Love Lies Bleeding, 2024.
Directed by Rose Glass.
Starring Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian, Ed Harris, Dave Franco, Jena Malone, Anna Baryshnikov, Orion Carrington, Jerry G. Angelo, Tait Fletcher, Eldon Jones, and Matthew Blood-Smyth.
SYNOPSIS:
Reclusive gym manager Lou falls hard for Jackie, an ambitious bodybuilder headed through town to Las Vegas in pursuit of her dream. But their love ignites violence, pulling them deep into the web of Lou’s criminal family.
Drifting to New Mexico in 1989, aspiring bodybuilder Jackie (Katy O’Brian with enough muscle and intimidation to freeze anyone in their tracks or think twice about initiating a fight) accepts a job at a gun-nut shooting range run by a ghoulish character played by Ed Harris (giving away his name would also reveal a mini-spoiler in a story chock-full of exciting twists and turns) who looks more like the Crypt Keeper than himself. He bluntly asks what she is doing here if she doesn’t like firearms, to which she responds that she prefers to feel her strength and what she is capable of physically. Director Rose Glass’s Love Lies Bleeding (co-written alongside Weronika Tofilska), in addition to telling a bonkers pulpy tale of those three titular words, is also ferociously and intelligently driven by examining gender dynamics within violence.
Shortly after arriving in town, stopping on the way to a bodybuilding competition, Jackie dives into a whirlwind romance with gym employee Lou (an introverted Kristen Stewart delivering outstanding work as usual, as the character changes and evolves throughout the dynamic), a loner who doesn’t have much else to do besides go home, feed her cat, and masturbate. Every once in a while, Lou does visit her sister Beth (Jena Malone) out of concern for her being stuck in a physically and verbally abusive relationship with Dave Franco’s JJ, a slimy man who doesn’t care about her or their children. It’s a sinister spin on the typical type of performance from Dave Franco that is difficult to stomach.
JJ is a weak man, not just regarding appearance but also due to the simple, ugly fact that he is comfortable violently putting his hands on women. There is a juxtaposition here exploring what men and women do with the ability to harm others and who they target. Unsurprisingly, Jackie senses the emotional trauma the situation also places on Lou, flying into a fit of roid rage and doing something about it. Toxic masculinity is certainly a popular buzzphrase, but what kind of situations arise when a woman adopts the same mentally crushing mindset when it comes to pain and gains? Meanwhile, JJ is hurting his deeply afraid, brainwashed spouse simply because he can. He doesn’t have the mental wherewithal to build up his physique or workout, so he chooses to feel strong through abuse.
That is the inciting incident to Love Lies Bleeding, a film that, from that moment, is entirely unpredictable while remaining deeply rooted in the characters, especially the erotic sexual energy that quickly emerges between Jackie and Lou. Rose Glass also doesn’t want to tell a story filled with one-dimensional characters, morphing this love into something twisted and, in some ways, similarly dangerous due to steroid addiction and the resulting bursts of violence at loved ones. It is something to be concerned about as it develops, but it is also easy to get lost in that magnetizing attraction and intimacy, hoping for the best.
These dynamics are complex, inquiring from different angles about what it means to love someone. Such themes are also explored and realized through a couple of moments of truly bizarre, magical surrealism that feels directly influenced by Rose Glass’s previous work on her astonishing psychological horror debut, Saint Maud, which also dealt with sexuality unleashed after repression. There is a rawness pulsating throughout the narrative (one elevated by more fantastic synthesizer work from composer Clint Mansell) that is appreciated, but one wishes Rose Glass went a step further with her weird, fantastical impulses.
One might also wonder how Ed Harris fits into the picture or where the story actually goes once JJ’s abusiveness is handled. Again, the answer lies in the title: delivering as advertised. There are a couple of themes Rose Glass probably could have pushed further here, but Love Lies Bleeding is certainly absorbingly suspenseful with a visceral kick as it weaves these characters through crime and deals with a handful of dark relationships. Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian are a dynamite pairing full of erotic lust and incendiary chaos. That’s no lie.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
