SummaryReclusive gym manager Lou falls hard for Jackie, an ambitious bodybuilder headed through town to Vegas in pursuit of her dream. But their love ignites violence, pulling them deep into the web of Lou’s criminal family.
SummaryReclusive gym manager Lou falls hard for Jackie, an ambitious bodybuilder headed through town to Vegas in pursuit of her dream. But their love ignites violence, pulling them deep into the web of Lou’s criminal family.
For a film as over-the-top as this, it might be counterintuitive to talk about subtlety, but Stewart is genuinely that; her line readings are coolly calibrated, quizzical, restrained, sometimes infinitesimally double-taking at the bizarre or outrageous things happening in front of her.
Despite the radio reporting the fall of the Berlin Wall and some very “Just Say No”-era drug busts, this is a mythic 1980s and a mythic USA, peopled by venal desperados pulled from the mildewed pages of a 1950s Jim Thompson novel.
Exploring the boundaries of film noir, “Love Lies Bleeding” is a grimy, bloody, hot, sweaty, pulse-pounding, sexy, gory mess. You should go see it **** 1989, Lou (Kristen Stewart – “Twilight” series, “Spencer”) is marking time managing a run-down gym in rural New Mexico. The first time we see her, she’s unclogging a toilet. Into her gym and her life walks Jackie (Katy O’Brian), a buff, seemingly confident woman on her way to a body-building competition in Las Vegas. When a guy at the gym hits on Jackie, she punches him in the face, hard. Lou is in love. It’s all an intriguing variation on the femme fatale and the macho stereotypes that typically populate this genre. (“Of all the gym joints in all the towns in the world, she walks into mine.”) Lou, it turns out, is the daughter of the local gangster (an excellent Ed Harris), who skirts the law, sells guns on the black market and generally runs the town with a pitiless, self-serving efficiency. Perhaps Jackie is Lou’s ticket out of this soul-crushing **** intentions, the execution and the action throughout this film are all first-rate. Director/Co-Writer Rose Glass (“Saint Maud”) dabbles in plenty of the tropes associated with film noir. But she also offers a refreshing new take in several areas. One of the powerful themes here is the overlapping nature of addiction, obsession and love. Lou offers Jackie her passion (and anabolic steroids). There’s also a clear intimation, particularly in the film’s final scene, that the only way to get what you really want is by being remorselessly ruthless. The script, co-written by Polish writer/director Weronika Tofilska, offers scenes that rival the Coen Brothers’ feature film debut “Blood Simple.” The score by Clint Mansell and cinematography from Ben Fodesman (a “Saint Maud” alum) add texture and atmosphere to the proceedings.While O’Brian is a powerful presence physically and emotionally, this is Kristen Stewart’s film. She conveys an edgy wariness and a pervasive skepticism that are heart-breaking. Her lingering glances at Jackie offer a window into her soul, while her skittish manner suggests a dog that’s been kicked one too many times. She’s mesmerizing.What doesn’t work for me is the surrealism Director Glass inserts in the final act. While she foreshadows these leaps into fantasy and her intentions are admirable, these scenes just don’t work. It’s a trifling criticism, important only because this leap into surrealism is a notable departure from the brash self-assurance that propels the film most of the time.This is not a film for the faint of heart. It’s a brutally unblinking assessment of human nature that is simultaneously exhilarating and profoundly depressing. It’s a cautionary tale about the price to be paid when seizing personal power.
Love Lies Bleeding turns consciously wild and garish, and you may think that the film is losing control, yet Rose Glass is fiercely in control of what she’s doing. She’s made a midnight noir that shoots over the top of our expectations but lands where it should, at a place where even valorous people have to go to extremes.
Not all of it works. Heavy doses of melodrama and flashy surrealism sap some of the lurid spell of “Love Lies Bleeding.” But this feels tantalizingly close to the idealized version of a Kristen Stewart film.
Rose Glass's sophomore feature, a grimy 80s set crime drama/love story, again shows off her talent as a visual storyteller and an ability to get inside the minds of her characters.
6.5/10
Crazy film it is, Love Lies Bleeding was a great looking film, with great style, and great performances, but what i felt conflicted about the film was the pacing, the pacing was a mess, and it really bothered me as i thought that the movie could've been really work if it's actually expanded in terms of the story and characters development, shows more of it, instead this happens already, that happens already, showed more is my wish throughout the film while watching it, although again the story of the movie i thought it was ok enough for me to actually still follow it until the end, but it wasn't like amazed me as again the pacing was so messy, and there's a lot of missing scene in the film, overall i thought Love Lies Bleeding was not a bad movie at all, interesting concept, and there is still a lot of things i appreciate and like, but what they left in the final product was more of like a great film that missing a lot of it scene, and it's like someone accidentally hitting a mess button so there's some scenes that got accidentally cut, the scene placement that got mixed, and so many leftovers is what i felt the final product is, and what's in it is just ok to good but still with the feeling of unsatisfied mostly, again Love Lies Bleeding felt like a great film that missing a lot of it scene, but not a bad movie overall, and still almost an ok movie.
I’m admittedly not in the demo of this film, but I love Kristen Stewart, and she’s solid here. The film has some great individual bits, unfortunately it just doesn’t all come together as smoothly as it could…
Another writer/director obsessed with smoking, including rampant smoking the gym? Strange. . Kristen Stewart seemed as wooden as ever. The writing is clunky and poorly researched. Ed Harris is the only bright spot.
Hollywood is not even spoon-feeding 'woke' anymore, they are shoveling it... Can’t believe Kristen Stewart hit rock bottom. Both she and Ed Harris were just the carrots they used to get you to watch this garbage.