Kristen Stewart and Katy O'Brien are on fire as star-crossed lovers who get into a sweaty mess in Rose Glass's lurid '80s throwback thriller.
At the climax of David Fincher’s Gone Girl, in a confrontation with her husband after her carefully constructed mask has peeled off, Amy Dunne utters the immortal line, “I’ve killed for you. Who else can say that?” The same sentiment runs through Rose Glass and co-writer Weronika Tofilska’s lead-filled Love Lies Bleeding, about two women on a quest to prove their devotion. Through a sheen of sweat, blood and steroids, the all-consuming impact of Lou (Kristen Stewart) and Jackie’s (Katy O’Brian) whirlwind romance will have lasting consequences on the New Mexico dustbowl town that Lou’s bug-obsessed, gun-running father (Ed Harris) rules with an iron fist.
If her debut feature Saint Maud was an austere slowburn, Glass’s follow-up is a Molotov cocktail: hot, dirty, fast, combustible. Orphaned Oklahoman Jackie blows into town on her way to the world bodybuilding championships in Las Vegas – she lands a temporary gig waitressing at the gun range operated by Lou Sr and his dirtbag son-in-law JJ (Dave Franco). Her obsessive exercise routine quickly brings her to the attention of Lou Jr, who spots her pumping iron among her regular gym rat clientele. Instantly smitten, Lou offers Jackie some of the steroids favoured by her male customers. “Just to give you that extra kick,” she assures a slightly hesitant Jackie.
That extra kick looks like this: the post-workout burn of lactic acid build-up; omelettes carefully made with just the whites; hot, fast, dirty bathroom sex; the explosive desire to fight back against the violence of misogyny no matter what the cost. Stewart and O’Brian’s chemistry is electric – besotted with each other almost instantly, their love burns like magnesium, incandescent and dangerous. Soon enough Jackie can’t bear to see Lou crushed under the boot of her monstrous brother-in-law and father – and that’s when the body count starts to rise.
With a pounding, gym-appropriate Clint Mansell score and Ben Fordesman’s saturated, luscious cinematography, Love Lies Bleeding embraces the pulpy, static-charged spirit of its 1989 small-town America setting. While the Berlin Wall tumbles on the television, there’s a growing sense that Jackie and Lou’s love could have a similarly earth-shattering power. The influence of Paul Verhoeven and David Cronenberg is apparent, but the lesbian relationship at the heart of the film puts Love Lies Bleeding in a midnight movie canon of its own.
Considering how radically different Love Lies Bleeding is from Saint Maud, Glass already appears chameleonic and uncompromising in her filmmaking vision. Frenetic and obsessive, this is still a love story amid the gore and slick of body oil – a heart-pounding, iron-pumping descent into the heady heart of obsession and desire.
Little White Lies is committed to championing great movies and the talented people who make them.
Published 30 Apr 2024
Wasn’t completely sold on Saint Maud, but expectations are high all the same.
Kristen and Katy have the juice!
Lurid, luscious filmmaking from a bright young star.
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Grace Dickinson reveals how she wrangled the skin-crawling star performer of Rose Glass’ psychodrama.
The director of the storming after hours classic-in-the-making, Love Lies Bleeding, on the strange worlds of crime and bodybuilding.
Little White Lies was established in 2005 as a bi-monthly print magazine committed to championing great movies and the talented people who make them. Combining cutting-edge design, illustration and journalism, we’ve been described as being “at the vanguard of the independent publishing movement.” Our reviews feature a unique tripartite ranking system that captures the different aspects of the movie-going experience. We believe in Truth & Movies.
