Love is like a drug. When you find someone you really care about — whether it’s a friend, a family member or a romantic partner — it changes you in certain specific ways. There are the highs of being with them, the withdrawals when they’re gone for a long time, and that blistering anger you feel when something threatens them. It’s one of the strongest emotions the human brain can muster, and it’s one that can be dangerous. You can lose yourself in these feelings, and do things you wouldn’t with a calm mind — things that feel right but have serious consequences. That relationship — the interplay of love and hate — is constantly throttled in Rose Glass’ sophomore feature Love Lies Bleeding.
Jackie (Katy O’Brian) is a bodybuilder passing through Albuquerque, N.M., on her way to a competition in Las Vegas. She takes a job at a gun range to earn a bit more money for the road. One night she stops in at a local gym, where she meets the reclusive gym manager, Lou (Kristen Stewart), who is also her boss’s daughter. The two jump quickly into a relationship, and Lou begins supplying Jackie with performance-enhancing drugs. After a tragic event, Jackie enters a fit of rage and in an act of passion, does something that lands her in trouble with her boss (Ed Harris) and the local criminal underworld. The two then battle their circumstances, attempting to survive the mob and each other.
LLB shines as a gritty revenge thriller, but also as a tender romance. The neon-drenched setting of 1980s Albuquerque has an air of lawlessness and open hostility, from its vast deserts to its dingy street corners. Lou is quiet and standoffish, while Jackie is a towering figure, musclebound and moving through the town with ease. Together they find a love that is tender but defensive, with danger looming all around them. Jackie has violent outbursts when Lou is harmed or distressed, her muscles bulging and popping like she’s Bruce Banner morphing into the Hulk. As with director Glass’ first film, Saint Maud, there are a lot of magical-realist moments — not magical as far as what’s happening, exactly, but rather in visual manifestations of the character’s point of view, or the internalization of a bad drug trip.
Despite its many successes, Love Lies Bleeding features content that might disturb viewers — blood and gore, domestic violence, drug abuse, sexual manipulation and neglect. The previously mentioned magical-realist elements also see Glass dipping a toe into absurdism in an otherwise serious movie; these moments might make sense for the characters and the headspace they are in, but they result in tonal whiplash. In the end, love conquers all. So if you are able to make it through the abuse and violence, you are rewarded with a romance that is satisfying because of everything the characters have been through.
Love Lies Bleeding is a blood-soaked romance that will keep you on the edge of your seat, as long as all the violence doesn’t send you running for the exit. It’s a solid piece of genre filmmaking from an up-and-coming director who keeps improving and is one to keep an eye on.
