Love Lies Bleeding (2024)

There are few things worse in films than when a film tries too hard to be edgy. This fools some of the people some of the time. But...it also shows that the emperor really does have no clothes. Kristen Stewart plays Lou, a gym worker who develops a crush on a female bodybuilder named Jackie. They begin a sexual relationship. Lou's father, played by Ed Harris is the town thug, and her sister is repeatedly abused by her creepy brother-in-law JJ (Dave Franco). Violence erupts and soon everyone is scrambling to cover up a murder. The film starts out interesting enough as it builds the characters. By the second half it has begun spiraling as it shifts between so many tones that you don't know which ones to move with. A lot of unintentional laughs and head scratching get more frequent. By the end it is all out terrible. Another serious problem is the way they treat abuse victims. The very people who are defending her...later in the movie are beating her. This is our hero? Kristen Stewart is a good actress, but Ed Harris is by far the best thing in the movie. The problem is that none of the characters become well fleshed out. None of them are worth hoping for. I don't need my characters I watch to be pleasant, but they need to show some kind of attributes that make them worth following from start until finish.