I find it interesting that when actual rock stars of the 70s (i.e. Foreigner, the Doobie Brothers, Blue Oyster Cult and just about anybody else participating in 93.7 FM’s Arrowfest on Sunday at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion) get together to relive the halcyon days, the younger generations write it off as “Geezer-fest.” But when a bunch of good-looking Australian kids like Wolfmother grow their hair out, strap on arena rock guitars and belt out recreations of the music they loved (i.e Foreigner, the Doobie Brothers, etc.)… that’s a rock and roll revolution!
(sigh) The beauty of rock n’ roll is what’s old always become new again… eventually.
Regardless of how it evolved, Wolfmother is back and its new album, “Cosmic Egg” works the power chord, extended jam and shriek for all its 70s glory. The band has a new and expanded line-up that allows singer/guitarist Andrew Stockdale do what he does best: scream like a banshee until all are screaming along with him.
First single, “Back Round,” stamps Stockdale as the next great rock falsetto, following in the footsteps of Robert Plant and Chris Cornell.
“New Moon Rising,” the latest radio track, is a string anthem that demonstrates what new rhythm guitarist Aidan Nemeth adds to the band and will make live music junkies pine for Wolfmother to get back out on the road.
After rumors that Wolfmother might be breaking up swirled last year, it appears the band is back on the track that earned it international acclaim and a Grammy award three years ago.
The story of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster is now over 200 years old, with Mary Shelley’s book having been adapted or referenced in close to 500 films. Less common is the character of The Bride of Frankenstein, which existed in the original text but has more often than not been excised in adaptations. Writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal has tried to rectify that by giving the character a big showcase in her new film, The Bride!.
Gyllenhaal has reimagined the story as one in which a woman named Ida (Jessie Buckley) becomes possessed by the spirit of Shelley (also Buckley). At the same time, the already-existing Frankenstein’s monster (Christian Bale) approaches Dr. Euphronius (Annette Bening), who specializes in reanimation, with the request to make him a wife. When Ida falls to her death in an “accident” involving her boyfriend (John Magaro), the ideal corpse becomes available.
After Ida’s resurrection, she and the monster become restless being studied by Dr. Euphronius and decide to break out to experience the world. The world, naturally, is not exactly welcoming to them, and soon the couple are on the run for causing mayhem, including a few murders. In hot pursuit are detective Jake Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard) and his assistant, Myrna Mallow (Penélope Cruz), as well as other authorities.
It’s clear that Gyllenhaal wanted to merge the Frankenstein story with Bonnie & Clyde, especially since she sets the film in the mid-1930s. And that wouldn’t have been a bad idea if having the monster and The Bride going on a crime spree was truly the focus of the movie. But most of the time there’s less intentionality in their misdeeds and more confusion, leading to a muddled plot with no clear direction or end goal in mind.
One of the biggest problems is that Gyllenhaal starts the energy of the film at an 11, giving her and everyone else nowhere to go but down. She dabbles in multiple different tones, at times going the straight drama route and other times making what seems like full-on camp. At one point, she even has the monster and the Bride in a dance sequence set to “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” which would be hilarious as an homage to Young Frankenstein if the film weren’t so disjointed.
Most baffling of all is what Gyllenhaal wants from The Bride character. She morphs multiple times over the course of the film, from close to unintelligible at the beginning to rough-and-tumble at the end. There are hints at the lack of control she has over her autonomy, including Shelley’s possession of her and the monster lying to her about her past, but any commentary that Gyllenhaal might be trying to make gets lost amid the oddity of the film as a whole.
Both Buckley and Bale are all-in for their performances, which definitely fall in the “love it or hate it” dichotomy. Each scene is pitched so high that there’s little nuance to either of them, and neither is on par with their previous Oscar-caliber roles. The high-powered supporting cast of Bening, Sarsgaard, Cruz, and Jake Gyllenhaal is watchable based on previous roles, but none of them elevate this particular movie.
Whatever intentions Maggie Gyllenhaal had in making The Bride! are only halfway legible in a film that can never find its tonal footing. There has rarely been subtlety in movies featuring Frankenstein’s monster and related characters, but this one makes all the others seem like stuffy dramas in comparison.
