Critics’ reviews

Love Lies Bleeding (2024)

31 reviews from 31 publications. Critics’ score 77: 17 positive, 3 mixed, 0 negative.

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77
Positive
17
Mixed
3
Negative
0

The reviews are warm and the spread is narrow: most critics like Love Lies Bleeding, none dislikes it, and the reservations are modest. Praise gathers first on the two leads. Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian are credited with real chemistry and a romance that feels desperate and physical, and Stewart’s performance is singled out again and again. Rose Glass is admired for keeping control of the excess: the sex scenes, the graphic violence and the neon-lit 1980s setting are what critics enjoy most, with Clint Mansell’s score noted approvingly. The doubts cluster on the writing. Several critics find the plot familiar and leaning on noir conventions, the characters thin beneath the style, and the last stretch either muddled or too tidy. The New Yorker, Time Out and The Ringer sit lowest, with The Ringer finding the climax weightless, and Screen Daily thinks the film is derivative rather than transgressive. A minority also finds it less unsettling than Saint Maud.

The i Paper
3 May 2024 · Christina Newland
90*

The critic hails the film as a masterpiece and a turbo-charged lesbian crime thriller that boldly uses body horror and violence. It roots for the central couple's desperate, horny affair while exploring power, gender and toxic femininity without slowing down.

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Empire
26 March 2024 · Laura Venning
85*

The review calls it a visceral, blood-soaked all-American fable anchored in a swoon-worthy queer romance full of potent eroticism and energy. Glass subverts masculine tropes with a wonderfully gay sensibility and strong chemistry between the leads.

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Variety
21 January 2024 · Critics Pick · Owen Gleiberman
85*

The critic hails the film as a queer romantic noir that goes to extremes, praising its originality, control, and vision of new feminine power. They single out the delirious ultra-violence and gonzo twists while noting Rose Glass remains fiercely in control.

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Little White Lies
30 April 2024 · 4/4/5 · Hannah Strong
80

The critic calls it a Molotov cocktail of lurid, luscious filmmaking from a bright young star, hot, dirty, fast and combustible. Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brien are on fire as star-crossed lovers in this ’80s throwback thriller.

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The Independent
2 May 2024 · Clarisse Loughrey
80*

The critic praises the film's intense portrayal of desperate female yearning for power through a hypnotic, steroid-fuelled queer romance. Stewart and O'Brian deliver standout performances in this macabre fable from the director of Saint Maud.

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The AV Club
11 March 2024 · B · Lauren Coates
77

The review highlights the strong chemistry between leads and O'Brian's standout performance alongside striking visuals, but faults the meandering plot, familiar tropes, and failure to fully live up to expectations set by Saint Maud.

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Evening Standard
2 May 2024 · El Hunt
75*

The review highlights the film's gory, surreal neo-noir as the standout in a wave of violent sapphic cinema, calling it entertaining and subversive despite leaning on tropes. It subverts expectations through its charismatic queer leads and absurd, violent energy.

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Total Film
29 February 2024
75*

The critic describes it as a neon-drenched desert noir and primal roar of righteous rage with excellent lead performances. The actors shine amid a mix of bodybuilding thriller elements and outré moments that sometimes threaten to overwhelm the tapestry.

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Financial Times
2 May 2024 · Jonathan Romney
70*

The critic finds it a visually striking slice of Gothic delirium with daring carnality and violence, but notes it eventually swerves into incoherence like a superior B-movie pumped on aesthetic steroids.

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The New Yorker
8 March 2024 · Richard Brody
60*

The critic finds the film entertaining with clever twists and strong performances from Kristen Stewart and Katy O'Brian, but notes thin characterization and a reliance on genre conventions that leaves characters underdeveloped. They single out the performances and the brisk story while criticizing the emptiness and lack of deeper context.

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Time Out
14 March 2024 · ★★★ · Elizabeth Weitzman
60

The critic describes it as a pulpy neo-noir romance and the best B-movie of the year, a batshit fever dream tailored to Stewart’s talents with wickedly unsparing insight and humour. Glass does not quite match her previous high standards but turns genre tropes inside out.

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Los Angeles Times
8 March 2024 · Amy Nicholson

The critic calls the film a marvelously seedy erotic thriller where dangerous lusts and noirish calculations are alive and well, praising its technical style and fun in watching the blood splatter. They single out the sex scenes, O'Brian's physical presence, and the film's willingness to tease comedy from its dark premise.

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RogerEbert.com
21 January 2024 · festival review · Brian Tallerico

The critic praises the film as a sexy, brutal, violent and kinetic piece of filmmaking that confirms Rose Glass as a major talent. They single out the strong central performances, especially Kristen Stewart's, and the film's gritty, sweaty style and control amid chaos.

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Screen Daily
21 January 2024 · festival review

The critic calls it an audacious, pulpy crime-thriller with wicked humour, smouldering sex scenes and shocking graphic violence, painting a damning picture of America. Despite colourful atmosphere and gutsy performances, it ultimately feels derivative rather than transgressive.

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Sight and Sound
26 January 2024 · festival review

The critic finds the film a disjointed but compelling 1980s-set crime thriller of passionate extremes, filled with blood, sex and brawn. It comes most alive in its graphic but stylised violence and sex scenes, though the journey can feel muddled.

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Slant Magazine
18 February 2024 · festival review · Pat Brown

The review commends the propulsive energy, vivid performances, and queer perspective on love amid violence but finds the story formulaic and overly reliant on style at the expense of deeper character motivation.

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The Guardian
2 May 2024 · Peter Bradshaw

The critic praises the film as an uproarious, violently smart noir thriller with strong performances, especially Kristen Stewart's subtle turn as gym manager Lou. Glass is celebrated for blending grindhouse energy with wit and surreal touches in this bodybuilding crime story.

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The Hollywood Reporter
21 January 2024 · festival review · David Rooney

The critic calls the film a bold, ultra-violent lesbian neo-noir with Kristen Stewart's commanding presence at its center, praising its excess and pulp energy while noting it lacks the unsettling power of Glass's prior work.

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The Telegraph
2 May 2024 · Robbie Collin

The critic calls it a jaw-dropping, gruesome psychosexual thriller and mouth-wateringly disreputable pulp cinema. Glass delivers an audacious, hot and nasty follow-up full of grotesque characters and nothing-to-lose energy.

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The Times
1 May 2024 · Kevin Maher

The review describes an exhilarating romp that revitalises noir with steroid-fueled surreal violence and a torrid romance. Glass is credited with another bold, brash success after Saint Maud.

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Vulture
21 January 2024 · festival review · Bilge Ebiri

The critic praises the intimate passion, bold visuals, and mythic scale of the romance between the leads but notes that later violence relies too heavily on stylized gore that can feel one-note.

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/Film
26 January 2024 · 9/10 · Bill Bria
90

The critic calls it a thrillingly grimy, seedy body-horror noir that is unabashedly queer and winningly deranged, with fantastic chemistry between the leads. It offers a refreshingly honest depiction of messy love.

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Collider
22 January 2024 · 8/10 · Ross Bonaime
80

Rose Glass delivers a bold, exciting sophomore feature that cranks up horror, suspense, and imagery. Kristen Stewart and Katy O'Brian give electric, passionate performances in a dirty, sweaty, sexy thriller packed with tension and unexpected moments.

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Deadline
21 January 2024 · festival review · Valerie Complex
80*

The critic describes an intense, queer, unconventional love story between unstable characters, marked by strong performances and a visually arresting narrative that explores destructive relationships. Glass captures a snapshot of America filled with guns, bloodshed, and lawlessness, enhanced by sexy, campy queers for thrills and captivating energy.

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Film Stories
1 May 2024 · Maria Lattila
80*

The critic finds the film a sensational, entertaining sophomore effort from Glass that is unashamedly sexy and queer, with sizzling chemistry between Stewart and O'Brian. Some narrative choices favor style over substance and the ending feels undercooked.

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HeyUGuys
28 February 2024 · ★★★★ · Thomas Alexander
80

The critic praises the bold, brutal and uncompromising romance-thriller as a testament to Glass, with raw chemistry and unflinching violence and sex scenes. Some outlandish sequences feel gimmicky and detract slightly from the strong performances.

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NME
20 February 2024 · ★★★★ · Lou Thomas
80

The critic calls it Kristen Stewart’s most exciting film yet and a brilliant noir packed with sex, drugs and violence, comparing it favorably to Bound and Blood Simple for its shocks, characters and dialogue, while praising the bold visuals, neon lighting, red-saturated flashbacks and atmospheric score by Clint Mansell.

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The Playlist
21 January 2024 · B · Marshall Shaffer
77

The critic sees a compelling tale of transformation and obsession that is pulpy and rabble-rousing with expressive direction and strong leads. It can feel messy, relies on cinematic shorthand, and sacrifices some clarity in characterization.

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The Wrap
21 January 2024 · festival review
75*

Glass’s sophomore feature relishes sex, love, and violence in a compelling psychological thriller that is a fantastic companion to Saint Maud. Stewart delivers a powerhouse performance in a role defined by sexuality, love, lust, anger, and connection, as the film spins a murder scenario into a bombastic twist on the crime drama with an impressive directorial achievement.

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The Ringer
13 March 2024 · Adam Nayman
60*

Glass's follow-up to Saint Maud is a brazen, reality-blurring neo-noir sexploitation riff with palpable sensual pleasure and strong performances, especially from Stewart. It shows pitfalls in its excessive contrivance, relentless style, and weightless climax that leaves exhaustion rather than satisfaction.

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Paste
6 March 2024 · 8.0 · Brianna Zigler

Glass crafts a far more effective horror film than Saint Maud, with sensuality, grotesque imagery, and a gripping thriller-crime story elevated into a gorgeous night terror. Stewart and O'Brian have incredible chemistry in one of the best films of 2024 so far, though the conclusion feels too neatly packaged.

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Ordered by the weight we give each publication, then by score. Scores are normalised to 100; * means inferred from an unrated review. Summaries are ours, not quotations; follow the links for the reviews themselves. How we rate