Although I had to look away several times from gore and violence (I am admittedly a wimp), Love Lies Bleeding (directed and co-written by Rose Glass and Wernika Tofilska) was still worth seeing. Let me count the ways:
1. Kristen Stewart has become one of the greatest actresses of her generation. Every performance is sincere, proof of which is that anyone who can seem believable as both a Royal Princess (Spencer) and in this one, a caring and vulnerable red neck is a heck of an actress.
2. Ed Harris kicks ass as an ageing patriarch. A four time Oscar nominated Oscar (my favorite Pollock) actor, maybe this will be his year since he’s also in My Dead Friend Zoe which is already getting some good press.
3. The ensemble was all super solid: Dave Franco, Anna Baryshnikov, and Katy O’Brian and Jena Malone all made the movie seem real.
4. The story is solid: two women fall in love and carry a airplane’s worth of baggage each which inevitably leads to a crash. I like the absurdist trick they did at the fifth killing/torture point. If only every film would show the ridiculousness of violence.
5. The sound, special effects and make up departments all knocked it out of the park, before opening day even (baseball funny or not).
