LOVE LIES BLEEDING reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Rose Glass
Stars: Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian, Ed Harris, Jena Malone, Dave Franco, Anna Baryshnikov.
The incredibly violent story of two women in love. Set in New Mexico in 1989, this is a tough and gritty revenge-driven drama is the sophomore feature from British director Rose Glass (the 2019 psychological thriller Saint Maud, etc).
Lou (Kristen Stewart) runs Crater, a seedy gym in Albuquerque but we get the sense that she would rather be elsewhere. She is estranged from her father Lou senior (Ed Harris, unnerving with a bald head) who runs the Louvile shooting range on the outskirts of town. He is also heavily involved in criminal activities and unofficially seems to run the town’s underbelly.
Then into her gym walks Jackie (Katy O’Brian, martial artist and actor from tv series The Mandalorian, etc) a muscled bodybuilder who is on her way to the championships in Las Vegas. Lou and Jackie quickly fall in love and a relationship develops between the pair and before long they are sweating up the sheets in Lou’s small and dingy apartment. Jackie lands a job waitressing at the cafe attached to the shooting range, unaware that she is working for Lou’s father. Lou is also providing Jackie with anabolic steroids which make her unpredictable, volatile and violent. When Lou becomes upset that her sister Beth (Jena Malone) has been hospitalised after a savage beating at the hands of her abusive husband JJ (an unsympathetic and twitchy Dave Franco) Jackie erupts and takes matters into her own hands, with devastating consequences. The fallout from her actions increases the tension between Lou and her father and the body count slowly rises.
Glass has co-written the hard hitting and pulpy script with first time feature writer Weronika Tofilska, and the film taps into the conventions of the noir genre with echoes of the erotic thrillers of the 90s and the gritty crime dramas of pulp authors like James M Cain and the ilk. It is also unpredictable with its many twists and turns. But the film loses its way in the final act when it drifts into fantasy with a hallucinatory scene that jars with the rest of the film.
The dark and moody cinematography from Ben Fordesman imbues the setting with a gritty and seedy ambience, heightened visuals and dark lighting that suits the tone of the material. The desert setting and the eerie abandoned mine where bodies are conveniently dumped gives the film an unworldly look and feel. Katie Hickman’s production design oozes sleazy authenticity. Clint Mansell’s score is also evocative.
Kudos to Stewart for her willingness to seek out and tackle sometimes challenging roles and material outside of the mainstream despite her A-list status. Here she brings a suitably dour and moody quality to her performance as Lou, the anti-hero of the story. O’Brian has a physically imposing presence, but she and Stewart establish a palpable chemistry. Harris is quite creepy and unsettling and has a ghoulish presence. Franco is quite convincing as the loathsome redneck JJ. Anna Baryshnikov (from Manchester By The Sea, etc) is also good as Daisy, Lou’s colleague who is jealous of Jackie’s presence and her relationship with Lou and whose actions further complicate matters.
Overall, Love Lies Bleeding is a grungy, sex and atmospheric crime thriller that manages to subvert expectations.
★★★
