“Love Lies Bleeding” – A Masterfully Surreal Crime Thriller
“Love Lies Bleeding” is the second movie from Rose Glass and is an incredible and bizarre bodybuilding crime thriller.
The movie follows Lou (Kristen Stewart), a manager at a gym, who falls in love with a recently arrived bodybuilder named Jackie (Katy O’Brian). While their love story escalates they face personal challenges that are elevated by Lou’s Father (Ed Harris) and his crime syndicate that runs the town.
This is an immaculate follow up to Rose Glass’s first feature, 2018’s horror movie “Saint Maud”, but couldn’t be more different. This is a crime thriller that is very reminiscent of classic crime thrillers like David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet”. Although it is first and foremost a romance as the viewer watches the love story between Lou and Jackie develop over a short amount of time and witnessing the ups and downs they face because of conflict that is both outside and inside of their characters.
The plot is fast paced and towards the end becomes a little more surreal during certain parts. The entire story is grounded, but there is a particular suspension of belief that you must have for about the last half hour of the movie where it becomes a little less literal in the representation of what’s happening.
The performances are great, especially Katy O’Brian. This was her first leading role and she absolutely has the best performance in the movie. Kristen Stewart is also really good, but there are a couple moments interspersed throughout the movie where her line delivery is a little off, but not nearly enough to take away from the scenes those lines are in. All the other performances from actors like Ed Harris and Dave Franco were also well done.
The special effects are super good. There is a little bit of graphic gore in one or two scenes and the effects on it looks great. There is also one scene that utilizes some body horror and to great effect. The lighting is richly colorful, even in nighttime scenes, and it’s clear that filmmakers had a specific vision when grading the film.
The romance between Lou and Jackie is very well developed and feels like great lesbian representation. It shows the relatively realistic ups and downs of a romance and the movie constantly tests how much each character trusts one another. The relationship between them isn’t all sunshine, but it never became clouded in impenetrable darkness, it consistently straddled the line between the two and for this reason felt very well paced.
“Love Lies Bleeding” is a stellar thriller that weaves a great romantic plot with a great criminal aspect. It feels like a classic crime thriller, but subverts expectations in the best way possible. This is by far one of the easiest recommendations I can make if you want an amazing romantic crime thriller.
Directed by Rose Glass
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian, Ed Harris, Jena Malone, Anna Baryshnikov, Dave Franco
Rated R
Runtime: 104 minutes
My Rating: ★★★★½
