General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Love Lies Bleeding

Love Lies Bleeding is a 2024 romantic crime thriller directed by Rose Glass, co-written with Weronika Tofilska, in which a reclusive New Mexico gym manager named Lou falls for Jackie, an ambitious bodybuilder passing through town on her way to a competition in Las Vegas, and their relationship pulls both women into the violence surrounding Lou's criminal family¹. It stars Kristen Stewart as Lou and Katy O'Brian as Jackie, with Ed Harris, Dave Franco, Jena Malone, and Anna Baryshnikov in supporting roles¹. The film is Glass's second feature, following her 2019 debut Saint Maud².

Key fact	Detail
Director and writers	Rose Glass, co-written with Weronika Tofilska¹
Principal cast	Kristen Stewart (Lou), Katy O'Brian (Jackie), Ed Harris (Lou Sr.), Dave Franco (JJ), Jena Malone (Beth), Anna Baryshnikov (Daisy)¹^•³
Release	US limited release March 8, 2024, wide March 15; New Zealand release March 14, 2024¹^•⁴^•⁵
Runtime	104 minutes⁶
Setting	Small-town New Mexico, 1989⁵
Production	UK/US co-production by An Escape Plan, A24, and Lobo Films, supported by Film4 and the BFI⁶
Reception	94% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (272 reviews); Metascore 77 on Metacritic⁷^•⁸

Spoilers

Plot and premise

Lou is the surly manager of a grimy gym in a small New Mexico town, estranged from her father Lou Sr. (Ed Harris), a local crime figure who runs a shooting range and a corrupt gun-dealing operation²^•⁹. Jackie (Katy O'Brian) arrives heading for a national bodybuilding competition in Las Vegas, and the two begin a passionate relationship that starts, in the Associated Press reviewer's description, with an injection of steroids and a kiss⁹.

Violence follows. Jackie puts a face-smashing end to the attacks of JJ (Dave Franco), Lou's brother-in-law, who brutally abuses his wife Beth (Jena Malone), Lou's sister¹⁰. Murders and cover-ups then draw Lou into closer orbit with the father she resents⁵^•⁹. The New Zealand Classification Office describes the film as a crime thriller in which murders and cover-ups happen as Jackie, en route to her competition, becomes romantically involved with Lou⁵.

The 1989 setting

Glass set the film in 1989 for two stated reasons. First, a pre-internet, pre-social-media world heightens the isolation of both women, misfits from different small towns who have not found their people; when they cross paths, there is recognition¹¹. Second, 1989 was the year before anabolic steroids became illegal, so the film carries a naivety in how the drugs are handled¹¹. Glass has also described the pairing in generational terms: Jackie embodies the excess of the 1980s and Lou the nihilism just before the 1990s, a love story between a romantic and a cynic¹¹.

According to the British Film Institute's Sight and Sound review, the film was originally set in Scotland and was switched to the United States for scale¹⁰.

Production

The film is a UK/US co-production from An Escape Plan, A24, and Lobo Films, supported by Film4 and the BFI, produced by Andrea Cornwell and Oliver Kassman⁶. Ben Fordesman was director of photography, Katie Hickman production designer, Mark Towns editor, and Clint Mansell composer⁶. It premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in the Premieres section and had its international premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival⁶. A24 released it in the United States, with Protagonist Pictures handling sales⁶.

Glass said she wanted, after Saint Maud, to make something more visceral: "I wanted to make something kind of fun and sweaty and violent," and she has described the writing process as spontaneous and slightly experimental¹²^•¹¹.

Style and genre

Critics have placed the film in several traditions at once. The Associated Press called it a heaving, hyper-sexy neo-noir, a pulpy, fable-like lesbian crime thriller⁹. Sight and Sound described a pastiche of amour fou, roid-rage vengeance, and small-town-gangster melodrama, with smash cuts and amped-up sound, and noted a streak of power-of-love cartoon surrealism in which Jackie swells in height and muscle mass after venting violent urges¹⁰. The WBUR review found it starting like a rural neo-noir of the era in which it is set, lifting elements from the Coen brothers' Blood Simple and James Foley's At Close Range, before blossoming into something much stranger and all its own¹³.

The film's violence is graphic and stylized. The New Zealand Classification Office, which rated it for brutal violence, domestic abuse, sex scenes, drug use, and offensive language, describes characters shot at near point-blank range and a murder in which a victim's head is repeatedly slammed against a table⁵. In the United States the Motion Picture Association rated it R for violence and grisly images, sexual content, nudity, language throughout, and drug use⁹.

Reception

The film opened to broadly positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 94% Tomatometer from 272 reviews and an 81% audience score; the critics consensus reads, "Lust and violence collide to powerfully pulpy effect in Love Lies Bleeding, a well-acted addition to writer-director Rose Glass' growing body of exceptional work"⁷. Metacritic assigned a Metascore of 77 based on 53 critic reviews, with 83% positive and no negative reviews⁸.

Reviewers singled out the two leads. The Associated Press called the film tantalizingly close to the idealized Kristen Stewart film, while noting that heavy doses of melodrama and flashy surrealism sap some of its lurid spell; it gave three stars out of four⁹. Sight and Sound praised O'Brian's chemistry with Stewart while finding the characters at times vessels for drama and energy¹⁰. The audience summary on Rotten Tomatoes notes that the film takes big risks toward the end that will not pay off for everyone⁷.

Home release

After its theatrical run the film became available to rent or buy digitally, including on the A24 App, Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, and Fandango At Home, and A24 issued a special Blu-ray and 4K edition with a filmmaker commentary from Glass and Tofilska, two featurettes, and six collectible postcards¹^•³.

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 2023–2024 films

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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