Houston, Bun B has heard you. Shortly after revealing that the Houston hip-hop legend would be making his fourth straight appearance at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, fans immediately began requesting more R&B artists be included.
No need to get twisted, Houston. Bun has named R&B legend Keith Sweat as the first performer joining him at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo for Bun B's Birthday Bonanza on March 7.
“Since this is my birthday party this year, I want it to feel like a backyard gathering with family, where there’s something fun for everyone—grandparents to grandkids” Bun tells CultureMap. “Having Keith Sweat join us is the perfect way to set the vibe.”
One of the pioneers of New Jack Swing, Sweat is known for hits such as I Want Her, Make It Last Forever, and Nobody. He released a greatest hits collection called How Deep Is Your Love in 2019.
Bun B’s Birthday Bonanza is the performer’s fourth straight Rodeo appearance. In 2022, he hosted the H-Town Takeover that featured fellow Houston performers such as Slim Thug, Paul Wall, Z-Ro, and more. The following year saw the Southern Takeover with Erykah Badu, David Banner, and Cupid. Last year’s American Takeover featured Nelly, Rick Ross, Drake, and many others.
Other performers appearing at the 2025 Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo include Reba McEntire, Journey, Charley Crockett, and Post Malone. Tickets will go on sale at rodeohouston.com on Thursday, January 16, in two waves at 10 am and 2 pm.
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.
