Yesterday Alice Newell-Hanson’s N.Y. Times Style Magazine profile of Jessie Buckley, an endlessly flattering exercise in kiss-ass portraiture, appeared online.
It’s a longish, elegant, very well-written article, but given Newell-Hanson’s commitment to flattery, it totally ignores what in-the-know types are allegedly thinking and saying about Buckley’s next two envelope-pushing films.
These would be (a) Chloe Zhao‘s Hamnet (Focus Features, 11.27), an allegedly glum historical fiction about Agnes Shakespeare (Buckley) and her errant, responsibility-shirking playwright husband, William (Paul Mescal), and (b) Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s The Bride! (Warner Bros., 3.6.26), apparently some kind of feminist, toxic-male-hating take on James Whale‘s The Bride of Frankenstein (’35).
Key Newell-Hanson passage: “Buckley has earned a reputation for playing complicated roles with devastating power. Zhao, the director of Hamnet, says that as soon as she read Maggie O’Farrell‘s book, she knew the role had to be Buckley’s. Few other actresses of her generation can gain access to such a wide spectrum of emotions, or seem as willing to risk being disliked for exploring the tougher ones.
“‘She has no fear in terms of how she’s perceived,’ says Mescal. ‘She’s never trying to hide or draw lines.'”
Buckley’s choppy scarecrow haircut, posted below and featured in the Times article, lends a certain credence to Mescal’s observation.
Straight Hamnet dope, as reported two weeks ago (7./25.25) by World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy:
Excerpt: “While Buckley and Mescal’s performances are said to be solid, Zhao’s direction — and especially her screenwriting — are being called flat, with a tone that feels completely off. One viewer summed it up as ‘two hours of Buckley looking miserable,’ without much emotional depth or nuance to her grief.”
Straight Bride! reporting, dated 3.19.25:
Obviously The Bride! was bumped into ’26 because…well, WB distribution certainly didn’t do this because it’s some kind of glorious knockout.
