Love Lies Bleeding (2024)

Written by CinemaSerf on May 4, 2024

"Lou" (Kristen Stewart) runs a gym on the basis of being as obnoxious to the customers (mostly brain-dead males) as she can until one night she espies a new visitor. She assumes that "Jackie" (Katy O'Brian) has gone off with the boys for a beer, but a chance encounter afterwards in the car park makes it clear they are both on the same team. We (the audience) have met "Jackie" already and know she's looking for work. That comes via "JJ" (Dave Franco) who takes her to the shooting range owned by the long haired and hippy looking Ed Harris who gives her a job as a waitress. Quickly we discover that "JJ" is married to "Beth" (Jena Malone) who is the sister of "Lou" and both are the daughters of Ed Harris. "Lou", though, is a bit estranged from him and as the plot thickens we discover why. Also, we discover that "JJ" is a bit of a thug and prone to beating up his wife. A trip to the hospital for her causes tempers to flare, and pumped full of steroids, it's the increasingly unstable "Jackie" who sets things in motion that are going to bring to an head a decade of family tensions, put lives at risk and even drag in the FBI. Aside from the same sex angle, there is nothing new at all to this half-hearted relationship drama that contrives to introduce just about everything to go wrong that can and in the end seems to be trying more to parody "The Incredible Hulk" than make headway with anything different. The denouement is weak and surreal on just about every level, too. Just because Rose Glass decides to feature loads of turbulent female bonding and making out doesn't make this worth watching. It just looks like a self indulgent and proud statement of sexuality for the sake of it, regardless of the strength or brutality of the story. People have been making characterful lesbian films in Europe for a century or more, this isn't remotely revelatory. Dark humour? Hmmm - must have missed that bit.