LOVE LIES BLEEDING. Love in the Time of Bodybuilding

“Girl power” has been thriving in cinema in recent years—not only due to the #MeToo movement, but also because numerous films about women’s strength are released annually. The quality of these productions varies, but Rose Glass’s “Love Lies Bleeding,” one of the opening films at this year’s New Horizons festival, certainly stands out as a work that tackles the “girl power” theme in an original and spectacular way.

Known primarily for the psychological horror “Saint Maud,” Glass, who co-wrote the script for “Love Lies Bleeding” with Polish writer Weronika Tofilska (known for “Baby Reindeer“), transports us to the American countryside at the end of the 80s. There, in a run-down gym, a romance begins between Lou (Kristen Stewart), who works there, and aspiring bodybuilder Jackie (Katy O’Brian). Lou is stuck in small-town lethargy due to family problems involving her older sister, while Jackie is a drifter fleeing Oklahoma, dreaming of competing in a bodybuilding contest in Las Vegas. Despite seemingly coming from different worlds, both find a chance to fill the emptiness in their souls through their passionate romance. However, anyone expecting “Love Lies Bleeding” to be a dull lesbian love story will be quickly surprised, as the plot involves both crime and long-overdue justice.

In Rose Glass’s film, exclusion has a twofold dimension, particularly illustrated through Jackie. Although we don’t learn much about her past, in conversations with Lou, she admits that both her sexual orientation and her muscle-building passion made her an outcast and forced her to leave her family home. Her apparent freedom—lack of attachment to any one place, ability to adapt to new conditions and locations—stems from the social exclusion she faced due to her family’s lack of acceptance. Although Lou hasn’t experienced the same, she yearns to join Jackie’s adventure of freedom because she herself is trapped in a dysfunctional family relationship, stuck for years in a spiral of violence caused by her father (Ed Harris in a disturbing and repulsive role) and brother-in-law (Dave Franco playing against his usual type). It quickly becomes apparent that “Love Lies Bleeding” won’t be a queer melodrama but rather a genuine thriller, where the blossoming love between the two women will, as the title suggests, be paid for in blood.

“Love Lies Bleeding” portrays love in an unconventional way. The excellent, neo-noir style cinematography by Ben Fordesman often focuses on the body, not only during romantic moments but primarily on the bodybuilding aspect, expressed through sweat and muscle tension. The harshness of the dingy gym where Lou works and Jackie trains symbolizes the rawness of Glass’s entire work. Despite a cast full of stars, “Love Lies Bleeding” remains true independent cinema, with all its “grittiness,” uncompromising nature (including the portrayal of violence), and formal freedom. For Glass’s film, which mostly adheres to “dirty” realism, also leaves room for elements that are, well, not entirely of this world. However, you’ll have to discover these elements for yourself during the screening.

“Love Lies Bleeding” carries a rebellious spirit reminiscent of classics like “Bonnie and Clyde” or “Natural Born Killers,” but calling Glass’s film a queer version of Arthur Penn’s or Oliver Stone’s works would be an oversimplification and unfair to the young director. Instead, I’ll say that “Love Lies Bleeding” is a successful, claustrophobic thriller, which is also an unconventional story about love and exclusion, often catching us by surprise—and sometimes happening simultaneously.