Love Lies Bleeding (2024 film)

Love Lies Bleeding is a 2024 neo-noir romantic thriller film directed by Rose Glass from a screenplay she co-wrote with Weronika Tofilska, and starring Kristen Stewart, Katy O'Brian, Jena Malone, Anna Baryshnikov, Dave Franco, and Ed Harris. It is an international co-production between the United Kingdom and the United States. Set in 1989, the film's plot follows the lesbian relationship between a reclusive gym manager, who is part of a crime family, and an ambitious bodybuilder who gets wrapped up in organized crime.

Love Lies Bleeding premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2024. It was released theatrically in the United States by A24 on March 8, 2024, and in the United Kingdom by Lionsgate UK on May 3, 2024. The film received positive reviews from critics.

Plot
In 1989, gym manager Louise "Lou" Langston meets and falls in love with a young woman, Jaqueline "Jackie" Cleaver, who is a bodybuilder working out at her gym. Unbeknownst to Lou, Jackie has just gotten a job at a shooting range owned by Lou's estranged father, Lou Sr. She has also had sex with Lou's brother-in-law, JJ, so he would recommend her for the job. Jackie herself is a vagrant, passing through town on her way to a bodybuilding competition in Las Vegas. Lou offers her steroids. Jackie initially hesitates but ends up using it. Jackie asks to stay at Lou's apartment and Lou agrees.

The pair have dinner with JJ and Lou's sister Beth, who does not fully realize that JJ's actions toward her are abusive. When JJ becomes abusive toward Beth, Lou defends her and threatens JJ. In retaliation, JJ tells Lou that he had sex with Jackie, which angers her. While Lou and Jackie are driving home, Lou forces Jackie out of the car saying that she wants JJ dead, but hurriedly lets her back in the car when two FBI agents arrive. The next day, Lou visits Beth in the hospital, where she has been admitted after being attacked by JJ. Lou Sr. arrives at the hospital and promises to care for Beth. Jackie, emotionally unstable from her continued abuse of steroids, breaks into JJ's home and brutally beats him to death.

A distressed Lou arrives at the scene and admits that she did not actually want JJ dead. The two drive his corpse and car into a ravine, revealed to be the same ravine where Lou formerly helped her father kill his business rivals and dispose of their bodies. On their way to the ravine, Lou's friend Daisy, who is infatuated with her, spots them and notices Jackie driving Lou's truck. The next day, Lou returns to JJ and Beth's home to clean up evidence of the murder while Jackie continues her steroid use, growing more agitated. During an argument, Jackie wounds Lou then leaves and hitchhikes to Las Vegas. During the bodybuilding competition, Jackie hallucinates vomiting a fully grown Lou. This is caused by steroid-induced psychosis and hearing other contestants comment about her weight. In reality, Jackie has vomited on the floor; then, in her psychosis, she assaults another contestant which lands her in jail.

Meanwhile, armed with knowledge of Lou and Jackie's involvement with JJ's murder, Daisy blackmails Lou into a relationship with her. Lou Sr. bails out Jackie and coerces her to kill Daisy, the sole witness to the murder, with a suppressed pistol. Lou and Daisy are arriving at Lou's apartment when Jackie appears and shoots Daisy from behind. In a state of panic, Jackie returns to Lou Sr., only to be knocked unconscious. Lou Sr. calls Lou and tells her that he has arranged for Jackie to go to prison for double homicide, but Lou threatens to expose his operation if he sets Jackie up, causing him to hang up in a rage.

As Lou is cleaning up Daisy's body, she is attacked by Officer Mike, a police officer on Lou Sr.'s payroll, whom she manages to fatally shoot. Realizing her father aims to kill her, Lou bludgeons the officer with a gun and makes her way to Lou Sr.'s manor, where she encounters Beth. Beth has learned about Lou's involvement with JJ's death and denounces Lou, who accepts it. Lou then forces Beth to tell her Jackie's location. Lou frees Jackie and tells her to run, before being shot in the leg by Lou Sr. He tells Lou that her mother is not dead but left because of Lou Sr.'s criminal business and Lou helping him. Jackie arrives, having grown to a gigantic size due to the steroid use, and pins down Lou Sr. Lou shoves a gun into his mouth, but relents and leaves him for the police.

Lou and Jackie drive off, stopping the next morning when Lou realizes that Daisy is still alive in the truck bed despite her near-fatal wound; she nonchalantly strangles Daisy to death and dumps her body in a nearby field while Jackie sleeps.

Cast

 * Kristen Stewart as Louise "Lou" Langston, a reclusive gym manager
 * Katy O'Brian as Jaqueline "Jackie" Cleaver, a rising bodybuilder
 * Jena Malone as Bethany "Beth" Langston, Lou's sister
 * Anna Baryshnikov as Daisy, a woman who is obsessed with Lou
 * Dave Franco as J.J., Beth's husband
 * Ed Harris as Lou Langston Sr., Lou's estranged father

Production
Love Lies Bleeding is a co-production between A24 and Film4. It is the second film to be directed by English filmmaker Rose Glass. Kristen Stewart first mentioned her involvement in the film in March 2022, as she was a fan of Glass' previous work, Saint Maud (2019); her casting was confirmed in April. Anna Baryshnikov, Katy O'Brian, Dave Franco, Ed Harris, and Jena Malone joined the cast in June. O'Brian said in an interview that she had to audition for the part, her first leading role, six times.

Principal photography began in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in June 2022. Production concluded by August 2022.

Release
Love Lies Bleeding had its world premiere in the Midnight section at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2024, followed by its European premiere on February 18 at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival in the Berlinale Special Gala section. The UK premiere was held at the Glasgow Film Festival on February 28.

The film was released on five screens in New York City and Los Angeles by A24 on March 8, 2024, before expanding wide on March 15. Lionsgate UK acquired the British distribution rights to the film in November 2023 and it was released theatrically in the United Kingdom on May 3, 2024.

Box office
Love Lies Bleeding has grossed $8.3 million in the United States and Canada and $2.7 million in other territories.

In its opening weekend the film made $276,618 from five theaters, a per-venue average of $55,324. Expanding to 1,362 theaters the following weekend, the film made $2.5 million, finishing sixth at the box office.

Critical response
Audiences polled by PostTrak gave the film a 78% overall positive score with an average 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote that the film, likely influenced by the works of James M. Cain, Jim Thompson, David Lynch, and the Coen Brothers, "For the most part... manages to transcend its influences enough to remain engaging; sometimes it does something even more interesting with its reference points... Glass borrows liberally but not mindlessly." Saffron Maeve, for the Toronto Star, gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, writing that "Love Lies Bleeding becomes increasingly convoluted [...] But this narrative estrangement is grounded in intention".