Jessie Buckley’s on-theme dressing

The Bride! premiered in London last night, and following her “chaotic” fashion energy at the photocall earlier in the day, Jessie Buckley turned up in a sheer dress with a visible corset. As Lainey said, Buckley plays three distinct roles in the film, which is in part about women’s rebelliousness.

Here, Buckley isn’t so much theme-dressing in a costume sense, as she is embodying themes of the film through her clothes:

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It’s sheer, but it’s bound, it’s structured but flowy, it’s Maison Margiela. It’s not the craziest sheer look we’ve seen by a mile, but it’s playing with layers, with binding and exposure, it’s on-theme dressing. And that SMIRK! Jessie Buckley has a great f-cking smile. She is SO sexy with that smirk.

Meanwhile, her co-star Christian Bale wore what is basically his red carpet uniform, an all-black suit. I am not looking to Christian Bale for fashion moments, he has made sure of that over the years, I just appreciate that his facial hair is groomed.

Also, such is the power of Jessie Buckley that I completely forgot Jake Gyllenhaal co-stars in the film. He was there with his squeeze, Jeanne Cadieu, who showed up in a cool body dress.

I also just plain did not realize Julianne Hough and Penelope Cruz are in this film, too. Like I fully saw the trailers, I just wasn’t clocking anyone but Jessie Buckley, and Maggie Gyllenhaal, the film’s writer and director. Maggie G turned up with Peter Sarsgaard and their 19-year-old daughter, Ramona, who, wow, looks SO much like Maggie. A lot of times I don’t think kids look like their parents but sometimes the genes really jump out.

As for anyone wondering how The Bride! might impact Jessie Buckley’s Oscar status, if anyone is having Norbit nightmares, don’t worry. The timing is perfect. Oscar voting opened yesterday, and it closes March 5. The Bride! opens in theaters on March 6. Even if reviews are bad—which they probably won’t be, though I do expect some people won’t be able to contend with the film because female filmmakers do not get the benefit of the doubt like men do—there won’t be time for enough people to see the movie before voting ends.

Norbit opened three full weeks before the Oscars in 2007, which gave everyone PLENTY of time to take in how disastrous the film was, a legitimate box office bomb reviled by critics and audiences alike. It was enough time to derail Eddie Murphy’s Dreamgirls Oscar campaign for Best Supporting Actor. So closely was his Oscar loss linked to Norbit’s failure that twenty years later people still call a bad movie tanking someone’s Oscar campaign “Norbiting” their Oscar chances.

But the timing doesn’t work out with The Bride! and the Oscars this year. There won’t be box office or audience reactions or anything except reviews, and it’s coming right at the tail-end of voting (the review embargo is March 4). Jessie Buckley will be fine. Her march to Oscar continues unabated.