This Twilight actor’s latest film is guaranteed to be a queer cult classic

June 26, 2024

Summary

Love lies bleeding
is a bold, genre-bending film that exceeds audience expectations and offers a gritty, feminist take on the action thriller.
Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian deliver powerful performances, breathing life into a complex, ill-fated romance that challenges conventional wisdom.
Director Rose Glass creates a visually stunning homage to grindhouse cinema, giving the film an emotional violence and surreal imagery that commands attention.

Anyone interested in film as an art form should be familiar with the term cult classic. These bizarre little films are bold acts of cinematic rebellion and an act of cinematic counterculture. While many of these films are too strange for a wide audience, their offbeat charm often creates a loyal fan base. Unfortunately, the film landscape is oversaturated with blockbuster IPs that overshadow potential cult films in favor of generic superhero content. Many modern directors struggle to escape the studio system, feeling trapped in the corporate production mill. A24 Love lies bleeding stands out as an imaginative triumph in the face of mediocrity.

Directed by Rose Glass, this film is an extremely exciting auteur film that does not seek to fulfill the audience’s expectations. duskKristen Stewart and relative newcomer Katy O’Brian are an ill-fated couple on the run. Love lies bleeding has no interest in being pigeonholed into a particular genre, and proves bizarre even in A24’s already oddball lineup. Combining gruesome violence with soulful romance, this vicious thriller may be the darkest love story ever told. Love lies bleeding is unashamedly queer and feminist and yet presents itself as a powerful thriller as befits a classic grindhouse theater. The genre whirlpool of “Glass” may not fit into the current media zeitgeist, but this strange face-smasher still has undeniable cult status.

Love Lies Bleeding is an unusual romance

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As a genre, love stories often exclude queer viewers from their audience. Films like The notebook or silver linings Playbook center around cishet couples, and explicitly queer romance novels don’t usually get the same attention as their straight counterparts. Despite stellar reviews, LGBTQ+ romance novels like The most beautiful season And Fire Island were relegated to streaming instead of being released in theaters. Even gay romance films with a higher profile, such as Brokeback Mountaintend to fixate on queer pain. Love lies bleeding has no interest in hiding his LGBTQ+ identity for the masses. Instead, it is a celebration of true love in a cruel world.

In Love liesKristen Stewart plays Lou Langston, a gym owner who tries to keep a low profile. She wants nothing more than to escape the violent lifestyle of her father Lou Sr., a notorious gun runner. Everything changes for Lou when she falls in love with Jackie Cleaver, an ambitious bodybuilder played by Katy O’Brian. While these characters live in a world marked by male cruelty, Love lies bleeding does not take advantage of their suffering. While both women are trapped in a violent patriarchal system, Their relationship inspires them to fight against misogynistic oppressionHowever, the romance between Lou and Jakie is not without conflict. Love lies bleeding visualizes the complexity of their dynamics through his unique imagery, mixing genres as a metaphor for queer acceptance.

As a director, Rose Glass deliberately constructs her film to be reminiscent of hard-hitting crime thrillers, albeit with a subversive twist. Love lies bleeding combines authentic harshness with dreamlike phantasmagoria and delves into the surreal with gruesome results. Jackie’s desire for the perfect body manifests itself in several eerie fantasy sequencessome lean toward cosmic horror. Her otherworldly visions seem deliberately out of place in such a sordid world, and offer a powerful analogy to the character’s flawed self-image. Tormented by dysmorphia, Jackie sees herself as a danger to the people she cares about. Lou loves her anyway, however, as she is entranced by Jackie’s ethereal strangeness. This opposing aesthetic serves to take the concept of queer acceptance literally and offer a fresh take on a boring genre.

Love Lies Bleeding breathes new life into Grinhouse Cinema

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Fans of sophisticated films will recognize that Love lies bleeding was born out of love for the exploitation genre. Inspired by cult thrillers such as cruise And Woman 45Rose Glass creates a seedy environment filled with unrelenting violence. Her characters are hardened by necessity and willing to do anything to survive their cruel circumstances. Love lies bleeding is a brutal film that features gruesome images worthy of the most sadistic works of the genre. Glass’s fascination with human viscera is no less than that of David Cronenberg, and she has no interest in appeasing potentially squeamish viewers. These stylistic choices serve the film’s thematic purpose, as Rose Glass wants to reconstruct the gender politics of exploitation cinema.

Exploitation films are not exactly known as feminist works of art. As a genre designed to provoke traditional audiences, these sleazy trash films tend to mock good taste. They use shocking imagery for cheap thrills, works like Death wish brutalize their female characters to motivate their male protagonists. In doing so, these films affirm conservative values and glorify their main characters as avatars of male heroism. While perhaps less overt than their predecessors, modern exploitation cinema still tends to refute progressive ideals. S. Craig Zahler, a new auteur in the genre, has been accused of incorporating regressive themes into films such as Bone Tomahawk. Love lies bleeding aims to provide a much-needed female perspective to this kind of macho filmmaking.

While many filmmakers pay tribute to exploitation films, Rose Glass refuses to settle for directing an empty homage. Love lies bleeding is a profound piece of feminist pulpand frees the genre from the clutches of misogyny. Lou and Jackie drive this story forward, despite the oppressive men in their lives. While the violence is horrific, it does not rob the characters of their autonomy. Glass’ film is about women who successfully overcome abuse, and yet she understands that this abuse does not define these individuals. Kristen Stewart’s performance serves Love lies bleeding’s progressive aspirations and elevates her role beyond that of a helpless victim.

Love Lies Bleeding is carried by two phenomenal stars

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Kristen Stewart is one of the most talented actresses of our generation, despite her unjustified controversial reputation. Many still associate the actress with Dusk’s lifeless Bella Swan, but Stewart is so much more than that dour performance. She has received much praise for her work in the 2010s and even received an Oscar nomination for 2021 Spencer. Love lies bleeding offers Stewart one of her strongest rolesgiving the actress a chance to finally shine in the action genre. Lou is the kind of leading lady that requires Stewart’s typical blend of introverted charm and understated charisma. Her performance is a perfect contrast to relative newcomer Katy O’Brian, as the two are a romantic couple for the ages.

Love lies bleeding’The film’s greatest strength is the relationship between Jackie and Lou, which relies entirely on the heartwarming chemistry between the leads. Fortunately, both actresses are more than up to the task. Katy O’Brian may not have as much film experience as her co-star, but she proves to be just as talented. While Lous is an emotionally distant loner, Jackie is a fiery woman who hides her vulnerability. The two complement each other perfectlypushing each other out of their respective comfort zones. O’Brian brings out a softer side of Stewart’s performance, revealing deeper layers of her partner. Their romance is not superfluous, but the core upon which the narrative’s ethos depends.

Love Lies Bleeding deserves a cult following

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Cult classics are more than bizarre cinematic curiosities, they are examples of creative rebellion. Today, big-budget film production mostly produces corporate-driven blockbusters that lack soul. The audience is keen to see fantasy on the screenespecially those who are looking for fresh representation. While mainstream cinema serves heteronormativity, cult films like But I’m a cheerleader explore queer culture with skill and sensitivity. These idiosyncratic curiosities explore topics that other filmmakers don’t address, and do so in entertaining and deeply unconventional ways. Love lies bleeding is a proud example of auteur filmmaking excellence and has all the hallmarks of a future cult classic.

Rose Glass is a force to be reckoned with, and her latest film is sure to find a huge fan base. Love lies bleeding has all the characteristics of high-quality cult cinemathat blends a plethora of genres with stylistic elegance. Both passionate romance and surrealist pop art, this grisly thriller reconstructs the exploitation genre through a distinctly feminist lens. While this type of story is usually rooted in toxic masculinity, Stewart and O’Brian command the screen. The relationship between Lou and Jackie is delicate but enchanting, acting as a beautiful metaphor for the nature of acceptance. Unfortunately, audiences seem to have missed Love lies bleedingbut hopefully time will be kind to this peculiar cinematic gem.