The first reviews for Love Lies Bleeding are piling in, and the critics agree that Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian have chemistry for days. Directed by Rose Glass, this erotic noir thriller follows a gym manager (Stewart) who follows in love with a body-builder (Stewart) as the two embark on a “genuinely hot” romance that leaves a trail of bodies in their wake.
As you can tell by the excerpts below, Love Lies Bleeding has critics transfixed by the two leads and the film’s all-consuming vibes that will apparently “torment” you in all the right ways:
Kristy Puchko, Mashable:
There are movies that grab you by the throat. There are movies that punch you in the gut. Love Lies Bleeding is both, and I f*cking love it. From the mind of Rose Glass, writer/director of the 2020 stunner Saint Maud, comes a queer romance that’s as packed with thrills as it is with raw sensuality and dazzling star power. Come for Kristen Stewart sporting a DIY mullet and a dirty mouth. Come for Katy O’Brian (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania‘s scene-stealing warrior princess Jentorra) flexing not only her muscles but her range as a beguiling bodybuilder with a perm as big as her dreams. Come for Ed Harris and Dave Franco in roles both comedic and nerve-rattling. But come.
Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com:
At first, “Love Lies Bleeding” feels like a relatively straightforward noir with the outsider in Jackie almost stumbling into decisions that can’t be reversed. It’s been compared to “Drive” and “Thelma & Louise,” but there’s also a bit of the great “Red Rock West” and other films about strangers who get stuck in the small town they just wanted to spend a night in. When a shocking and gory act of violence forever alters Jackie & Lou’s relationship, “Love Lies Bleeding” really picks up steam, pushing its characters into increasingly tight spaces from which violence may provide the only escape.
Kate Erbland, IndieWire:
It’s the pair’s crackling chemistry — which Glass funnels into a series of genuinely hot sex scenes that more than prove the necessity for such sequences in films that hinge on actual human romantic relationships — that drives “Love Lies Bleeding,” an alternately alluring and excruciating crime thriller that also smacks of body horror and midnight movie thrills. Glass, who previously earned scads of instant fans with her “Saint Maud,” again tackles the human body as a vessel for pain, pleasure, and so much more.
Brianna Zigler, Paste:
The ultimate, simple thesis of Love Lies Bleeding is embedded within its form from the very beginning. At the onset of the film, you are plunged into a world of all-encompassing sound. The horrific squelch of a blocked toilet, the slurp of a milkshake into a mouth guarded by browned nubs, the crack and squish of teeth biting into the hard shell of a beetle; the fantastical crunch of veins bulging beneath skin after a shot of steroids, the crack of a head against a glass table until it breaks open like an egg. The tactile world Glass has crafted is just as immersive and erotic in its design as it is physically between her two lead lovers.
Owen Gleiberman, Variety:
“Love Lies Bleeding” turns wild and garish, and you may think the film is losing control, yet Rose Glass is fiercely in control of what she’s doing. She’s made a midnight noir that shoots over the top of our expectations but lands where it should, at a place where even valorous people have to go to extremes.
Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times:
“Love Lies Bleeding” has superb technical style. We can hear the muscles rippling under Jackie’s skin, and the ominous difference between quiet and airless. Cinematographer Ben Fordesman shoots the movie like a prestige noir. At night, the desert blacks are as dense and mysterious as the La Brea Tar Pits. But Glass herds the tone toward comedy, teasing us to admit that Lou and Jackie’s predicament is funny. … Then again, “Love Lies Bleeding” isn’t really about love. It might not be about anything besides Glass’ own urge to poke and prod audiences to remember the kinky delight of movies that leave us dangling. The torment is delicious.
Love Lies Bleeding is now playing in theaters.
