PREMISE
Gym manager Lou falls for Jackie, a bodybuilder who is passing through town en route to a competition in Las Vegas.
THE GOOD STUFF
K-STEW- I seem to be on an island in the fact that I am very much a fan of post-2014 indie film juggernaut Kristen Stewart. She (like Dakota Johnson) is an actor who is built for spunky unpredictable little films such as this, and in these roles, she tends to be as relatively fearless as anybody in the game right now. There’s never an uncomplicated moment in a Stewart performance in an independent film and this is really no exception.
I wouldn’t exactly call this a commanding performance. I wouldn’t exactly call this a likable character. What I can say about her in this film in particular is that there is a collection of scenes that are varying shades of high intensity and vulnerability and she knocks every single scene that she’s in out of the park. Sometimes you can have a good performance even when the story is….well…. I’ll get to that in a second.
KATY O’BRIEN- The real highlight of this film is an incredible breakout performance from Katy O’Brien. Yes, I know that she’s been working for a couple of years now, but never has a film really highlighted her indelible screen presence quite like this. She and Stewart are magnificent together.
Also, It is very clear from watching this movie that it is O’Brien who should be playing EVERY FEMALE SUPERHERO FROM NOW ON. All of them.
THE BAD STUFF
Generous empathy- So there are certain movies out there that walk a fine line between creating a clearly psychotic villain, and a villain that is making reasonable decisions based on his surroundings. A reasonable person cannot condone the actions of the Ed Harris character in this film, or anything like that… But there are a number of scenarios where the intelligent audience member may be asking what the hell is this man supposed to do other than to do other than some gangster s***?
This is a movie in which the villain of the piece gives every single person who crosses his path the option to work with him, as opposed to crossing him directly. And to a fault this film has nearly all of his offers make some sense…. In a way.
When villains are portrayed this way it does make your heroes either look foolish or selfish for defying these offers, and your story has to justify those decisions before those decisions are made in my opinion. This film doesn’t do that.
THE RUNNING TIME- A common complaint with filmgoers these days is that movies are too long, and have a lot of fluff. In the case of something like DUNE: PART TWO I can understand that complaint. sprawling epics usually do have egregious shots and scenes that can be axed. However, when you are dealing with a small-scale film such as this one you need every minute that you can get. Why? Because with films like this, you can end up telling stories that have characters with not enough backstory to justify the really stupid decisions that could potentially ruin their lives.
The second act of this movie has a character do something bats*** insane that the story does not build them up to justifiably do. It’s just so….random. So many things in this movie are just random as hell.
THE UGLY STUFF
THIS F****** ENDING- Folks, I’d heard about how “open to interpretation” this ending was since it premiered at Sundance all the way back in January. But….
I’ll just say that it’s the WTF-iest possible way to end this thing. And it’s kind of annoying that the tension to build up to this climax was so well done only to come up with… THAT?!?
The ending is atrocious. It’s not artistically done, it’s not open to interpretation, it’s f****** really stupid. And the characters don’t make realistic decisions based on their circumstances.
**************
Sometimes you just have to balance the ratio of good to bad stuff in order to make a review for a film like this. Performances and direction go a long way. Harris, Stewart, and O’Brien are very good. So it is worth your time, but you do have to turn your brain off at a certain point. Â
LOVE LIES BLEEDING is in theaters now
