"Love Lies Bleeding" directed by Rose Glass is a romance on steroids that makes you sweat instead of cry. It is also a revenge movie, surprisingly combining brutality with seductive vintage aesthetics.
In a provincial American town of the 1980s, gym manager Lou (Kristen Stewart) falls for the mysterious Jackie (Katy O'Brian) - a hyper-ambitious bodybuilder who dreams of winning a competition in Las Vegas. The candy colors and the rustle of nylon tracksuits do not mask the omnipresent violence committed by local gangsters, led by Lou's father (Ed Harris). When the family cesspool bursts, the girls get to work cleaning it up. But blood stains are as difficult to remove as lies and bad memories.
Bloody, sexy and unpredictable "Love Lies Bleeding" from A24 conquered audiences at Sundance and Berlin. Rose Glass, known for the well-received "Saint Maud", proves with this that she creates surprising cinema that breaks all script rules, and that she can play with film like Tarantino. Written together with the Polish Weronika Tofilska (director of the Netflix hit "Reniferek"), it is a hypnotizing thriller full of desire and fascination with a muscular body, beautiful and dangerous at the same time.
