Boldly taking up space somewhere between early Coen Brothers’ films (Blood Simple and Miller’s Crossing, to be exact), the bulk of Adrian Lyne’s ‘80s output (Flashdance, 9½ Weeks, and Fatal Attraction), and any movie to ever feature a sweaty training montage, sits the uniquely endearing Love Lies Bleeding—the sophomore feature from English director Rose Glass. Part violent crime thriller, part steamy love story, and part Pumping Iron, Love Lies Bleeding certainly wears a lot of different-styled hats that, on paper, probably have no business being anywhere near the same head. But, miraculously, all those hats fit pretty well and are even complementary to one another in ways I doubt you’ll expect.
There’s no denying that Love Lies Bleeding, in many ways, is a rather goofy film—or at least has goofy elements that threaten to derail it from time to time. However, despite these harsh swerves in tone and form—or perhaps because of them—it’s also surprisingly absorbing and wildly surreal in ways that I was happily blindsided by. Its crime family drama foundation may be typical, but the twists and turns it takes on the way to its visually stunning climax are completely out of this world, so much so that by the time it was all said and done, I found myself completely enraptured by what I’d just seen.
The story, which takes place in 1989 among the windswept desolation of the American Southwest, centers on low-rent gym employee Lou (a fantastically mulleted Kristen Stewart), her crime boss father Lou Sr. (an even more fantastically mulleted Ed Harris—seriously, this is an easy mullet of the century contender), and an aspiring bodybuilder named Jackie (a seriously ripped Katy O’Brian) making her way to Las Vegas for a competition. When Lou and Jackie “meet cute,” as it were, an intense relationship is quickly formed between the naive Jackie and the pragmatic Lou, but things don’t stay rosy for long.
Soon, Jackie will have done something drastic that Lou is forced to cover up, which inevitably involves Lou Sr., his sway with local law enforcement, and, of course, the old man’s fantastic head of hair. From here, Love Lies Bleeding quickly goes from a starry-eyed romance between two young lovers to an all-out wild west freakshow full of double-crosses, roid rages, vomit, and violent hallucinatory episodes that evoke the work of David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky in the best ways possible. When the sun finally shines after one hell of a Herculean climax, your mind may have trouble keeping up with what your eyes have just seen, but if that isn’t a ringing endorsement for fans of daring and unapologetic cinema, I don’t know what is.
James is a writer, record collector, wrestling nerd, and tabletop gamer living with his family in Asheville, North Carolina. He is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association, the North Carolina Film Critics Association, and contributes to The Daily Orca, Razorcake Magazine, Mountain Xpress, and Asheville Movies.