Rose Glass’s "Love Lies Bleeding"

Tonight’s film is “Loves Lies Bleeding”. Watch it on Max, Hulu, or rent it.

I’m trying a new format for the essay. Also, you can see it in the email now, instead of needing to click a button. Buttons are the enemy, man.

If you prefer your recommendations without commentary, don’t scroll. You have the power to choose.

Two lesbians with lots of steroids and toxic relationships walk into an 80’s themed bar.

• Typecast actors breaking mold. Picture Daniel Radcliffe after Harry Potter (“Swiss Army Man”, “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”). But Kristen Stewart instead.

• Muscles, gyms, steroid abuse. Like these things? This movie has them, ya sicko.

• Graphic, unrestrained thrillers. Writer-director Rose Glass pulls no punches.

Rose Glass’s feature film debut in 2019, “Saint Maud”, was one of those films that never quite leaves you. The film is about religion as an object of obsession, infatuation. The slow burning, psychological horror was not for the faint of heart.

With her romantic thriller, “Love Lies Bleeding”, Glass remains focused on obsession. Here, she’s focused on obsessions of the heart. Of achievement and success. Of strength and power. And, where “Saint Maud” opted to burn slow, “Love Lies Bleeding” explodes. It’s a kinetic piece of filmmaking.

Kristen Stewart puts forth a compelling performance as Lou, a quiet gym manager helplessly infatuated with Jackie, a patron who’s training to win a body-building competition in Las Vegas. The film features memorable turns from newcomer Katy O’Brian, Ed Harris, and a mulleted Dave Franco. Most astounding are the things Kristen Stewart can say with a single glance, without uttering a word.

Obsession doesn’t appear to be some foreign object of fascination for Glass; but rather, something she is intimately familiar with. No matter what her characters pinball towards, Glass is positively obsessive; in control of every detail in the film. The tone, the narrative, the camera work, the energy.

This attention to detail pays off. Glass continues to build an enviable, stylish body of work. One that I’ll be keeping a close eye on.