Whether it be bodybuilding, fistfights, gunshots, or physical intimacy, Rose Glass’ “Love Lies Bleeding” is a queer narrative about visceral physicality.
Released on March 8, the film is set in 1980s New Mexico, established as a place of misogyny, sweat, and crime. The story follows Lou, the daughter of a weapons dealer with a blurry, violent past, as she meets Jackie, a traveling bodybuilder hoping to win it big at an upcoming contest. The two have an intense whirlwind romance and get up to a lot more bloody action than anyone expects.
While their backstories are never fully revealed, the characters are likable and relatable in their ways. Lou, played by Kristen Stewart, comes off as awkward, but loving and family-oriented, while Jackie, played by Katy O’Brian, is less stable but very driven in her goals.
The film is definitely not for squeamish viewers. The theater audibly reacted to several “gross” scenes, letting out gasps and expletives whenever something particularly gory or visceral occurred, including unwanted male advances.
Comparatively, everyone was dead silent during the sex scenes, which were some of the most realistic I’d ever seen for a sapphic couple. Stewart and O’Brian simply have that much chemistry, which apparently exists offscreen as well.
Their romance and interpersonal conflicts were a little cliche at times but skirted by with the added narratives of Lou’s creepy crimelord father, played by Ed Harris, and a half-baked drug abuse subplot.
When Jackie meets Lou, she begins to use steroids to increase her physical performance as a bodybuilder, which has a confusing pattern of cause and effect throughout the film. The drugs only seem to help her commit acts of violence by artificially increasing her strength, but her mental state also becomes more and more fractured as she continues to up her dosage, to the point of directly harming Lou.
The ultimate moral of using these steroids is never really clarified as good or bad because they do end up helping Jackie in the final conflict.
The lighting and sound design of the film also stood out to me as remarkably well done. With a neon color palette, intense synth music, and beautiful lighting setups, the ‘80s vibe is immediately apparent and made me want to explore Glass’ other work to see if it is just as atmospheric.
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“Love Lies Bleeding” reminded me a lot of other recent films like “Bottoms” and “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” which have begun to form this new violent-sapphic-thriller genre I’m all here for. I was ready to place it above these other two as a deeper, more mature contender, right up until the very end of the film.
During the movie’s most climactic scene, there was a weird supernatural twist that just completely removed me from what I was seeing. The visuals were just comical, which did not juxtapose well with the dramatic emotions and lives at stake.
By the time the credits rolled, I was left wanting more from this universe and Lou and Jackie. I almost wish that this film would be expanded into a series or larger franchise, though that might end up cheapening the plot in the long run.
The defining characteristic of “Love Lies Bleeding” is its physicality, which is conveyed across several different mediums. It’s a grimy love story that isn’t defined by its queerness, but rather expanded by it in realistic, sanguine glory.
