Love Lies Bleeding (2024) Movie Review

Love Lies Bleeding is a neo noir crime drama released in 2024 and directed by Rose Glass. It stars the divisive Kristen Stewart and the action girl newcomer Katy O'Brian, alongside Ed Harris and Jana Malone.

Its trailer shocked and surprised people who thought that low budget indie crime thrillers were not being made anymore, at least not with enough refreshing elements to create enough noise and anticipation. The film also promised another relatively mainstream lesbian relationship that shatters conventions, Bound (1996) being the last previous film of its kind to do it to this scale. 

Did it deliver? Let's see.

In 1989, gym manager Lou (Stewart) meets beefy bombshell Jackie (O’Brian), who has been travelling in order to win a bodybuilding contest. They begin to date and their relationship and personal issues intertwine with the criminal organization run by Lou's father.

Unusually grungy, dirty and stylish neo-noir oddity, composed of corporeal obsession and savage impulses of sex and violence, love and hate. Love Lies Bleeding is a recent watchable outing in the alternative cinema field the Hollywood system has provided over the years, offering a very crude and somewhat delirious story that might puzzle some. Similar to Bound in many respects but increasing the extravagant elements of the story and adapting it for modern audiences.

Stewart actually works her way out of her typical blandness, to be fair, I think her method is fine in certain films and the disheveled, depressed, unemotional character she interprets here plays to her strengths. That's not to say she is dull, she delivers more nuanced emotions than in her usual roles, while still managing to stick to her understated style. Katy O’Brian has been a favorite of mine ever since I saw her work at Lucasfilm and Marvel, so I am glad they are able to use her more extensively here. Katy has great chemistry with Stewart and both are not only a cute couple but also create an interesting contrast in many ways.

Carefully controlled compositions, elaborate camera work, impressive production design and some good looking cinematography decorate this thrilling storyline and fluidly express the intended emotion/tone of each and every scene. The filmmaking is top notch by itself but the flaws are present and somewhat prominent. For example, the film drags during its middle part, it has the stereotypical and misguided representation of abusive relationships Hollywood uses (I can excuse it here because it's thematically important, speaking about family and people who you love but also hurt you) and the surreal scenes are somewhat useless or just odd without much weight to them overall.

It's a solid movie but hardly one that's unskippable. I think it's decently executed, the technique is more than competent and the premise was intriguing but it ran out of fuel and wasn't as hard hitting in it's emotional aspect or plot points/revelations as it should have been. A good time but it’s perhaps not a masterpiece. It also features female bodybuilder representation and lesbian themes done in a very organic manner.

Night Train (2023) Review

Night Train is a 2023 crime action movie directed by Shane Stanley. Stanley is a filmmaker who specializes in mid budget TV and direct to video/streaming products of the action variety, in fact, Night Train and his previous movie titled Double Thread (2022) were both action vehicles for actress Danielle C. Ryan (Fire City: End of Days, Survivor) and both flicks were written by CJ Walley. 

This poster is a total lie by the way.

Holly (Danielle C. Ryan) is a single mother in Hollywood working for the teamsters who finds herself delivering black market medical supplies to meet ends, normally she works in movie productions and barely makes a living to support her sick son. FBI agents soon catch up to her, among them the disheveled and troubled agent Jaylynne Jackson (Diora Baird), so Holly must evade them in order to give her child a brighter future.

The definition of a soporific TV movie of the week destined to become streaming service filler without much interest. I cant says it's a horribly made movie, it's a watchable and slightly more genuine product than average but none of that redeems the overabundance of cliches, idiotic moments, weak comedy, flat direction and lack of a strong central conflict that could bring everything together, at least a functioning one. 

There's nothing truly special about the main character, there's a very light attempt at trying to give her interesting characteristics like a love for speed, but none of that comes handy or goes anywhere other than the fact that she has to drive a lot in the last act. Danielle delivers a good performance and simply does what's needed, nothing particularly notable. 

The rest of the characters are also plain but Jackson is actually the most refreshing out of all of them, simply because instead of just being a tough and harsh FBI agent she is also dealing with an alcohol addiction and a messy personal life, issues that end up affecting her job. It's not an aspect that the film builds substantially upon, aside from the overly dramatic climax, but one can also appreciate it for being a worthwhile addition to the formula.  

It's also better if you don't think of Night Train as an action movie, not even in the early The Fast and the Furious sense, because this is more of a chase movie in the third act with small glimpses of crime movie tropes and scenes here and there. 

Stale and cheap (both narratively and budget wise) this one is really only for completists. While there is potential and talent I believe there needed to be more exciting plot beats and to give into the tropes of the genre instead of trying to ground it into a honestly uneventful plot. Even though I would have wanted a straight action movie, I can still appreciate the feminist attitude, the dimensions added to the female FBI agent, the solution to the conflict without violence and the low key scenes that actually end up working but it's not something I could consider solid enough to recommend.

Sheroes (2023) Review

From Jordan Gertner, the producer who brought you The Virgin Suicides and Spring Breakers, comes an action adventure crime movie starring Isabelle Fuhrman, Sasha Luss, Wallis Day and Skai Jackson. Instead of a prestige picture or a highly commercial action blockbuster Jordan decided to give us the spiritual successor of one of those nineties Andy Sidaris cinemax skin flicks but for the modern days of streaming services, and without the sex. 

Four lifelong friends (Diamond, Ezra, Ryder and Daisy) go to Thailand and arrive at a vacation estate belonging to Diamond's father. They have an unpleasant encounter with local criminals and back at their home they find a bag with cocaine, instead of getting rid of it they decide to snort it. The next morning they realize one of their friends was kidnapped by the drug dealers the coke belonged to, this leads them to a search for their friend throughout Thailand. 

The film gives out desperate attempts at trying to "be cool" and crass, filled with gratuitous profanity and fake "girl talk" with irrelevant slang and forced party scenes that feel awkward because of the stiff acting and rather underdeveloped characters. It's all kind of arbitrary and unfocused, there's no true center to the narrative, not much of an emotional core to the story, it's simply a bunch of cardboard cutouts, very stereotypical characters, going through the motions of a pseudo-comedic action storyline without caring all that much. 

The comedy is sort of lazy and stale because the film never gives proper time for the characters and the ambience to set in, it goes by so quickly that the actions are put forward instead of the characters, which negates a lot of the comedic potential the script could have had if it wasn't so premature at dishing out jokes. 

Having said all that, I sort of enjoyed this one. Yeah, it's dumb as heck but it's also so incredibly childish and juvenile that it genuinely feels like either an immature and unimaginative 14 year old girl wrote this movie and decided to put everything she thought was cool in it or a 50 year old white guy wrote it, no inbetween. It's the kind of silly movie that doesn't feel afraid to be so and sticks to its cheeky and unapologetic tone, sort of like a very low budget version of the Charlie's Angels movie mixed with Taken references and a Hangover-like premise. It's charming if you are open to that sensibility in a more vulgar and direct fashion than before.

I think the cinematography is very worthwhile for a production of this kind, there´s solid compositions here and lot's of very good-looking primary colors that shine in the refined scenery. The protagonists all have distinguishable looks that inform their characterization and give you a good grasp on who they are just based on their appearance. It's not badly shot but it also doesn't look very much like a polished A-grade flick, so don't expect blockbuster tier technical proficiency, proof of this is the somewhat rough echoing sound design and some awkward or flat directing choices from time to time, not to mention the cheap graphics and CGI special effects. 

Another interesting aspect is how much it alternates between being an exploitation film and not delivering the exploitation elements one might expect. Just when you think it's going to get misogynistic it turns it around into a subversive counterattack. Like when the blue haired girl faces a seemingly unstoppable fighter who initially puts up resistance but eventually she defeats him, or when the movie promises a crude lapdance only to abruptly break it with a "cutting-the-dick off" type of threat on a bad guy. It's so strange how it deals its cards, it knows what it's doing and how to turn it around just enough to be seen as both sleazy and slightly more grounded and pseudo-feminist in the shallowest sense. It’s hard to tell what the intentions are.

As I mentioned before, it's simply likable as an amateur attempt at making a Spring Breakers type of movie by the way of Andy Sidaris. Not bad on that front. It's sort of dull at moments but one can find it mostly entertaining because of its constantly impudent attitude and self-aware angle. Horribly shoddy in some aspects, which may alienate some viewers, but if you like trashy films then this is for you. 

It’s a good kind of dumb sleepover movie like DOA (2006) or Charlies Angel’s  (2000).