Kristen Stewart Is Higher Than Ever In Thrilling Crime Romance

Rose Glass made a giant splash with Saint Maud, her directorial function debut that warped actuality and deeply unsettled with its horror parts. Her second function, Love Lies Bleeding, which she co-wrote with Weronika Tofilska, is not any much less riveting because it follows a fitness center worker with a darkish previous and her bodybuilder girlfriend who turn out to be mired in crime and carnal obsession. The movie has acquired lots of fashion and its touches of magical realism, whereas they don’t at all times work, make for an intense and violent love story that retains you invested within the final result of its characters.

Kristen Stewart & Katy O’Brian Have Scorching Chemistry

Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian are completely unbelievable collectively. Their chemistry is palpable. Theirs is a passionate type of love, one the place they’re prepared to do absolutely anything to guard one another, even when which means resorting to violence. As Lou, Stewart has tapped into an power that’s all her personal. She’s humorous, her comedic timing impeccable, always shocked and awed by O’Brian’s Jackie. She’s restrained, but open and sometimes unhinged. Lou is snug in her pores and skin, however no much less risky. This side elevates Stewart’s efficiency and provides her an air of sexual prowess and energy.

O’Brian’s portrayal reveals off her bodily tenacity and vary. As soon as Jackie begins taking steroids, her fuse is way shorter, and he or she goes to nice lengths to make sure Lou is protected. O’Brian’s character goes by a plethora of feelings all through the movie and her muscle tissue begin to actually pop and enlarge at varied factors, including to the will and wish Jackie has for Lou. With such a bodily demanding position, O’Brian actually delivers on all fronts. Her rage is plausible and her frustration perceptible. Jackie can be susceptible, and O’Brian is ready to delve deeper emotionally with each look and motion.

Love Lies Bleeding Is Tense & Gripping

The operating theme of the movie is obsession — with the physique, with an individual, with revenge, and righting perceived wrongs. Whereas obsession is on its thoughts, and the end result it might result in, Love Lies Bleeding tackles a large number of themes, every to various levels of success. Apart from Lou and Jackie’s relationship, which drives a lot of the narrative and stirs up drama, the movie explores dysfunctional and abusive household dynamics. However it’s Lou’s relationship along with her father, Lou Sr. (Ed Harris), that stands out, particularly contemplating its direct ties with Jackie and the rationale Lou could be so protecting.

The household dynamics are much less sturdy than Lou and Jackie’s relationship, so when the movie shifts to give attention to Lou’s sister and father, it doesn’t at all times land, particularly since we’re solely supplied glimpses into the previous and the extent of Lou Sr.’s legal historical past. The A24 movie’s ending’s try to deliver every part collectively isn’t as sturdy as the primary three-quarters of the movie, and it may have benefited from a extra stable finale contemplating all that got here earlier than, however it nonetheless works.

Love Lies Bleeding makes up for its weaker factors with its visible fashion and ferocious sexual rigidity and motion. Glass leans into the fantasy side, blurring the traces of actuality as solely she is able to doing. It makes every part all of the extra surreal and thrilling because the story builds suspense and issues develop extra precarious between Lou, Jackie and Lou Sr. The movie could be exceptionally gripping and chaotic as Glass takes a no-holds-barred method with out sacrificing the story and characters. The movie’s message is evident, and the director executes her imaginative and prescient with talent and euphoric enthusiasm.

The movie has rather a lot going for it — standout performances, an thrilling story, and an all-consuming romance. Crucially, Glass has a powerful storytelling fashion and with solely two options below her belt, she’s established herself as a filmmaker to control. Love Lies Bleeding is virtually guttural, and the feelings that snatch every character are uncooked and unfiltered. With motion, crime, and romance mingling and constructing towards an explosive and interesting finale, the movie is an exhilarating journey from begin to end.