Love Lies Bleeding 2024 Movie Review
Love draws the rugged, self-sufficient main characters together, lies drag them deep into violent machinations and the blood of the ambiguous film title weaves both plot threads into a powerful thriller. The young, ambitious Jackie was actually just passing through to take part in a competition for female bodybuilders in Las Vegas, but an encounter with Lou, the equally young manager of a fitness studio, thwarts her plans. A ruthless uppercut for a muscular macho and an unexpected evening for two lay the foundation for Rose Glass ‘ queer genre ride.
The actors carry this not only with their physical presence, but also with their well-rehearsed chemistry (and Ed Harris with his unusual head of hair). The young women’s romance develops raw and at the same time sensitively, and is one of many pieces of the puzzle that hauntingly fills Rose Glass’s second directorial work. Another revolves around the family, or rather the head, the gun nut and father of the more reserved Lou, who is entangled in the criminal structures of the area even deeper than the abysses outside the small town of New Mexico. If both aspects of the story flow into one another unhindered, not only the characters begin to seethe inside and out, but also the images in the film boil with rage.
LOVE LIES BLEEDING restlessly follows the rapid development of relationships and the troubled emotional states of its angry main characters and foments precise violence. Once the first blood has been shed, an impulsive, effectively illustrated spiral of violence sets in motion, leaving neither immediate family members nor outside acquaintances with a chance to escape. A dynamic compilation of alternative 80s hits, the film steadily advances the unforeseen entanglements without losing sight of the inner struggles of its main characters. Because they care about much more than making the unwanted crimes disappear as quickly as possible: about their own freedom, coming to terms with their body and their identity, about emancipation, transformation, being loved and about breaking away from patriarchy.
Against the remote backdrop of the small town and colored by a never hackneyed retro look, Rose Glass composes a darkly humorous thriller romance in which every feverish attempt at a solution is just a step deeper into the unknown and, for Lou, into her own past. Ed Harris embodies the cold-blooded family man with uncomfortable calm, in contrast to the characters of Kristen Stewart and newcomer Katy O’Brian , who are constantly physically and emotionally in motion. Their blood-stained, steroid-pimped development and emancipation processes ultimately result in a handful of surrealistic and horror-like elements that don’t seem out of place, but even seem necessary given the film’s uncompromising power.
Effectively balanced between edgy character insights and gritty thrillers, Rose Glass succeeds in creating an entertaining genre film with an energetic cast and room for the grotesque.
