Love Lies Bleeding (2024), Queer Noir

Between the 1920s and 1930s, Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett took crime out of the luxury mansions and brought it back to the streets. In creating the Hardboiled Fiction, crime was now not a matter of bored aristocrats (a la Agatha Christie) but of spoiled daughters of renowned aristocratic families, entangled with gangsters and involved in vice, blackmail and murder. People killed out of jealousy and not because of boredom or trivial motives; instead of exotic Indian poison, vulgar lead bullets were used to solve problems, and the main character - the private detective - acted as a witness to the facts and was the moral beacon of the story, even if his ethics were flexible when it came to protecting the innocent.

One of the most characteristic elements of the Hardboiled Fiction (and of Noir Fiction, its next stage of evolution where there are no longer private detectives with whom the reader can sympathize) there is one that stands out, and that is the Femme Fatale. The "vamp" who seduces men and clouds their reason, manipulating with her sensuality the will of those who fall into her web. They drive their lovers to kill their fathers, their husbands, and all those who bother them. Goddesses of immeasurable beauty, skin-deep sexuality and a thrilling voice that dazzled the unsuspecting as if it were the song of a siren.

At first Love Lies Bleeding (2024) has all the characteristics of a Noir Fiction. More specifically, one by Jim Thompson, who liked to set his violent passion dramas in lost small towns as in his novel Pop. 1280 (1964). A town in New Mexico, a crime family that controls shady business across the border, a femme fatale, and a naïve person who will be bewitched to satisfy his most violent desires. But the novelty is twofold: the femme fatale is not a sexy, voluptuous woman, but a skinny, sweaty, disheveled local gym employee (Lou Langston, played by Kristen Stewart). The hitman / gangster / haunted love on duty is a gorgeous, huge bodybuilder, a passing amazon who would do anything to make a few bucks (Jackie Cleaver, played with utmost ingenuity by Katy O'Brian). Lou has chemistry with the Jackie twice over: not only as a matter of powerful physical attraction (their amorous encounters border on the explicit) but because the amazon - who is on her way to a bodybuilding contest in Las Vegas - is soon corrupted by the diminutive woman as she has access to a vast arsenal of steroids. That not only immediately enhances her musculature but increases her aggressiveness, and makes her dependent on her provider. And with her mind clouded by the drugs, she soon begins to commit impulsive acts, such as going on a rampage against the abusive J.J. (Dave Franco), the husband who beats the crap out of Stewart's character's sister (an unrecognizable Jena Malone). What is at first an act of solidarity with her lover soon turns into a huge headache, as J.J. was the right-hand man of Lou Sr., Stewart's character's father and the one who controls all the illegal businesses in the region. Lou Sr. is played by Ed Harris, an old man with long hair and who looks creepy like the host of Tales from the Crypt. Already the relationship between father and daughter alternated between mean and indifferent - and not because she's a lesbian, but because she never agreed to get involved in the family business, not to mention the doubts she has about the unknown whereabouts of her mother -. So Lou decides to dispose of J.J.'s body in his father's “garbage dump,” a huge vulva-shaped chasm in the middle of the desert, which is carpeted with the corpses of Lou Sr.'s enemies. Meanwhile Daisy (Anna Baryshnikov), Lou's occasional lover / full-time stalker, has seen the facts and now plans to blackmail her for her undivided attention... which is, by all accounts, a lousy idea. All this forms a conjunction of antagonistic forces that, sooner or later, will collide in the worst possible way.

If there is something that has characterized A24, it is its way of thinking outside the box. It is not only an indie voice, but one that sponsors projects that are truly different, innovative, a breath of fresh air in an industry that is hell-bent on generating a plethora of mediocre and extremely expensive products, the overexploitation of Intellectual Property, and the complete absence of a creative compass that allows it to generate different films. A24 has given birth from Civil War to Ex Machina, from Euphoria to Everything Everywhere All at Once. They are encouraged to experiment, and what's better, most of the time it works out well.

In this case, they backed this project by Rose Glass (director of Saint Maud, 2019, a horror film with lesbian connotations). Glass sets her sights on Noir Fiction, giving birth to something I would dare to call Queer Noir. The scenes of passion between Stewart and O'Brian are equally or more ardent than those of William Hurt and Kathleen Turner in Body Heat (1981), a classic of the genre that caused a stir at the time. But here it's not a choreography of passionate bodies covered in sweat, but real, raw, wild passion. People agonizing over their mediocre lives, their lack of future and their desire for a moment of supreme pleasure. But it is also a toxic relationship with an unpredictable ending, as the continuous supply of steroids is driving O'Brian's character crazy to the point of all sorts of mental lapses and hallucinations. What will happen to the diminutive gym employee when the stock of steroids run out? Or what will happen, on the other hand, when the steroids end up permanently unhinging her lover? In a hallucination she may mistake the Stewart for an enemy and may snap her in half like a toothpick.

But Glass is not only interested in analyzing the ins and outs of a lesbian relationship that will eventually become toxic; it also has a feminist agenda where the protagonists represent women's empowerment through resilience and violence. In a man's world, these women can be crueler than men. They are not after money, they want to earn their freedom. While many of these ideas are accomplished, integrated into the film's aesthetic and narrative, it is in the final minutes that Rose Glass loses control of the helm. What was a taut thriller with an unpredictable ending suddenly becomes ridiculous, as if it were a superhero movie. You get that O'Brian is hallucinating more and more often - she transforms into a giant mass of muscle a la The Incredible Hulk (the 1978 series with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno), in the most WTF scene in the whole movie - but, by the end, the battle against Lou Sr. becomes absurd. It's five minutes that ruin a terrific film, where Glass' symbolism gets out of control. Skip that scene and you'll see that Love Lies Bleeding works beautifully by its own rules and with its novel vision of forbidden romances and ultraviolent criminals in a lost New Mexico town. A highly recommended film for its unorthodox, innovative and modern take on a classic genre.

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Other articles this month:

• From Superman to Diabolik: Europe Doesn't Believe in Superheroes (in Spanish, challenge: What would the story look like from the villain's point of view?)
• Clint Eastwood, archetype of modern anti-heroes (in Spanish, Challenge: The rise of antiheroes)
• “What kind of American are you?”, Civil War (2024) (in English; challenge: My 2024 WTF Cinema Moment).
• The Honeymoon Killers (1970): the original Folie à Deux (in English, challenge Outlaws Couples)
• Love Lies Bleeding (2024): Queer Noir (in English, challenge Fresh Focus Cinema)