Written and directed by Rose Glass who also gave us the weird and disturbing Saint Maun. Love Lies Bleeding was a movie that I really had to have my arm twisted to go and see. I was actually going to skip this movie entirely, but I got the chance to go to an early screening of it and when I found out that one of the leads was Katie O’Brian who was in The Mandalorian, I decided to give it a try.
How to Download Love Lies Bleeding
Love Lies Bleeding was released on March 8, 2024. You can expect the film to become available on Max about two months later. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and check the availability.
The Movie Review
Kristen Stewart’s Captivating Performance in Love Lies Bleeding
Is there an actor or actress that you have a hard time clicking with even though you know they are super talented? For me, it is Kristen Stewart. She is very talented and I can see why people love her, but she is an actress that has put me off watching some things. Perhaps it is the whole Twilight thing as I could not stand those movies…. Sorry to you Twilight fans! I do not think she is a bad actress at all and her performance in Love Lies Bleeding is captivating.
The Gritty 80s Setting and Compelling Plot
However, I do have to say that she is an actress that I feel is very similar in every movie I have seen her in. It is really hard to describe and it is a totally personal thing. Anyway, back to the movie. The fact that the movie is set in the 80s was kind of cool and the whole movie has this kind of gritty look to it, almost like a filter or a smoke machine was used to give it the grimy look that it has.
The Intense Dynamics of Lou and Jackie
Love Lies Bleeding is a movie of three parts. The basic premise of the plot is that we have this gym owner called Lou who is played by Kristen Stewart. Lou has had it really rough her whole life as she grew up in a crime family and she is dealing with some major damage due to the stuff she has experienced in her life.
She meets a woman called Jackie who is played by Katie O’Brian. Jackie is a bodybuilder and she is making her way to Vegas to compete in a show. Katie O’Brian was in phenomenal physical condition. She was already in amazing shape, but here she is so ripped and she looks so intimidating.
The first part of the movie is basically Lou and Katie developing this very sexual, hot, and dysfunctional relationship. I liked this stuff, you could tell that these two were not “good” people right from the start, but you still want it to work for them. Actually, Love Lies Bleeding is the kind of movie where it is very hard to say for sure who is a good person as most of the people in this movie are bad or at the very least do bad things!
The Crime Thriller Turn and Unexpected Ending
The movie kicks into high gear and it becomes a brutal and violent crime thriller type of movie. We find out more about Lou’s family and the level of violence here was kind of shocking and something that I did not expect. This is a movie that does not hold back when it comes to the violence and it is one hell of a thrilling ride when the crap starts to really hit the fan.
Then we get to the third part of the movie, the final act. I love A24, but A24 does some really weird stuff and I am going to put Love Lies Bleeding right up there with the weirdest stuff I have seen from this studio. I am not going into spoilers here, but what goes down at the end of this movie is just so strange that I was kind of stunned when it went down. There were legit people laughing their asses off in my theatre!
Love Lies Bleeding was a movie that I did not really care to see, but for 80 percent of the movie, it had me hooked. I liked our two leads and the supporting cast (even Ed Harris with his hilarious hair) were great too. However, that ending was just so odd and out of left field that it is probably the only thing people will remember or want to talk about. It is a real shame too as if they had not done that crazy thing at the end, this would have been one of my biggest surprises of the year.
