A One Mann’s Movies review of “Love Lies Bleeding” (2024).
Writer/director Rose Glass stunned everyone with her 2020 debut film “Saint Maud“. Despite being low-budget and set in Scarborough, it was tight, claustrophobic and showed enormous style. Her ‘difficult second album’ then is “Love Lies Bleeding” which you might think would be a couple of kiddie steps beyond that…. But no! Brimming with confidence, we move to New Mexico and an ultra-violent and raunchy noirish lesbian thriller!
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
We first meet Lou (Kristen Stewart) elbow deep in a toilet in the gym that she manages. But being in deep shit is something she needs to get used to, since her world is about to be complicated by the arrival of bisexual body-builder Jackie (Katy O’Brian). Trouble arrives in the form of an abusive husband, an FBI team and a canyon full of skeletons.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Violence, gore, drug misuse, sex, domestic abuse, very strong language”. This description ain’t kidding and for some of the most violent scenes, and one of the lesbian sex scenes involving fingering, I think it’s lucky not to have received an “18” certificate. )
Talent:
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian, Ed Harris, Dave Franco, Anna Baryshnikov, Jena Malone.
Directed by: Rose Glass.
Written by: Rose Glass & Weronika Tofilska.
Twitter Handle: #LoveLiesBleeding.
Running Time: 1h 44m.
Pumpin’ Iron. Katy O’Brian as Jackie, pulling the moves in a performance that will have an explosive conclusion! (Source: A24).
“Love Lies Bleeding” Positives and Negatives:
Positives:
- Stunningly confident direction.
- Great cinematography and editing.
- Superb central performances, especially from Kristen Stewart.
- Colourful characters and a story that keeps you guessing.
Negatives:
- Will be over-violent for those with a weak-stomach for such things.
- The ending felt rather weak. It needed a “Thelma and Louise” ‘moment’!
“Love Lies Bleeding” – Full Review:
Oozing with confidence
While “Saint Maud” started quietly with a pan of tomato soup, this new film starts brashly with loud music and muscle-bound gym members. It’s like Glass saying “I’m back and I’m here to stay”. I find it almost impossible to quantify what constitutes great direction, but I know it when I see it. And this definitely has it in spades. The blocking of the shots, the extreme close-ups, the innovative colour-palette, the impressive drone-tracking shots of fleeing suspects and arriving FBI cars. It all oozes confidence.
The script, co-written by Glass and Weronika Tofilska (as a feature debut) crackles along and inserts just enough humour to raise the occasional much needed smile. “Cars don’t explode when they go off a cliff” says Officer Mike (David DeLao). “… that’s just in the movies!”
Mark Towns is again Glass’s chosen editor and again it’s a confident performance delivering perfect pacing. Occasionally (in a tennis court scene, for example) you would expect cuts between Lou and Jackie, but no… the camera drifts between them as a continuous shot, making us more of a bystander to the encounter.
Terrific Cast Performance
Kristen Stewart obviously roared to fame on the back of the “Twilight” film series and that association with the tween-pop franchise has perhaps not been helpful to her being taken seriously in her career to date. But she really is a phenomenal actor and fully demonstrates that here. As Lou, she often seems to be caught in a wasteland between weary resignation and abject terror. At some point, Stewart going to get a Best Actress Oscar nomination and for my money she would stand a chance of that for this performance.
Far less familiar to me is Katy O’Brian, who has come up through the TV route in shows such as “The Walking Dead” and “The Mandalorian”. Having previously entered bodybuilding competitions in real life, this role was tailor-made for O’Brian and she makes it her own. She has a powerful screen presence.
Veteran actor Ed Harris is given a comedy wig for his role as Lou’s sinister and dangerous gangster father. You’d laugh at him unless you knew there would be serious consequences! It’s perhaps not Harris’s best performance, but as the wizened gun-toting dodgy-dealer he certainly makes an impression.
Dave Franco, normally “Mr Nice” in films, is decidedly not in this one (see “Triggers” below). He gets his comeuppence in particularly ghoulish style: scenes that take a bit of forgetting and definitely not for the squeamish.
Alberquerque is one of the characters
In the best of these types of thrillers, the location is also one of the stars: (think “No Country for Old Men” or “Nocturnal Animals“). Here we are in New Mexico and the bleak desert vistas are effectively captured by cinematographer Ben Fordesman. The film reminded me in fact of that classic road movie “Thelma and Louise”, with two anti-heroines on a metaphorical and literal road to nowhere.
A Quirk to the Ending
With “Saint Maud“, Rose Glass veered from the natural to the supernatural for a memorable finale. With “Love Lies Bleeding” she does it again, adding an element of fantasy to the finale that will make some viewers go “WTF?”. It won’t be to everyone’s taste. Following on from that, the actual film’s ending felt like a bit of an “Oh!” rather than a “Wow!”. I’ve seen an interview with Glass (here) where she says she did not want a ‘Lou and Jackie driving off into the sunset’ shot and I agree with her there. But as there are enough similarities in the story to “Thelma and Louise”, I was hoping for an ending as memorable as “Thelma and Louise”… and this wasn’t it.
The square-jawed (for now!) JJ played by Dave Franco. An utterly hateful character. (Source: A24).
Triggers
Note that the film has a storyline about extreme marital abuse that might be upsetting to some viewers. Also, as mentioned elsewhere, it is VERY violent for a ’15’ certificate film.
Summary Thoughts on “Love Lies Bleeding”
Rose Glass has cemented her reputation here with a noirish thriller full of memorable imagery and characters. There are some eye-catchingly gory scenes in here that also stay in the mind long after the credits have rolled! It’s an impressive film that, in the main, I enjoyed very much.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “Love Lies Bleeding”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF_J3-DmiS0. And what a cracking trailer it is, one of my favourites of the year so far, full of energy and vitality and set to “Smalltown Boy” by Bronski Beat. It makes you want to go and watch the film for a change!
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