Love Lies Bleeding, GFF24, review by Pat Byrne
Love Lies Bleeding GFF24 Opening Gala
Fasten your seatbelts, folks as sex, drugs, violence and bitterness explode onto the screen in Rose Glass’ movie ‘Love Lies Bleeding’. Rose Glass’s second film, following her debut, the critically acclaimed Saint Maud, was the choice for the Opening Gala at GFF24. It premiered at Sundance and the Berlin International Film Festival – this unique, fast-paced, tense and brutal movie was an exciting choice to open the festival.
The main character is Lou (Kristen Stewart), who manages a seedy gym, where she meets and starts a tempestuous relationship with Jackie (Katy O’Brian), a destitute but ambitious body builder with her eyes set on winning a competition in Vegas. Coincidentally Jackie is about to start working at a shooting range run by Lou’s father (Ed Harris) a – violent criminal, who plays low key sinister to perfection – make up and hair need also to take a bow.
Lou’s family cause her a lot of pain and she particularly worries about her sister (Jena Malone) who suffers at the hands of a hateful abusive husband (Dave Franco). Love and hate sit in disharmony throughout the movie and blood flows with the extreme methods chosen to resolve risky relationships and threats of disclosure. It says a lot for the talent of writers Rose Glass and Weronika Tufilska, plus the brilliant acting by Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian, that amidst all the brutality, somehow the tenderness of the young women’s relationship is captured.
Love Lies Bleeding is an absorbing bloodbath. It’s not a dark comedy but has a clever quirkiness with some scenes creating high anxiety with a tiny tinge of amusement creeping in. I won’t forget that cat lapping at freshly spilled blood as the police sit nearby. And, the final scene played out, dark as it was to a degree, uneasy laughter could be heard in the cinema.
Love Lies Bleeding (2024)
Director: Rose Glass
Screenwriters: Rose Glass, Weronika Tofilska
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian, Dave Franco, Ed Harris
This section: Cinema, Events, Fairs, Festivals and Fundraisers, Film reviews, Film Reviews, Glasgow Film Festival 2024
Related Pages
- Paisley Food and Drink Festival 2024
- Nights at the Round Table, Paisley Book Festival
- Living Rent Glasgow Soul DJ Night
- Imagine Something Different – 5th Paisley Book Festival kicks off on 25 April, 2024
- Halo Make Your Own T-Shirt Workshop
- Youth Screening: Grey Gardens at GFT
- If Only I Could Hibernate
- Fantastic Machine at GFT
- Bleeding Love at GFT
- Sometimes I Think About Dying at GFT
- Glasgow May Day 2024
- Special Screenings to Mark Anniversary Year at Glasgow Film Theatre
- The Lives of Others – 35mm, Special 50 Anniversary Screening GFT
- Cinema Paradiso – Special 50th Anniversary Screening GFT
- Jean de Florette + Manon des Sources (Double-bill) – 50th Anniversary Screening GFT
- Late Night: Escape from New York
- Fellini’s Roma + Introduction
- Take 2: Kids Animations: Why’s the Sky Blue?
- Billy Connolly’s Big Banana Feet at GFT
- At the Volta with James Joyce, GFT