Every year there are a few gems that come along that surprise me. Last year, for instance, Perfect Days and Past Lives were a couple of my favorite films from last year. Now we still haven’t even entered award season, and there have been a few films I feel have been pretty great. Furiosa is one, and then there is Love Lies Bleeding, the violent sexual thriller from A24 I just didn’t see coming. I’ve heard some buzz on this one, but to be honest, having Kristen Stewart in it kind of turned me off. Sure, I liked her as the kid in Panic Room, but since then aside from Adventureland and American Ultra I just haven’t been that impressed. But with awards season coming up, I felt I needed to give this film a shot. Worst case scenario it’s at least less than two hours, so no big loss … Now that I’ve seen it, man, I’m kicking myself for waiting so long to see this. Love Lies Bleeding is this unexpected gift that as it continues to play it takes you on this unexpected journey through love and extreme violence that kind of feels like what would happen if the Coen brothers had a cinematic love child with David Cronenberg. Yes, it is that cool, queer, and weird all at once.
It is 1989, and Lou (Kristen Stewart) runs a gym in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico. Lou’s introduction isn’t a pretty one. It has her with her hand stuck in a toilet as she’s trying to unclog it. By the end of the film you’ll realize just how much of a visual metaphor this really is for the character, because throughout the film she is the one stuck trying to clean up everyone’s mess. Whether it is an abusive relationship, a girlfriend’s instability, or her father’s life of crime, Lou gets involved, and things just get really messy.
Lou is instantly smitten when Jackie (Katy O’Brian) comes through town on her way to a bodybuilding tournament in Las Vegas. There’s instantly chemistry between the pair as things get sexual as they quickly fall in love while enjoying injections of steroids. Jackie has her share of problems, which are slowly revealed to us, and the steroids just make things worse (OK, a lot worse). Now I feel the reaction Jackie has with the steroids can be taken two ways, and it sort of changes the genre of the film depending how you view it. Now the artistic route is we see Jackie evolve into a monster because of the love and drugs, and that is what makes her unstable…but for me I feel it’s more fun to see this as a subtle monster film as we see the injections turning Jackie into a literal monster, and her hulk-out moments are pretty intense.
Then there are the male figures in this film, who are in this film that ae all scummy when it comes down to it. There’s JJ (Dave Franco) who is the abusive husband to Lou’s sister; then there is Lou Sr. (Ed Harris) who runs a local gun club and is a crime boss who the FBI is after. Even the local sheriff is on Lou Senior’s payroll and is a piece of crap. Lately we’ve been getting a lot of films that paint the males as the bad guys and the women as the heroes, and most of the time those movies fail, not because they are “woke”, but because they are just not very good and the characters are paper thin. In the case of Love Lies Bleeding, I kind of love how everyone is immoral or corrupt in their own way, but we kind of understand it because they are stuck in these situations where they are just trying to survive.
There is one redeeming character in all of this, and that is Daisy (Anna Baryschnikov). She’s just a sweet dimwit of a girl who has an obsession with Lou. We definitely get that there was a relationship between the two, and for the film Daisy is basically the constant gauge of innocence. I find it interesting how her character also bookends this film, and it kind of gives the film a deeper meaning, but to say any more I feel gets into spoiler territory.
Director and co-writer Rose Glass really stepped up her game from her cult horror film Saint Maude with this film. Elements of it remind me of Oliver Stone’s U-Turn as well as a bunch of other films, but it does so in a good way. In every way this feels familiar the film plays against most tropes, and that is what keeps this feeling fresh, because you don’t know for sure where it is going to go. Then there is the film’s visual style. It has this neo-western noir look where everything just feels hot, dirty, and sweaty, like you just want to give the screen a good wipe-down from all the filth. Then the chef’s kiss that really pulls this film together is the score by Clint Mansell. It sets an unsettling tone to this film that is just perfect.
While I’m confident this will make my top ten list for the year, I’m curious how this will do against other titles coming out in the next few months. Personally this is a film I feel will grow on me even more with subsequent viewings. This is also a film I’m hoping the LGBTQ community will get behind, because honestly this is certainly one of the better films that juggles carrying a message while delivering a kick-ass story at the same time while never feeling like it is preaching to the audience. It’s playing on Max now, so if you have the service, check it out.
