Movie Review: Love Lies Bleeding (2024)

Google "Love Lies Bleeding" and you'll get (mostly) results relating to the the 2024 feature film -- still currently in theaters -- which I'm about to review here on this blog. But Love Lies Bleeding is also the title of a 1948 detective novel by Edmund Crispin and bearing no resemblance, plot-wise, to the current film. It's also the title of a 2005 stage play called Love Lies Bleeding, by none other than Don DeLillo. In 2011, a writer named Jess McConkey also used the title, for a novel. 

Love Lies Bleeding is also, apparently, the common name for Amaranthus Caudatus, a flowering plant native to Peru. And, last of the references but not least, is a lyric from the Elton John song "Funeral for a Friend," from the 1973 album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. 

What do all these references have in common? Without reading each of the books and plays in question, it's pretty impossible to say. Perhaps nothing. But it at least explains why, when I first heard the title to the film a few weeks back, I did one of those "Wait...what?" kind of double-takes. If the peculiar little poetic phrase has been kicking around the English language long enough to inspire (at least (and I have to imagine there's more)) a plant name, two novels, a stage play, a mention in a rock song, and a movie, it's no wonder it sounded familiar. 

Maybe that in-and-of-itself is enough of a connection, because the film at hand -- Love Lies Bleeding, in case you forgot -- has an oddly familiar type of neo-noir quality to it, especially if you grew up in the late 80s / early 90s, when the film takes place. At the same time it is a bizarre, sexy, grotesque, and wholly unique piece of filmmaking I was unable to take my eyes away from for a second. There are no "look at your watch" moments in this film; I even sat through the credits just in the simple hopes there would be a "stinger" with a few precious moments of additional footage. 

Set in a nameless, seedy town in the American west in 1989, the film centers on Lou Lou (Kristen Stewart), a manager at a gym, who falls in love with Jackie (Katy O'Brien), a drifter with ambitions of becoming a body builder, who has stumbled into town on her way to a body building competition in Las Vegas. When an act of roid-rage fueled violence causes trouble for the newfound lovers, Lou Lou's father (Ed Harris), who owns the gym, a neighboring gun range, and has his hands in a variety of other illegal operations as well as the local police force, attempts to clean up the mess. I hate plot summaries with a burning passion, so that's all you need to know. Just watch the film.

Why should you watch the film?

Love Lies Bleeding is the kind of sweaty, gritty, hang-onto-your-seat species of neo-noir we don't see enough of in theaters. Don't get me wrong, this film is no Pulp Fiction, and I don't think it's necessarily trying to be, but it has that same type of dark, dangerous, and ultra-contemporary feeling, even if it is set in the 80s. From the opening scene, taking place in the absolutely perfect, analog, 80s small-town gym, featuring close-ups of sweaty bodies and trite slogans spray-painted DIY style on wooden signs, we know exactly the world we are about to step into. 

Director Rose Glass does this film a huge favor by using some serious 80s deep cuts for the soundtrack. It would have been very easy to turn this film into an 80s music video, using all the familiar and by now overused 80s tracks that normally show up in a film like this, and it would have turned the film into a half-assed MTV joke of itself. I consider myself a pretty serious aficionado of 80s music, and the film still pulled a few brand new ones on me such as "Nice Mover,"  by Gina X Performance. Who the hell is Gina X Performance? Well, I know now. And I'm glad I do. 

Speaking of "Nice Mover," that particular song backs what is -- in my opinion -- a montage that is the undisputed highlight of the film and the moment when Love Lies Bleeding truly got its hooks into me. The art of the "montage" is something that seems to have died with the 80s. Movies used montages so much back then that they became a joke. But, this being film that pays homage to the 80s, the choice to include a montage was a good one. I almost can't imagine the film succeeding without it. 

Another cool element of the film is how the back story is delivered. Apparently, Lou Lou's dad is a pretty heavy-duty criminal when he's not running a shooting range and playing with oversized bugs (a personality quirk which really isn't explained or made enough of). The film does not, however, burden us with backstory, but rather delivers it in weird, short, wordless clips filmed under red lights. It's a strange choice but it works. The film relies on us to be smart enough to piece it all together, and in this case we are. 

As to the actual performances, Kristen Stewart carries the film as Lou Lou, the most sane, most stable, and most genuinely likable character in the film. I can't recall ever being impressed by a performance of hers before this, to be honest. But after this, I'm going to be paying closer intention. Perhaps not as nuanced of a performance but perhaps a bit more of a pure cinematic spectacle is the glistening, toned Katy O'Brien as Jackie, who dominates the screen every moment she's on it. Whether she's doing pullups in her bra and panties, posing in front of a mirror, or hulking out due to the black market steroids Lou Lou has been providing her, she is impossible to look away from.