We all have that one person: the regifter. No matter what you try to get them, they find a way to repackage or redistribute it because they like the things they like. Hollywood is a perpetual regifter, giving us all sorts of old formulas gussied up in new ways. Sometimes those repackagings are hot garbage, but occasionally, you get something really awesome, like Love Lies Bleeding. Maybe that’s because this particular package comes with Rose Glass and Kristen Stewart…with a mullet.
Kristen Stewart’s got that mullet in late 1980s early 90s New Mexico. She goes by Lou here: a lesbian toiling away as a manager at a local gym. Lou comes alive again when Jackie (Katy O’Brian) saunters into Cheetah’s Gym: oozing bodybuilding hotness. The two become infatuated with each other almost immediately, causing both of them to maybe overlook Lou’s strange home life, or Jackie’s employer (Ed Harris), a gun range owner with a strange affection for beetles.
In a moviemaking world where people push for 2.5-3 hour epics, I admire Rose Glass’s incredible combination of brilliant efficiency making Love Lies Bleeding arc perfectly as a film noir in just about 100 minutes. Each early scene carries multiple purposes, forcing the viewer to pay attention early to understand the key players, and the world they live in. Noirs made today aren’t big city affairs: they are small towns with secrets, filled with haunted/shady people careful to not play their cards right away. In about 25 minutes, Glass really makes us understand Lou and Jackie as people, the world they inhabit, and how interconnected it is. The big moment is given it’s due for sure, but it’s not the be all end all here. Glass gives us the “Punishment” part of Crime & Punishment, showing real consequences for our shipped couple, and the immediate strain and trials their love has to go through. People change, and already messy relationships get messier and messier as we push hard towards the end of our tale. This brisk pace and assuredness of filmmaking purpose give Love Lies Bleeding a momentum it never loses, breathlessly drawing the audience in and never letting go of their heart as it races from moment to moment.
It helps that the movie is cast magnificently. Katy O’Brian is the find of 2024 so far. She’s the straw that stirs Love Lies Bleeding’s drink: an interloper in the town awakening everyone from their uneasy stasis into a new world of chaos and mayhem, while flexing and puppy dog eyeing her way into everyone’s hearts. But Lou will be on the shortlist of Kristen Stewart’s already stellar acting resume. Even Rose Glass the director admits that despite the initial story revolving around Jackie, she kept coming back to Lou and her fascinating, complex arc, probably thanks to Stewart’s enthusiasm inhabiting this character, upending all sorts of noir stereotypes with it. Ed Harris came to play as well, oozing menace and nuance into what could have been a one note psycho in the wrong hands.
If Hollywood’s gonna keep regifting us stories, Love Lies Bleeding is close to the best case scenario. That’s because the movie modernizes the romances and culture while keep the story beats in tact. So instead of Transformers 84 or whatever we’re at now, let’s do more of these please! Asexual romcoms, more gay animated fantasies. New characters means new blood, and new gifts to package, without going to the IP well like a parasite.