Love Lies Bleeding opens with an abstract shot from deep inside a chasm, looking up into the night sky. This shot haunted me as I watched the film and it continued to gain greater meaning as is so often the case in films of any artistic merit. From here the camera careens to a local gym where we meet Lou (Kristen Stewart) who, as we will find out, will experience not just love and lies, but bleeding as well when a new girl rolls into town. Writer and director Rose Glass, with co-writer Weronika Tofilska, spins a lurid tale of star-crossed love, ambitions, and loyalties set against the New Mexico desert. While Glass leans a bit too far into stylistic choices that don’t entirely work, this is a crackling thriller that held its grip on me.

Jackie (Katy O’Brian) is an aspiring bodybuilder and transient who rolls into a sleepy desert town. She gets a job as a waitress at a bar that services a firing range owned by Lou Sr. (Ed Harris). Somehow, to me, the idea of having a bar at a firing range is a questionable choice at best. Regardless Jackie lands work, then starts using the gym managed by the shifty-eyed Lou. The two spot each other and that is all she wrote. Lou and Jackie fall madly, passionately in love. Jackie’s goal is to make it to Vegas for a body-building competition and Lou happily offers anything she can to get her there. Then things go horribly wrong. As it turns out, Jackie’s boss is Lou’s dad. Lou Sr. is being pursued by the FBI. Then Lou’s brother-in-law JJ (Dave Franco) turns up dead. Watching the knot that this film tangles itself up in is as much fun as watching it release.

This is a film of scene-stealing performances. Franco‘s slimy JJ makes you understand murder. O’Brian‘s rough yet vulnerable Jackie fools you into thinking her choices are justified. Stewart‘s Lou is a repressed grifter under the spell of love. Meanwhile, Harris has put himself in the running for another supporting actor nomination as the villainous patriarch attempting to manage a sudden firestorm. I have to say though, that the one that stands out is the forlorn Daisy (Anna Baryshnikov). You can’t take your eyes off of her unhinged, puppy-dog performance.

Love Lies Bleeding is the arrival of Glass as a voice in film. It is the validation of Stewart and O’Brian as formidable actors. It is also the affirmation that Harris is an accomplished character performer with Baryshnikov nipping at his heels.

Going back to the chasm at the beginning of the film, it pretty much sums up the place that Lou and Jackie are in. The two are stuck at a low point with stars in their eyes, dreaming of a way out. While Glass infuses a bit too much surrealism into this otherwise gritty crime romance, it doesn’t ruin the overall film. Love Lies Bleeding is one hell of a good time. There is blood, love, gore, mystery, intrigue, and a touch of romantic fantasy.

7 out of 10