Review: 'Love Lies Bleeding' wraps you up like a fever dream
Fresh from its wowza debut at 2024 Sundance Film Festival, "Love Lies Bleeding" rides into wide release in theaters on March 8 with the intention of shaking us up big time.
Mission accomplished, thanks to a knockout turn from "Twilight" star Kristen Stewart.
From the provocation of her recent Rolling Stone cover (Google it) to her unfiltered, Oscar-nominated take on Princess Diana in "Spencer" and her same-sex holiday comedy in "The Happiest Season," Stewart likes to push the envelope.
And we're all the better for it. That's just one reason to dive head first into "Love Lies Bleeding," a pulpy, erotic crime thriller oozing with late 1980s atmosphere and starring Stewart as Lou, a reclusive gym manager in a grimy corner of New Mexico.
Whether she's cleaning toilets or being hit hard by the lightning of sexual attraction, this is Stewart on fire.
The threat of testosterone-fueled violence hangs in the air. The gym walls are defaced with gonzo graffiti ("Pain is weakness leaving the body") made flesh by Lou's nutso father (a scarily unhinged Ed Harris) who uses a shooting range as a front for his gunrunning criminal activities.
Even worse, Lou's sister Beth (Jena Malone) is hitched to the abusive JJ (a classic creep sleazed to the hilt by Dave Franco). And Beth has the bruises to prove it.
Into this world of toxic, muscled masculinity strides Jackie (a sensational Katy M. O'Brian), a vision of female beauty and power. Lou is mesmerized by this ripped Oklahoma runaway, who's heading to Las Vegas for a world bodybuilding competition. Whatever Lou feels for Jackie, she feels it all over. The sparks between them blaze hot enough to singe the screen.
All this sets the stage for physical and emotional chaos, expertly orchestrated by British writer-director Rose Glass, whose smashing 2019 debut with "Saint Maud" focused on female characters broken by religion and loneliness.
Suddenly, the simple story of two women finding love among the ruins becomes a surreal blast of explosive expressionism fueled by flashbacks forged in hell.
Glass and her cowriter, filmmaker Weronika Tofilska, know that "Love Lies Bleeding" depends on the present-tense sparks generated by Lou and bisexual Jackie. And it comes through like gangbusters. That is until Lou gives her lover steroids to help her win the day at the Vegas stakes, an event that Glass films like a carnival of flesh and twisted passion in overdrive.
The plot, propelled by Clint Mansell's synth score and Ben Fordesman's seductively lurid cinematography, wraps you up like a fever dream.
No spoilers, but you should know that Jackie's mind-altering roid rage plays a major part. There's a body to dispose of and an alliance Lou must form with her deranged daddy that plunges the film into the depths of darkness.
Glass excels with actors, paring down dialogue so emotions play vividly on their faces. Stewart holds you in thrall from first scene to last and O'Brian complements her every move in a performance veined with dark humor and bristling menace.
You've never seen a romance as reckless and riveting as "Love Lies Bleeding."
It's a grenade of image and sound ready to blow.
