. Okay, you can take out that hashtag me too. Don't say hashtag me too. Just save me too twice. It's like, all right. All right, Maggie, whatever you need. Whenever I got nominated for Best Sporting Actress from my last movie,

49:30we did. So I got to trust you. I did check the odds on Jesse Buckley winning the Best Actress Oscar after this came out. Still minus 4,000. So still heavy, heavy favorite still. It hasn't changed at all. I think it worked out well because this movie came out the day Oscar voting ended. So that's, that's good. That's bad news for Rose Byrne. Good news for Jesse Buckley. I don't know. Anyone who's going to blame her for this is, I don't know. Maybe I don't know enough about acting, but I think she was. She did her job to the best of her abilities, which is the top of anyone's game. So the other Olivia Coleman movie she was in, I highly recommend Wicked Little Letters, was a fantastic movie with Jesse Buckley and Olivia Coleman. It was just so fun. I'd like to watch the end, actually. Great film. Great film. Okay. There's a little feminism in that too.

50:32100%. Perico, he says. Delight. It does boggle the mind. In regular conversation, we've just dropped the names of you know, three or four movies that just are better feminist movies. But Maggie J. Littlehall is acting as though like she's in the 10th grade, you know, and this is a new idea to have like a feminist message in a movie. The fact that there's, you know, 8% of the directors out there are women, right? That's low. That's too low, I would think. I think this movie was meant to be sort of like a sea. We're here. We're great at this, and it just completely backfired, and it's not going to, it's going to actually set women back. Unfortunately, I think I'm going to give her another chance. Well, you know, the next thing she puts out there. Unfortunately, you are not the head of Warner Brothers soon to be Paramount. This matters because of that as well in that context because Warner Brothers is about to be

51:34swallowed up by Paramount. And we don't know what that means, you know, that's basically two studios that are emerging into one. Jobs are going to be lost. Content, the amount of content and films, big budget, films being directed. The pressure is going to be on because this, this company, this is a company that's been bought that's like $30 billion in debt. So they are going to want to make some money from their films. And taking a flyer with an $80 million or $92 million flyer on a second film from a female director is probably not what the ultra conservative Ellison's will have in mind. Well, I mean, I mean, that was on them though. Netflix dropped it and they're like, okay, we'll take it like Netflix dropped the bride. Yeah, dropped the bride. Right. I thought you might have, they dropped, dropped out of the the Warner Brothers, yeah, Warner Brothers wanted this movie. So they did, but they made the Joker and Joker too.

52:35And that's basically both of those movies, you know, and did I hear on that same podcast that the producer did Joker. And the Joker to didn't come out before she was hired for this job. I don't know. Okay. I don't know. Okay, big thumbs down from me. Drop your thumbs in the comments below if you're watching on YouTube. If you're listening on a podcast, leave us five star review. We love to see them helps us with the ratings. And you can email us and let us know what you thought of the bride. thumbmorepotadgmail.com. You can also join a Patreon $5 a month. Gets you ad free episodes and access to bonus content and a monthly hangout. All that good stuff. Anything else you'd like to say about the bride? No, I'd like to move on. Thank you.

53:36Move on with her lives. Yeah. That'd be nice. So you don't have to watch it. You're welcome. We'll see you next time. Bye.