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Sometimes quiet towns need a disruption. Someone or something to uncover all the dirt that covers everyone’s secrets. LOVE LIES BLEEDING the second film from Rose Glass introduces the world to Jackie (Katy O’ Brian) a body builder who has stopped into this small town on her way hitchhiking to Vegas to compete in a championship body building competition. What Jackie doesn’t realize is now all eyes will be on her in this quiet but ruthless town. It is hard to blame them though as Glass’s fully gnarly and queer film spends a great deal of its time examining Jackie’s body glistening with each grunt on a machine. Glass lets us know from the start that this is a film full of blood sweat and tears and its quitting is for quitters attitude is just one of the corny but all so exciting takes on obsession and physical extremities. Another person Jackie catches the eyes of is gym owner Lou (Kristen Stewart) wand the two’s instant attraction sets this film off like gangbusters as it dives deep into the Americana trash full of gun trafficking, grisly murders, and some gnarly 80’s shredding that would have She Hulk grinning. LOVE LIES BLEEDING premiered to uproarious approval at its Sundance Film Festival screening and it quickly becomes apparent why. Here Glass shows us once again she is a singular voice that even in its moments of playfulness still finds a way to lift that extra weight and make you gaze at the muscular sight in front of you.

Jackie and Lou two beings that feel constantly on the run have a connection that while sweet at times is all about the physical connection. Katy O’ Brian as Jackie is a star and the camera loves her. As she flexes every muscle Stewart’s Lou becomes the audience as we gaze in both amazement and lust. Jackie and Lou’s relationship hits a snag though when Jackie starts working for Lou’s dangerous father Lou Sr. (a wicked Ed Harris). Lou has believed she has tried her best to stay away from her dad and his dangerous criminal activities but much like the cigarettes she keeps failing to quit she also cannot break free from her father. This is also due to the fact that her brother-in-law JJ (Dave Franco) works for her dad and spends the rest of his time physically abusing his wife Lou’s sister Beth (Jenna Malone). Lou knows she is staying around to keep her sister safe even if she is failing at that as well. This doesn’t bode well for Jackie who with every pump and now steroid injection knows there is only one way to stop men like JJ. The film may have some heavy roots in a queerer version of “Thelma and Louise” but there is still a unique portrayal of Jackie and Lou’s relationship. For starters very rarely do we see someone of Katy O’ Brian’s physical stature get to have intense sex scenes on camera. To some it may not seem groundbreaking but unless you browse the shelves of Kim’s Video or Forbidden Planet you are not finding buff women getting to well fuck on screen. When the useless debate on if sex scenes are necessary (they are) continues on BLEEDING is a great example of how so much connection and depth can be put onto two characters just through physical interaction. After all this is a movie about a body builder and body builders move every inch of their body for some form of pleasure, why would that stop at the bedroom. Stewart and O’ Brian are a joy to watch in every scene physical or not these two create a chemistry that allows for the films stranger moments to always feel grounded in gigantic displays of love.

Thankfully Rose, Stweart and O’ Brian set up their relationship earlier on as it allows the film to dive more into its area of American crime. Certain moments you can see coming from afar but that doesn’t make its execution any less thrilling. A sudden altercation shows that this film wants to relish gruesome imagery but never to a point of cheap attempts at shock and awe. No nearly every blood soaked moment is done out of passion but for its characters and Glass as a filmmaker using her two leads to greatly show how they both as characters and performers are willing to go. Stewart isn’t asked to don the physicality of a professional body builder but with her growing muscles, short almost mullet like hair she as an actor gets to fully embrace her gay identity something rarely given to her in other roles. Her constant horniness for Jackie is never treated as slight but rather a woman from a smalltown who finally finds someone she can enjoy herself with in ways she probably never could before.

The film produced by A24 may have some of the staples now known from both the studio and modern movies begging to become midnight movies. There is the neon cinematography from Ben Foresman, a Clint Mansell score and tons of dream like images that will leave many rightfully laughing along while others are left pandering if its clever or just obnoxious. Thankfully sometimes things can be both. LOVE LIES BLEEDING feels ripped from the pages of dollar rack pulp noir books. But all of it feels appropriately attached especially when given its 80’s setting which was a time of excess and pop culture digestion. Some of the film’s strongest moments comes when it playfully expands on established pop culture ideas, seriously it is now impossible to think of the Hulk or the bionic woman and not connect it to Jackie’s character. Even its body building turned extreme violence energy feels like if Van Halen actually wrote a queer ballad. Not every character needs to be a walking and dressing 80’s cliché but when those moments come out its quite humorous and still respectful to the two leads so desperately trapped in 80’s perversion.

Swinging for the fences seemed to be the game plan as the film finds its way to a more extravagant but peculiar finale. It isn’t as left field as one may think if they’ve been observing Jackie from the moment she steps on screen but it is exciting to see Glass willingness to go as far as she chooses. It’s a film less destined to become a cult classic and more like those off kilter dvds you couldn’t wait to show your friends growing up. The kind you had to wait for mom and dad to go to bed so you can watch what you felt was a “dirty movie” only this time around you get to experience a unique and still up and coming voice that clearly has big ideas on her mind. Rose Glass is certainly lifting above her weight and the shape she is forming is all the more pristine.

A-

LOVE LIES BLEEDING HAD ITS WORLD PREMIERE AT THE SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL. IT WILL BE RELEASED IN U.S. THEATERS MARCH 8 FROM A24