LA BOLA NEGRA – Review by Jennifer Green

The film is a sweeping three-tale epic weaving together stories from different time periods. Viewers—particularly those with spotty knowledge of Spanish history—might feel a little lost at points early on, but the piece comes together by the end in surprising and poignant ways. Despite some less nuanced elements, Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo have made an epic and visually impacting film that blends reality and fiction together into a single poignant melodrama. There’s plenty here to interest, inspire and move audiences, and the fact that it’s playing well with viewers and critics from diverse countries and cultures says a lot about directors Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo’s ability to convey universal themes within a distinctively Spanish story.

Read more

THE INVITE: It’s SENTIMENTAL Remade for International Audiences – Analysis by Jennifer Green

Olivia Wilde’s The Invite remakes a Spanish comedy for an international audience. The remake, which launched a bidding war at Sundance and made its European premiere to a capacity outdoor audience of thousands at Locarno in August, premieres Oct. 16 in Spain. That wouldn’t normally be news, but The Invite is a remake of a Spanish film, Sentimental (The People Upstairs), from Barcelona-based writer-director Cesc Gay, and it co-stars Madrid-born Penélope Cruz. Sentimental and The Invite are both entertaining films. They address universal themes of love, relationships and sex, and at the same time they provide clues about their distinct cultures and humor. The difference is that audiences worldwide will watch The Invite and, moreover, will understand the culture and humor as if it were their own.

Read more

WEEK IN WOMEN: TIFF Honors Cruz, Eleazar, Heder and Huppert – Brandy McDonnell reports

Penélope Cruz, Rosalind Eleazar, Siân Heder and Isabelle Huppert will be honored at the 2026 TIFF Tribute Awards, part of the 51st annual Toronto International Film Festival. TIFF Tribute Awards celebrate a diverse group of film artists, recognizing outstanding contributions to cinema.
the ceremony takes place on Sunday, Sept. 13, at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel Toronto.

Read more

THE INVITE – Review by Susan Granger

I’m glad I waited to see The Invite on Prime Video because – while Olivia Wilde helms this forebodingly unpredictable sex comedy – it’s not worth a trip to the multiplex. Adapted by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones from the Spanish film Sentimental (2020), it’s basically a four-hander, set in San Francisco. What happens is for you to discover – as all four actors play their parts convincingly. Reminiscent of but not nearly as good as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? it’s yet another deep dive into a tense, troubled, middle-age marriage.

Read more

THE INVITE – Review by T.J. Callahan

If you like edgy dinner parties that promise the possibility of sex, drugs and a rock n roll of emotions, then make sure you RSVP for The Invite. Olivia Wilde directs herself, Seth Rogen, Edward Norton and Penelope Cruz in this relationship dramady that will leave you evaluating your own partnership. The film takes place in the living room of the San Francisco apartment of Angela (Wilde) and Joe (Rogen). They’ve invited their rather lively upstairs neighbors, Hawk and Pina (Norton and Cruz), over for dinner, but when the party spirals into unexpected places, Angela and Joe don’t know if they’ve reignited the spark in their troubled marriage or lit the flame that burns it down.

Read more

THE BRIDE! – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

Months after Guillermo del Toro’s retelling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, here comes The Bride!, a kinetic yet scattershot story reimagining the creature and his beloved as a 1930s couple on the run, a la Bonnie and Clyde. Writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal has a lot she wants to say in this messy mashup of monsters, mobsters, and even musicals, but it doesn’t all come through loud and clear.

Read more

THE BRIDE! – Review by Leslie Combemale

If you thought we as a society were over trashing big artistic swings by female artists, reaction to writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! will disabuse you of that notion. Though by no means perfect, the new gothic romance centering on and reimagining Frankenstein’s bride is visually stunning, fearlessly kinetic and inventive, and worth celebrating.

Read more

THE BRIDE! – Review by T.J. Callahan

Frankenstein’s monster is lonely. If he’s going to live, he wants to live life to the fullest…in EVERY way…wink, wink. He needs someone who’s like him in mind and body. Abby someone. Abby Normal. Or in this case, Ida, and he wants her to be his (The) Bride! The Bride is a very meta mash up of monsters, mayhem, murder, molls, massive amounts of makeup, meddling men, and the marvelous mind of Maggie Gyllenhaal which all adds up to maniacal movie magic. .

Read more

WEEK IN WOMEN: Maggie Gyllenhaal’s THE BRIDE to haunt theaters in March – Brandy McDonnell reports

Two-time Oscar nominee Maggie Gyllenhaal’s long-awaited feature film The Bride, an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, arrives in theaters on March 6. The movie is part of the Filmed for IMAX program and will be released in IMAX as well as standard formats. Written and directed by Gyllenhaal, her steampunk take on the 1935 horror classic Bride of Frankenstein is the follow-up to her 2021 Academy Award-nominated Netflix drama The Lost Daughter.

Read more

WEEK IN WOMEN: Maggie Gyllenhaal’s THE BRIDE moved to 2026 – Brandy McDonnell reports

Film fans will have to wait longer than originally planned to see two-time Oscar nominee Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride, an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Gyllenhaal is writing and directing her steampunk take on The Bride as the follow-up to her 2021 Academy Award-nominated Netflix drama The Lost Daughter. Ahead of the 2025 CinemaCon, Warner Bros. announced it is moving The Bride from a Sept. 26, 2025 release date, to March 6, 2026, a springtime slot that has worked well for the studio’s previous event movies.

Read more