She's been dug up, renamed, reanimated, and gaslit — and Hollywood expects her to be grateful. Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride! (2026) resurrects the Bride of Frankenstein for a 1930s Chicago that feels equal parts Weimar cabaret and DC fever dream, with Jessie Buckley delivering a ferocious, uncontainable performance at the center of a film that can't quite contain itself. Chris Stachiw and Mike dig into the ideas the film gets right, the heavy hand that undercuts them, and why a $90 million feminist monster movie ending on The Monster Mash is both the most logical and least earned conclusion imaginable.
Special Guests: Peggy Rajski, Barbara De Fina Guest Co-Hosts: Jedidiah Ayres, Andrew Nette
Noirvember 2024 ends with a bang as we delve into Stephen Frears's electrifying neo-noir The Grifters (1990). Adapted from Jim Thompson’s novel by screenwriter Donald Westlakd, this razor-sharp film stars Angelica Huston as Lily Dillon, a veteran con artist manipulating the odds at the racetrack. Her uneasy reunion with estranged son Roy (John Cusack) and his cunning girlfriend Myra (Annette Bening) sparks a volatile triangle of deception and betrayal in the high-stakes world of grifting.
Mike is joined by crime fiction experts Andrew Nette and Jedidiah Ayres to untangle this web of cons and double-crosses. Plus, executive producer Barbara De Fina and producer Peggy Rajski reveal what it took to bring this stylish, unsettling tale to life.
Guest Co-Host: Chris Stachiw
Special Guests: