Reclusive gym manager Lou falls hard for Jackie, an ambitious bodybuilder headed through town to Las Vegas in pursuit of her dream. But their love ignites violence, pulling them deep into the web o...
Upon finishing Saint Maud and being wowed at its confident, gloriously perverse nature to ground and gross me out, I knew I had to keep a look out for Rose Glass’s next big project. Enter “Love Lies Bleeding”, a raucous, corporal phantasmagoria and lurid dissection of power and love that took little time and effort to pull me into its dirty little orbit.
That interesting sensibility that buoyed Rose’s direction in Saint Maud is back in full swing here; she is nothing if not fully skilled in settling in on a mood with incredible aplomb and the most remarkable thing about it is how laudable her confidence and trust in the audience is. Between being starry-eyed at one moment and candid the next, Glass’s voice is one shaky but never muted.
Doesn’t really need much saying here but I’ll indulge anyways because this looks much better than the utter dogwater that was Imaginary. The washed-out filter the camera uses actually serves a purpose in carrying a gritty and rustic aesthetic reminiscent of a neo-western; it’s not intended to embody a period piece but the production design is still mostly faithful to that era of the 80’s and it carries this nocturnal aura of an Americana snapshot elevated by the lurid, pulpy presentation. The atmosphere Glass creates to compliment this is nothing short of intoxicating and Ben Fordesman’s cinematography has no shortage of striking images.
From its litany of both special and practical effects further leaning into its surrealist, artsy nature, mise-en-scene is heavily fronted in every scene from start to finish. It is never lacking in momentum and evoking the freewheeling spirit of Thelma and Louise with its heavy doses of melodrama doesn’t sap the energy from this tree. Tonally speaking, its a tightrope walk between pleasure and pain, feeling straight out of an old Coen’s brothers flick, its sense of speed and pace is never too rushed, the R-rating is definitely earned here and I’m curious how the hell the costume designer made everyone look both like utter shit, yet visually enticing at once; that’s a conundrum I need solving to.
Also, nabbing the composer behind Black Swan and Requiem for a Dream was one hell of a win; Clint Mansell’s ominous, Michael Mann-esque score was a immaculate fit for such a heavy-duty story.
Of course, I need to talk about the performances because everyone went full-throttle with the material given and the chemistry they all share between them is magnetic. Katy O’Brian is every bit as dynamic as her co-Star but this is Kristen Stewart’s movie. I know I’m gonna get heat for this since I didn’t see Spencer yet but dare I say, this is probably the greatest performance I’ve seen from her.
Speaking of, I want to say this story, as a complete package, makes for an impressive mobilization of lots of familiar tropes in this lesbian riff of Bonnie and Clyde. None of these said tropes are complicated in the slightest and it doesn’t bother trying to hide where it’s going but it doesn’t need to. Narrative wise, it’s essentially a hopeless romantics tale with a more insidious seed of loneliness planted that only spreads as the film’s structure becomes more conventional and the story makes damn certain to let you know no good deed goes unpunished. No character is safe from violent transgressions and it takes its time painting pictures that build up like a pressure cooker and tries to keep you guessing; you get a feeling on how it’s going to end but you don’t know how we’re going to get there.
One thing that this story strives and succeeds in illustrating to the audience is that physical and mental strength are two very different things; a perfect relay into what appears to be two recurring themes for Rose Glass films: desire and obsession. While Saint Maud focused on clinging to faith and religion, Love Lies Bleeding’s crutch is what gives people power and while both focus strictly on the illusion of control, this one does it through ostensibly propulsive cartoon 80’s surrealism, practically stuffing every genre trapping it can squeeze in a manner that borders on satire. Guns, bodybuilding, Camaros, Vegas, a sense of purpose in the West and the promise of freedom paint this Americana as an amoral den built off of the desperation and endless stream of bad luck and bad decisions made, and given how noirs of the ’80s twitched with worries about the war on drugs, lots of sex and Reaganite transformation of the economy, the setting helps tell every bit of the story as the narrative does. The 80’s was all about big and that poisonous urge to make yourself bigger, even with the most innocent gesture like love, can be contagious.
Its metaphors are both overtly subtle and subtly overt in the way it heavily blurs reality and delirum with this symbolism. Whether you think the movie succeeds on that front is up to you.
Complaints have been hurled at the way the film ends as they claim it dipped too far into the surreal. But honestly, a part of me didn’t mind how it ended; as the steroids have been the biggest symbolic factor tying this films themes together and characters together, the payoff for that ending would’ve been a lot less satisfying if they completely played it straight. But at the same time, MY problem with that is how it leans back into this realm of ludonarrative dissonance.
I know what the story wanted me to feel at that moment but considering the buildup and emotional stakes for that were minuscule, I couldn’t completely immerse myself into that realm of understanding to truly connect.
Regardless of that mishap, I believe Love Lies Bleeding is a direct mirror to the amaranth plant that its title is based off of: very old-fashioned, peculiarly violent, surreally invasive but an absolute gem to keep around if you know how or are willing to care for it.
