A Modern Day Suspense Noir

(041124) Love Lies Bleeding is a gritty, raw, sleazy, erotic neo noir film that is filled with nudity, horrible violence, and repulsive characters. It's also extremely exciting and darkly compelling tale of a woman with some potential for a good life trapped in a seedy environment that encourages her to criminality. She tries to stay on the straight and narrow but things go awry when she becomes intimately involved with a female body builder with terrible luck who serves as an unintentional femme fatale.

The film was put out by my favorite current film company A 24 which has also released such acclaimed films as Past Lives, Uncut Gems, Moonlight, Hereditary, Lady Bird, the "X" series of films (X and Pearl) and Everything Everywhere all at Once. A24 is to cinema now what Vertigo was to comics in the 90s. If they put out a film project if it is not a modern classic (many of their films are) it is at least innovative, groundbreaking, and interesting.

Because of its often-graphic portrayal of sexuality, the Machiavellian machinations of the characters, and its retro setting it reminded me of John Dahl’s thrillers like Red Rock West (1993) and The Last Seduction (1994). It's reminded me so much of Dahl’s work that it made me yearn for him to return to film; unfortunately he has not made a feature since 2007-opting instead for the occasionally TV project. Love Lies Bleeding is directed by the very promising and talented up and coming British film maker, Rose Glass who made the critically acclaimed horror flick, Saint Maude which was on some critics’ 2019 top ten best films of the year lists.
 

We kind of know what we are in for when early in the film the camera pans in on a close-up of the cover of Macho Sluts, a collection of BDSM short stories by Pat Califia. The book title was at one point considered for the title of the film but the film makers probably decided that title would have made it less marketable.

The film benefits from a heartfelt and seemingly effortless lead performance from the sometimes-underrated Kristen Stewart. True, she was terrible in the cinematic sewage that is known as the Twilight series (2008-2012) plus the completely unnecessary 2019 remake of Charlie’s Angels. But she was surprisingly good in both The Runaways (2010) playing Joan Jett and also in Spencer (2021) playing Princess Diana. Furthermore, she was completely magnificent in the two films she made with the French film maker, Oliver Assayas: Clouds of Sils Marie (2014) and Personal Shopper (2016). He clearly knows how to bring out the best from her.

Stewart plays Lou, a lesbian who had an excruciatingly rough life growing up, and she has spent most of her life surrounded by filth, violence and moral depravity. She was usually under the thumb of her evil, gun toting arch criminal father who regularly beats up his weak-willed mom. Lou is largely estranged from her dad, but she hangs around to protect her mom but the best thing for her would be to run as far away as she can.
Ed Harris plays Lou’s dad as a very bizarre and contradictory character. He sports a hair style that makes him look like he came from the 1970 lineup of Yes, he loves old classic vehicles, and he has a passion for collecting large insects (the little idiosyncratic character twists in the film help elevate it). He is ridiculous even when he is frightening, and he’s as much a product of his era as the dude in The Big Lebowski. I have to acknowledge that Harris comes off as instantly sleazy and wonderfully devious.

As good as she is, Stewart is almost outshined by the physically impressive Katy O'Brien who is excellent playing Lou, a psychologically unhinged competitive body builder. Because of her muscular body she is often used in sci-fi, action and superhero films. Genre film and TV fans might already know her from her work on The Mandalorian. Antman: Quantumania, Agents of Sheild and the CW's Black Lightning. O’ Brien makes us identify with and feel sorry for her character even after she does horrible things.

Lou pays her bills by managing a crummy, low-class fleabag gym. She is smitten the minute she sees Jackie a mysterious woman with an exquisitely sculpted body in the gym. The two hit it off and have a torrid sexual encounter which leads to Lou allowing Jackie to live with her (the worst decision in her life.) Jackie is a wanderer who hitchhikes across the country. She eventually wants to end up in LA so that she can fulfill her dream and enter a body building contest. But events seem to conspire against her success. It seems like Lou’s life is temporarily getting better once she gets into a stable relationship with Jackie. But then her girlfriend who is always half out of her mind on steroids kills a man in a moment of rage and Lou must cover up the crime.

In a traditional film noir (or noir-ish) film there is often a competing love interest that tries to either take or at least offer the male protagonist who is in danger on a "better path". She is usually depicted as the beautiful faithful and a desirable alternative; Jane Randolph in the 1943 Cat People is virtually the archetype of this. This plays out here with a twist here when another woman named Daisy is introduced, establishing the love-triangle. She has a massive crush on Lou. But Lou is not interested in her at all and the two have zero chemistry so Daisy essentially blackmails Lou into becoming her girlfriend while Jackie is out of town, but Lou might be just stringing her on until she figures out what to do. This is of course not an ideal way to start a relationship. Unfortunately, Daisy is filmed in an extremely unflattering manner with ugly, discolored teeth and you can completely understand why Lou would choose Jackie over her. It helps that the actress who plays her, Anna Baryshnikov is completely without charisma or any sex appeal in the role, but she has these qualities in abundance in some of her other roles.

As the film progresses and the bodies pile up, we begin to suspect that Lou’s romantic choices might cost her freedom or even her life. We get the feeling that like the protagonists in classic noirs like Detour and Double Indemnity, that she is on a downward spiral and is either unable or unwilling to change her course.

The soundtrack is also effective and it has a mixture of big hits and cult classic songs. Its title was taken from the popular Elton John song, Funeral from Friend (Love Lies Bleeding), and the film contains several well used songs from that seventies’ musical titan. The film also makes wonderful use of “Hamburger Lady” a song by one of my favorite obscure cult bands: Throbbing Gristle. The song which is about a man who wakes up after a car crash and overhears the doctors talking about how he has been terribly disfigured and it is used appropriately enough when Jackie arrives in Las Vegas and is about to experience her own personal disaster.

The conclusion of Love Lies Bleeding is a slight letdown and the film ends like a balloon that is slowly losing its air, and it does not offer a true resolution. But this is still one of the better recent suspense films, and noir film fans will probably appreciate how the film plays with and subverts the genre if they can stomach the frequent profanity, blood and nudity. Kids should of course stay away.