Wednesday, 8 May 2024

Love Lies Bleeding - The scoop and digest

Rose Glass co-writes her second feature with Weronika Tofilska.

Kristen Stewart - Lou
Katy O'Brian - Jackie
Jena Malone - Beth
Anna Baryshnikov - Daisy
Dave Franco - J.J.
Ed Harris - Lou Sr.

Summary

Not that it really matters, but like Lisa Frankenstein, film occurs in 1989.

Gym manager Lou meets Jackie, who's making her way to Las Vegas to compete in the finals of a bodybuilding contest.

They soon get acquainted and have sex.

Lou's sister Beth is stuck in an abusive marriage with J.J. who off-screen, hospitalizes Beth.

Unbeknownst to Lou, an emotionally unstable Jackie beats J.J. to death.

They drive his corpse and car into a ravine, we learn Lou formerly helped her estranged father kill his business rivals.

Meanwhile, Lou's friend Daisy uses her knowledge of J.J.'s murder to blackmail her into entering a relationship.

When Jackie goes ape shit in Vegas, Lou Sr. coerces her to kill Daisy.

Lust and violence

Compared to Saint Maud (which I fucking loved btw), I was pretty disappointed.

Performances are good and Clint Mansell's thumping score delivers, but story soon becomes messier than a baby's nappy.

Due to steroid-induced psychosis, Jackie hallucinates vomiting up Lou, smacking of Poltergeist II: The Other Side.  Also, her growing gigantic near the end is presumably a bizarre take on Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.

Anyway, my ultimate bugbear was watching a blatant imitation of the Wachowskis' ground-breaking 1996 lesbian crime thriller Bound.

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