In Love Lies Bleeding, a vial full of steroids becomes the first cautious proof of love between two women. One is the gym manager Lou (Kristen Stewart) and the other is the bodybuilder Jackie (Katy O’Brian). She can really use the growth hormones because she wants to get on stage at a competition in Las Vegas and triumph among the muscle-bound competitors.
The film by Rose Glass, which is now in cinemas in Germany, shows the emerging relationship between the two women in the 1980s. However, their love is swallowed up by the ugly depths of the small town somewhere in New Mexico where Lou and Jackie meet. Like Love Lies Bleeding from a physical love story to a pulp thriller of shocking excesses of violence is an exciting and thrilling trip.
Love Lies Bleeding with Kristen Stewart captivates and beguiles
At the beginning, Rose Glass mainly observes Kristen Stewart’s Lou, who has been condemned to be an outsider in the small town as a lesbian woman. The former Twilight star plays the main character as withdrawn and plagued by a lot of frustration, like a human pressure cooker.
Jackie turns out to be the valve for letting off steam. For the director, the tramp is initially more physical than a character. Ben Fordesman’s camera explores every pumped-up muscle of the bodybuilder with the awed and excited look of Lou away.
Watch a trailer for Love Lies Bleeding with German subtitles here:
Love Lies Bleeding – Trailer (German subtitles) HD
The aforementioned vial of steroids eventually sparks a whirlwind romance between the two. Carefully separating egg yolks to keep the fat content lower for Jackie’s omelette is the kind of passion that Love Lies Bleeding celebrates.
But Lou keeps secrets that are slowly trying to break out. Also entangled in the manageable network of characters full of memorable hairstyles are Lou’s father (Ed Harris), who runs a shooting range and is involved in criminal activities. And Lou’s sister Beth (Jena Malone), who suffers from the attacks of her violent husband JJ (Dave Franco).
At the beginning of the film, Jackie takes a job with Lou’s father to earn money, without knowing the family situation. When the situation between Beth and JJ, who also works at the shooting range, escalates, the bodybuilder finally turns into Lou’s extended arm. At this point, we won’t reveal what exactly happens. However, the violence, some of which is very explicit, will surprise and disturb many people.
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Love Lies Bleeding
There is a surreal bubbling under the surface of Love Lies Bleeding
When Jackie tenses her growth hormone-boosted muscles, her body swells so much that as if she were a member of the Marvel Avengers. There is also a surreal sequence in which the bodybuilder Kristen Stewart’s character pukes and Lou lies on the floor covered in slime like in an Alien film.
Does Lou need Jackie to fulfill her unfulfilled desires and brutal frustrations? Or is Lou the driving force that pushes the bodybuilder to unprecedented heights? Love Lies Bleeding combines both ideas into a tense neo-noir showdown that brings the thriller part of Rose Glass’ film and the stormy romance to a furious extreme.
Love Lies Bleeding is now showing in German cinemas.