'Love Lies Bleeding' Review: A Hot Mess in All the Right Ways
It’s a meet-cute for the ages. One of the young women is a jaded and standoffish gym manager trapped in a small dead-end New Mexico town. She starts the film unplugging a dirty toilet with a gloved hand and a grimace on her face. The other is a vagrant, sleeping under a bridge on her way to attend a bodybuilding competition in Las Vegas. To prepare for that competition, she goes into the aforementioned gym. There have been so many films where actors have to create a spark at first sight of each other; Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian make it seem utterly effortless. Their sexual chemistry begins with that first glance, and continues to fuel this passionate, grimy, and bloody film noir.
Love Lies Bleeding is a sizzling sophomore film directed by up-and-coming auteur Rose Glass, co-written by Glass and Weronika Tofilska. The film follows Lou (Stewart) and Jackie (O’Brian) as they begin a romance which seems to be the only thing going right in either of their lives. Lou is surrounded by an enamoured co-worker who won’t take no for an answer (Anna Baryshnikov), an abusive brother-in-law (Dave Franco), a sister that refuses to accept that she is in an abusive relationship (Jena Malone), a psychotic father whom she tries to avoid at all costs (Ed Harris) and FBI agents who want answers from her in regards to victims of her father’s criminal enterprise.
Things take a turn when Jackie is thrown into the mix; even before she meets Lou, she’s gotten a job at Lou Sr.’s shooting range, courtesy of the brother-in-law, who gave her a lift into town in exchange for a special favour. She doesn’t intend to stay in town for long, much less get involved in this dysfunctional family’s problems. Love, however, decides otherwise. As she bonds with Lou, Jackie makes a spontaneous action to give Lou what she wants, even as it also throws their lives into terrible jeopardy. It doesn’t help that, in true 80s fashion, Lou procures steroids to help Jackie prepare for the bodybuilding competition.
The film is a curious blend of a hardboiled crime story with a fiery sapphic romance, and in keeping with films released by A24, it is packed with artistic flourishes that make it all the more memorable. Aside from Glass’ direction, the film’s look can be attributed to the cinematography work by Ben Fordesman. The camera gleefully takes in the musclebound forms of men and women alike, revelling in sculpted pecs and bulging biceps. On top of that, renowned film composer Clint Mansell provides a striking soundtrack, supplemented with experimental period songs by such iconic avant-garde artists as Nona Hendryx and Patrick Cowley.
Stewart and O’Brian might have carried the film all by themselves with their powerhouse performances alone. Both Lou and Jackie are strong and independent while also being deeply wounded by life, fiercely guarding their vulnerability from outsiders. Neither of them ever fully open up about their pasts, avoiding the pitfalls of needless exposition, but nor do their stories fall victim to excessive vagueness. Their romance is neither easy nor smooth, owing to both internal and external obstacles. Both actresses are gutsy with their performances, diving headfirst into scenes of physical exposure and displays of raw emotion.
Besides the two leads, the supporting actors also deliver their all. Franco is almost unrecognisable as the dirty and volatile scumbag J.J., while Malone portrays his demoralised wife without making her a stereotypical victim. Baryshnikov takes what could have easily been a throwaway character and makes her three-dimensional. She is a ditz, to be sure, mercilessly flirting with Lou every chance she gets. But there is also a calculating edge to her which makes her behaviour more unsettling than it should be. Harris, meanwhile, delivers one of the best performances of his career, which is saying a lot. It would have been easy to make him an uncultured bigot that spends the film spitting slurs at his lesbian daughter. Neither Harris nor Glass was interested in taking the easy way out with such a villainous character. Like so many great antagonists in film, Lou Sr. doesn’t view himself as a bad man. To an outsider, he seems to care for both his daughters, claiming to respect their wishes while still doing what he can to protect them. It is only Lou, in fact, that truly sees him for what he is, thanks to a past which is revealed through flashbacks which only hint at the chilling origins of Lou’s trauma.
Love Lies Bleeding knows exactly what it is doing, even if the audience won’t predict where the story goes. If one were to choose a single word to describe this film, it would have to be ‘fearless.’ The filmmakers make bold swings, whether through the film’s story, its performances, or its imagery. It is an unabashedly queer tale about two deeply broken women whose passion for one another is not only their salvation, but possibly the only thing saving them from utter destruction.