Movie Review: Love Lies Bleeding

Squalor, a miserable terrible job, homelessness, a bleak and poor future, and extreme depression are all realities that are the beginning of the new movie "Love Lies Bleeding". This movie starts with the main character Lou, played by Kristen Stewart, with her arm (while wearing rubber gloves) inside a disgusting clogged toilet bowl trying to fix the clog. Perhaps the dilapidated gym she was working in did not have a plunger? This first scene sets the tone of this movie, which is shocking, at times disgusting, vile, and all about the lowest levels of humanity, including even homelessness.

The story is about the lesbian relationship between Lou, and Jackie a female bodybuilder played Katy O’Brian, who starts to use steroids. It is Jackie’s steroid abuse and the domestic abuse suffered by Lou’s sister Beth, played by Jena Malone from her husband JJ, played by Dave Franco that are the main parts of a story that deteriorates into a Shakespearian tragedy involving multiple murders.

There are several scenes of the intense physical relationship between Lou and Jackie, obviously making this film not for children. While the story is good overall, there are the standard “let’s try and be different” insane and delusional visual scenes that are derived from the gross abuse of Jackie’s constant shooting vials of steroids. Some of these scenes are so crazy that anyone could argue they almost ruin the entire movie. Why try so hard to create visual effects that nobody has ever seen before, rather than just concentrate on the quality of the overall story?

Ed Harris, plays Lou Sr, Lou’s father, who is not only the wealthy owner of a gun shooting range but also has most of the police force under his control. Lou’s horrendous poverty, despite her father’s wealth, is due to their severe estrangement and is a source of numerous scenes of rage and conflict throughout this film.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Love Lies Bleeding are way too high 92%, with my rating at 80%, and a recommendation mostly for the acting and the parts of the story that do not include off-the-wall visual scenes that have no business being in any movie.