Love Lies Bleeding

Director: Rose Glass
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Katy O' Brian, Jena Malone, Anna Baryshnikov, Dave Franco, Ed Harris
Running Time: 104 min.
Rating: R

★★★ (out of ★★★★)  

While A24's wild and exhilarating Love Lies Bleeding takes inspiration from of darkly comic, noirish thrillers like Blood Simple and Bound, it also manages to feel like a grittier, far superior alternative to what Ethan Coen couldn't pull off with the recent Drive-Away Dolls. It starts slowly before taking what would otherwise be considered B-movie material to a higher level than the elevated trash suggested by its plot description. Gloomy and violent, it also has a wicked sense of humor, with co-writer/director Rose Glass taking a stylistic approach ideally suited to all the pulpy madness that unfolds. 

Much of its success can be attributed to the leads, each of whom give magnetic performances that only grow more absorbing as the story's complications multiply. After initially playing her cards very close to the vest, Glass teases at serious trouble before flying off the rails in fresh and exciting ways, cornering us into awkwardly rooting for these troubled lovers in over their heads.

It's 1989 in a rural New Mexico town when Crater Gym manager Lou (Kristen Stewart) encounters Oklahoma native Jackie (Katy O' Brian), a bisexual bodybuilder passing through en route to a competition in Las Vegas. Disturbed by her sister Beth's (Jena Malone) marriage to physically abusive sleazebag J.J. (Dave Franco) and constantly hit on by clingy friend Daisy (Anna Barishnikov), Lou quickly bonds with Jackie, supplying her steroids.

Before long, Lou and Jackie are in a relationship and living together when Lou discovers her new girlfriend began working as a waitress at her estranged father Lou Sr.'s (Ed Harris) gun range alongside J.J. As the F.B.I. trails Lou for information about her dad's sordid criminal past, a traumatizing event sends her over the edge, causing a protective, chemically altered Jackie to take drastic action. All this leads to a big problem that desperately needs cleaning up before Lou Sr. handles it first. 

When we first meet Lou she's unclogging a toilet and evading Daisy's sexual advances so Jackie's presence couldn't be more welcome. Stuck in this depressing town while managing a dingy gym that lives up to its "Crater" moniker, it's no wonder she's instantly intrigued. It's not like there's much else to occupy her in a place barren and lonely enough for residents to commit crimes out of sheer boredom. 

For the withdrawn Lou, Jackie's initially calm, supportive demeanor proves a welcome respite from the violent insanity that's defined her family. Sleeping under highway overpasses on her way to Vegas, Jackie proves she'll do whatever it takes for cash and accomplish her goal of not only entering this bodybuilding competition, but winning it. And we immediately get the impression she could.

As Lou deals with J.J. regularly beating the hell out of her sister while the feds lurk, a single crime  changes everything. Glass and Weronika Tofilska's script wisely holds back in revealing too much about Lou Sr., even if Ed Harris's casting is strong enough a clue. With his creepy, quietly menacing presence and long, stringy skullet, it's obvious that whatever Lou Sr.'s into is unimaginably bad. Those complaining Harris is too old for the role are probably right but few could play this kind of part better.   

It's hard to argue Stewart's quirky but effortlessly cool persona isn't used to its fullest potential in smaller, more daring projects like this. She again proves up to the task as Lou holds a lot back until a series of circumstances cause her to completely boil over. But the surprise is O' Brian, who's subtly terrific as a woman whose dreams of making something of herself are both enhanced and derailed by this relationship. 

Even those familiar with real life former bodybuilder O' Brian from her more restrained role in The Mandalorian will have a tough time identifying her because she's so unrecognizably jacked. And Glass definitely takes full advantage of that, lingering on close-up shots of expanding muscles and bulging veins as Jackie's roid rage leads her down a path that feels lifted from the old Incredible Hulk TV series. Like Lou, she yearns to prove her family wrong, if only they even cared. Now her world revolves around a competition she may not even make it to, but revealing more risks spoiling the film's most humiliatingly uncomfortable scene.

The last act is a thrilling cat-and-mouse game that forces Lou to finally break a poisonous lifelong cycle. Lou Sr. knows the power he wields, and if push comes to shove, eliminating his own daughter isn't off the table. With a grungy mood and atmosphere that feels dead on, Glass takes some big swings that could have seemed derivative with a less talented filmmaker at the controls. It also has some tricks up its sleeve, like a moment in the closing minutes that defies explanation by asking viewers to abandon all pretense and take a leap as gigantic as one of its characters. It shouldn't work at all, yet somehow does, convincing us this is the ride we signed up for all along.