Love lies bleeding: Kristen Stewart's greatest role (review)

ByLeila June 10, 2024June 10, 2024

The actress flies through this strange lesbian thriller with a gently heady charm orchestrated by the director of Saint Maud.

Welcome to 1989, welcome to Lou. A lousy job, a rotten suburb of Albuquerque where everything seems blocked. Literally: when we discover Lou, she manages a shabby gym and is cleaning toilets by plunging her hands into shit… But her life is going to change. When Jackie (fantastic Katy O'Brian), a bodybuilder who wanders across the US, enters the gym, it's love at first sight. Almost as much as the trouble. Because if Jackie and Lou try to (re)build themselves together, they have suffered trauma. And they resurface in the form of Lou's dysfunctional family – her abusive brother-in-law (James Franco) and her abusive father (Ed Harris, wigged wonderfully)…

There are two films in Love Lies Bleeding a battered, hesitant work, which walks on a tightrope and advances to the edge of the abyss. On one side Rose Glass (Saint Maud) shapes a real thriller, a neo-noir with 80s neon lights, influenced by James Cain and David Goodis. Her star-crossed lovers try to escape disaster, fighting against the perversity of the world and the corruption that surrounds them. But the trappings of film noir (the crushing fate, the miserable heroes) are degraded and gradually, Love Lies Bleeding shifts towards the strange, the gory and the bizarre with these images and sounds marked with the seal of the supernatural.

We don't really know where we're going but we could go until the end of the night to follow Lou, undoubtedly Kristen Stewart's greatest role, incandescent and cool as ever.

Of Rose Glass. With Kristen Stewart, Katy O'Brian, Ed Harris… Duration 1h44. Released June 12, 2024

Leila

Leila is the editor-in-chief at DTmovies, leading the charge with her team to deliver engaging cinema and series content. With a keen eye for emerging trends and a passion for the stories behind the screen, she is the creative backbone that drives the site’s editorial excellence. Her expertise and dedication have established DTmovies as a go-to source for film and series enthusiasts.