EightBallMag

Love Lies Bleeding- Review

Review by Christian Hernandez

Love Lies Bleeding, is Rose Glass’s newest film following her 2019 directorial debut Saint Maud. This time around, she’s sharing the screenplay with Weronika Tofilska. I’ll be honest, I had tempered expectations, even with the overflowing praise it was receiving. I was not a big fan of Saint Maud, finding it to be an exhaustive film, especially when at the time, there was a flurry of horror films that had the slow-burn, systematic, approach. However, the direction and confidence in Glass as a filmmaker was apparent. I’m glad that I was proven wrong. Love Lies Bleeding is an outstanding romantic thriller, with almost every issue I’ve had with her previous film being rectified. 

The film is very strong, both literally and figuratively. Glass’s and Tofilska’s script is an explosion of thrill and pulp, borrowing similar crime themes and ideas from the 80s and 90s, and also bringing back the much-needed erotic and sensual aspects of those films. Hearing early reviews complaining about the “fetishization of muscles” and sex scenes was practically a sign that this was going to be great, especially considering how conservative this generation’s gotten to adult themes and sexuality in films, but that’s a topic for another discussion. This is an erotic crime thriller through and through, and not once does it feel like the movie has to restrain itself for its audience. Glass’s confidence in her directing is showing, entrusting the audience to follow this almost doomed love story.

The film oozes with style. Ben Fordesman’s luscious and bold cinematography adds to the pulpiness of the film. It has an almost gritty but fantastical look to it. The film’s opening shot which leads into a brief one-r, really showcases just how much texture the film’s look will have. The blocking of the characters and the position where the camera remains always allow the frame to be filled, even when a character is to feel alone. Your eyes are always following the actions and the characters, the camera guiding you with its near-perfect framing. Another thing is when the film treads into ultra-violence, it still feels and looks grounded, not allowing its visual style to feel like it’s making the violence look cool, which is always a breath of fresh air in films today. It’s something that always stood out to me, especially in series such as Bill Hader’s Barry. 

I also want to bring attention to Mark Town’s editing style. Towns and Glass know exactly when to cut and when to let a shot linger. Throughout the film, we get stylized glimpses of our lead character, Lou, played perfectly by Kristen Stewart, dark and crime-filled past. It’s covered in deep red and is cut between intense moments for Lou, which effectively hooks our interest into knowing who she is, especially when shit starts to hit the fan and Lou is a little too good at taking care of messes. The film is always rolling and it’s something that I will always commend an editor for.

Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian are electric. Stewart time and time shows us that she’s one of our generation’s greatest actors time and time again with each of her performances. She always has a special way of embodying her characters and bringing them from the page to the screen, effortlessly, She never gives the same performance twice. Stewart’s subtle visual movements as Lou truly allow us to feel Lou’s trouble past.

We as the audience can tell from the jump that she has some dark, underlying past, even when not a word has been said. O’Brian is electric. Her physicality alone is impressive, but her ability to switch between a soft lover to delusion, to outright frightening, all in seconds, captivated me. Jackie seems like a dream character to play, allowing O’Brian to flex her muscles (I promise this is the last muscle pun). Ed Harris is a legend, so it was no surprise to me when he played a sleazy, horrible man, with such ease. All of the men in the film are gross, the worst of the worst, which made a lot of the men in the packed theater uncomfortable, so I think it did its job. 

When the film quickly and quite suddenly shifts into full gear, it grips you tight and doesn’t let you go. It was an engaging and eviscerating watch. I found myself quite surprised by how much I enjoyed it. As mentioned before. Glass’s confidence in the direction is on full display, never shying away from what’s shown, whether it’s intense or graphic violence or quite an intimate display of love, I can see that their creative vision was never once compromised. It’ll surely go down as one of the best of the year.