My spoiler-free review of Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian’s modern neo-noir queer romance! (I loved it)

In Rose Glass’s new lesbian crime film Love Lies Bleeding, romance blossoms and bodies drop underneath a veil of cigarette smoke and adrenaline. Reminiscent of the Wachowski’s 1996 neo-noir Bound, the film follows two women, Lou (Kristen Stewart) and Jackie (Katy O’Brian), who somehow find each other in a sea of toxic masculinity and wife-beaters. Jackie is new in town, and hasn’t found a place to live yet, so within 12 hours of meeting each other, it’s already agreed upon that she’ll move in with Lou (classic lesbian relationship timeline). Between dinner with Lou’s sister and her sister’s abusive husband and a new job waitressing at Lou’s estranged father’s gun range, Jackie is thrown headfirst into the middle of Lou’s dysfunctional family dynamics. 

The film explores the depths of passion, of love and lust, how quickly it bubbles up into rage, and it uses steroids to signify heightened emotions or even a heightened plane of existence. Stewart and O’Brian breathe life into their characters, giving Lou and Jackie a supercharged and electric chemistry that Glass then masterfully captures with close-up shots and off-angles to communicate the height of their desire. There is an easy intimacy between them, as Lou prepares eggs the way Jackie likes them, they take care of each other and the two bond on multiple levels.

There has been a lot of discussion in online spaces recently about sex in cinema and whether it’s “necessary,” to which I can only respond with a sigh. I myself am a fan of neo-noir erotic thrillers that bask in and explore the sexual tension in the noir genre that was forced to be sanitized during the Hayes Code era noirs of the 40s and 50s. Especially in the case of female pleasure, since in classic noir women only used their sexuality as a weapon, not a source of pleasure. Classic film noir femme fatales only truly lusted after money and power and cared very little about emotional or interpersonal attachments (which emphasized certain fears amongst men during those decades). In films like Basic Instinct, Body Heat, and The Last Seduction, that tension is explored, and the femme fatale gets to relish in her sexuality, which causes the inevitable betrayal in favor of the aforementioned money or power to have more emotional impact. Bound then represents a departure from that norm in that the sexual relationship between Corky and Violet, two women, is consummated and the femme fatale keeps her promise to her lover. All this to say, Love Lies Bleeding revives the greatness of the post 1970s, pre-2000s neo-noir thriller genre in its willingness to relish in the eroticism and passion between the characters. 

The femme fatale image has existed throughout film history, with noirs, “vamps” in the silent era, and even prior with Victorian gothic literature and all the way back to Greek mythology. What Love Lies Bleeding does is interrogate that image. When presented with Jackie, we see a beautiful woman, with a mysterious air and something intoxicating that draws us closer to her. All classic femme fatale traits. When she takes off her (very cute) (bisexual flag colored) jacket and we see her working out in Lou’s gym, her strength is clearly highlighted, in the way she carries herself as well as her impressive psychique. I haven’t personally ever seen a femme fatale also exist as a bodybuilder, but I found it to be extremely compelling and especially empowering. Often in the early noir era, the femme fatale’s lack of physical strength could be instrumental in her downfall. This very literal “buff” of the classic character type, combined with the inherent queerness of their relationship, revises a classic image while simultaneously creating something brand new. She is not catering to the “male gaze” or fitting into any one ideal of how women should look, she doesn’t make herself small and she’s anything but weak. It’s something that’s not seen often in films of this caliber, so it’s really special when something like it comes around.

Rose Glass is an extremely talented filmmaker and Love Lies Bleeding utilizes incredible storytelling, characterization, chemistry between actors, and beautiful imagery. At its core, it’s two competing stories; Lou and her past vs Lou and the present/future she wants for herself. I really enjoyed Glass’s feature film debut Saint Maud, and I’m even more impressed that she was able to follow it up with an outing that, in my opinion, exceeded the greatness of the first. Glass and Stewart make an excellent pair, both bouncing off the others’ strengths to create a piece of work that is genuinely special. I Highly recommend seeing Love Lies Bleeding if you are interested in films about lesbians or queer women, muscular women, crime thrillers, Kristen Stewart, dramatic and all-consuming romance, or men getting their asses handed to them. I wouldn’t say the film is for everyone, but for the audience it seeks, it’s a masterpiece. No sophomore slump here— and I can’t wait to see what Rose Glass chooses to do next.

xxx
kendall