#is to die for in this film

[bandomfandombeyond]

just watched Love Lies Bleeding, the newest A24 film, I have so many thoughts,,,,,

the movie's language is very well developed, and the editing is primo. sound design was also spectacular. A+ production overall.

In a more official review, David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter called it, "a lesbian neo-noir drenched in brooding nightscapes, violent crime, and more hardcore KStew cool than has ever been packaged in such a potent concentrate."

genuinely, I'd say it's Thelma & Louise meets The Sopranos, a true film, not just a movie. a film we didn't know we had been waiting for.

spoilers ahead!!

if you decide you might want to watch it based on this review, I'd say avoid or be mindful if you get squicked and/or triggered by excellently wrought gay sex scenes, off screen and after match depictions of domestic violence, on screen domestic violence, mouth gore (no really, MOUTH. GORE.), vomit, guns and gun violence, or a homophobe punching a bisexual after she punched him for putting his hands on her. There are also a few depictions of altered states of consciousness and reality, one displayed as active hallucinations which narratively imply that anabolic steroids (essentially testosterone shots) create violent people who don't think about the consequences of their actions and black-out rage to kill others, while ALSO implying that hallucinations and delusions lead people to violence,,, ,,, ,,, And the other is just... subtle enough for most of the film until. surprise! giantess unbirth fetish bait at the end!

if that still sounds like it might be intriguing to you, keep reading :p

this movie has Kristen Stewart doing her sad twitchy sewer rat queer vibe to great effect, breakout star Katy M. O'Brian playing a bodybuilding nomad whose individual character arc is somehow giving gender and hate crime depending on the lens applied, butch 4 futch (argue w/ ur mama, Jackie is a bisexual futch) and butch 4 femme (although 4 is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this one-way dynamic) and (not so) incidental mob intrigue

and as far as aesthetics: it's set at the tail end of the 80s, so we have a delightful mesh of Kristen Stewart's oily 90s twinkdyke and Katy O'Brian's oiled-up 80s femme bodybuilder. howevrrr,,,

I'm not sure how to feel positively about the bait and switch of there being two clearly defined villains (the murderous mob boss father and the sister's abusive husband) having a diversion into the land of "this pillow princess femme who wants romance and a connection with the only other queer person in town is suddenly also a villain". I can see the potential transphobic underlying themes implied by depicting a masculinely gender non-conforming bisexual woman over-dosing "steroids" (testosterone) and turning her into a violent, delusional person who is even in narrative called a "monster" and told never to contact her family again (a very trans moment), especially when juxtaposed with the soft, effeminate, poor cis femme of dubious, unreliable-narrator-proclaimed straightness being an ongoing/foreshadowed minor antagonist in the storyline who manipulates the situation and main character to her advantage, and gets killed for it, but ultimately doesn't exist to do more than create tension between, and be a threat to, the main characters' relationship and the story's plot.

BUT! I do think it was thematically appropriate to finally make the relationship between Jack & Lou equal as a bow to tie the story together.

I enjoyed the film, I enjoyed the composition, I was more riveted to the screen than my ADHD ass usually managed when vegging out on the couch. it's everything I want from a movie where everyone involved ends up worse as a person after meeting each other

I'm just looking at it now with my AP English critical consumption skills and wondering if, maybe, queer communities in general, and the trans & lesbian communities specifically, are not currently enjoying the solidarity-filled political climate that would allow this movie to avoid potentially coming across as, well, a bit unknowingly biphobic and transphobic, even as a queer film, what with one of our main characters being depicted as loving her girlfriend "despite" her having had sex with men, and especially when the main pair get their "happy ending" at the cost of another queer person's life.

Maybe in 30-40 years.

VERDICT: polyamory (and solidarity over self-interest) could have saved this movie's 2nd half for focusing on the real villain: the cops and cop-lovers who were using their power to get away with disenfranchising people with escalating violence and abuse.

If you've also watched Love Lies Bleeding, or you know more about the context around the film, or you just like talking about meta analysis, please let me know what you think!

[daincrediblegg]

OK THIS IS NOT A FUCKING DRILL EVERYONE FUCKING REPEAT AFTER ME. THIS IS WHAT YOU WILL DO WHEN YOU WATCH MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL THIS YEAR:

You will navigate to the page on disney plus (and it has to be here. Unless someone has actually uploaded the REAL movie anywhere else you cannot get it elsewhere)

BUT YOU WILL NOT HIT PLAY. You won’t do it. Because it’s NOT THE REAL VERSION OF THE FILM AND DISNEY IS FUCKING LYING TO YOU AS IT ALWAYS DOES

You will scroll down HERE. To EXTRAS instead. You MUST GO HERE. This is non -negotiable

THEN YOU WILL SCROLL DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE EXTRAS AND YOU WILL THEN HIT PLAY ON THIS BAD BOY: THE FULL LENGTH VERSION

And you will watch it. And you will thank me for having been so blind and led astray by that stupid fucking mouse. You’re welcome.

[inkskinned]

you said you were stuck in a time loop, which was fine. i feel like late-stage capitalism has us all in a time loop, ammiright? you came barging in at 5:33. in the morning. i hadn't even processed the idea of coffee.

but you had this look of utter panic in your eyes. terror like the ocean. you grabbed my cheeks. im in a time loop.

i don't know why in movies the first reaction is to deny it. when someone is panicking like that, it's not appropriate to ask them to calm down. it didn't matter if i believed it, what mattered was that you believed it so much that it was consuming you.

so here we are. i pour you some of the dark roast. "you look like utter and entire hell," i say.

you push your fingers into your eyes. "you always say that."

i try to think of something funny to say that i wouldn't have said on previous time loops, but jokes don't land without the proper timing (lol). "remind me to think -"

"-yeah, of a joke that only works in the future. and before you say anything, i know you're pissed i just stole your punchline." you bolt the coffee, which is wild. it's very hot. you don't seem to notice.

i blow on mine to cool it down. i both am very pissed at you and also i can't see you in this amount of panic without wanting to help. but i'm also not really sure what we are, not since i saw you kiss her like that, no offense. it just was like, kind of rude when you knew i liked you.

and besides. i'm just like, barely a person. i write omegaverse fanfiction. i love the concept of a time loop, but what the fuck am i gonna do? send an alpha in there? i open my mouth.

you point at me. "you're about to ask why me. and then say some disparaging shit about yourself. i'm just a nerd who plays dnd or something. that self-own is slightly different each time." you sigh. "i know you think you can't really help me. i don't know who can help me. i only came to you because you fucking believe me." you check your watch, sigh, and throw your head back. you cover your eyes with one hand. "i've come here on 26 separate revolutions," you say. "you have believed me every time. and yeah, i have no idea how you fit into this but i just -" you sigh again. "i just like fucking talking to someone about it."

"do you need more cof-" i start, but you're already holding the empty cup out. i frown at it. "you're not getting any more until you promise not to bolt this one like an animal."

you laugh a little and sit up, pushing your hair out of your face. "okay, that's new dialogue. but to be fair to you, i'm not usually this rude. i'm still pretty new at all of this." you check your watch again. another sigh. i guess you're cruising for a personal best in the Sigh Olympics.

i almost tell you im not an NPC but i've played enough video games to know i'm very much an NPC. i pour you another cup. "so what happens in the loop?"

"really bad explosion." you mutter into the mug. you put your elbows on the table (rude) and bury your face in your arms like an angsty teenager. one hand floats up while you talk, because evidently you literally can't talk without your hands. "i have to save the day and there's this bomb and i have no bomb training and it keeps moving, you know."

"do i die?"

you peek up from your arms. "yeah. bigtime. you keep trying to run or stay or do anything and you always super die."

"oh."

"to be fair, like, everyone dies in it though.... so you're in good company."

i hate that you make me laugh. i hate that being around you always feels tingly and strange, this electric tension between us. something that is evidently (given how you stuck your tongue down a stranger's throat literally 3 days ago) (well. 3 for me) super one-sided. i take a sip of my coffee and close my eyes.

i die today, i guess. a little spark of panic starts at the top of my hands and starts whipping up my wrists.

"shit," you say. you look at your watch and jump to your feet. "i have to go. if i can come back, i will. i am still trying to figure out when is best to do everything, you know? the order of stuff. maybe morning isn't good for us."

i look up at you and think about how you keep kissing me in the back of my car and in alleyways and in the dark. and i can never fucking get a read on you. and i also think about how incredibly panicked you look. how broken. how long have you been doing this? "i don't want to die," i say.

you glance downwards. "well, you're not really dead, you'll come back in the loop."

"but i will have died." my hands are shaking. i am trying really hard to stay calm.

you push your hands through your hair again. "i really have to go. i will have this discussion with the next version of you, though. it is like, something i am thinking about."

"but i don't get a next version," i say. i don't really have the language for this, because i haven't had 26 tries with you. i only have my memories: you, a week ago. drunk and telling me you loved me in my ear. you, kissing her anyway. you, months ago, throwing up on my birthday, whispering to me i ruin everything i touch, always, over and over. please don't ask. i can't ever fucking have that be you.

i run my finger along the rim of the mug. "i don't want to die in this one."

you seem baffled by this. "i get that but - time will reset, you'll be fine, you won't even remember we talked about this."

"but i know now." i stand up too. "i have to live the rest of this day knowing i could die. knowing i probably am going to."

"you could always die, to be fair."

i feel my hands get out of control. "earlier, you said i always say a different insult about myself. what if you're just going through different parallel universes and those are all just different - but real - versions of myself? what if you're not in a time loop, you're in a fucking universe loop?"

"if it helps, i've wondered this too. also, you're hot in all of them. if that helps."

i point at you. "no flirting. i'm trying to figure out if i die today."

"who's flirting?" you catch my wild hands and give me that long, perfect smile. like we're in this together. "i won't let ya die." you check your watch and sigh again. "well. maybe not this time."

i grit my teeth. you are so not making quips at me while i try to explain the existential dread i'm having. "does the time loop reset if i fucking kill you?"

"honestly i don't know how long it continues after i die, because i just wake up. it could be that the loop goes until the explosion for everyone, and we're all in the loop, or it could be that when i die, the loop restarts. when i die i wake up, is all."

i pull away from you and stalk into the kitchen and start doing all 3 of my dishes. "okay, first, you know i was joking. and secondly, this is exactly my point. you don't know if this is just a parallel universe. maybe in the ones where you died, the explosion happened and nobody reset and it's just you travelling." i have to stop and push the heel of my palm into my eyeball. "... how often have you died?"

i look at you. you look at me. you give me this very sad, halfway smile and a little what can ya do shrug. something in that action seems so old and weary that i want to burst into tears.

"i have to go," you say. "really. for real. there's this family of five i save from getting into a car crash. and i know it's like oh but we're all gonna die in the explosion anyway, what's the point. and..." you shrug again. "it matters to me, is all. at least i saved them for now. at least i saved anything."

you pad over to me and wrap me in a tight hug. you always seem so tall against me. i feel your cheek rest against the top of my head for a moment. for a second, it's just us, and the space is warm, and my heart is a little broken hare.

you leave me there, and i stand in my stupid badly lit kitchen with my stupid mugs. i think about you. i start texting my mom that she needs to get out of the city, but it feels pointless.

i don't know what to do. tomorrow is the same day for you. but i have to prepare to die in my today.

[utilitycaster]

"why should I get invested in shows if they'll just get canceled" I was deeply invested in Heroes (2006) and it was not canceled, it just got really terrible. I also got really invested in the sandwich I had a few weeks ago despite it only lasting like 15 minutes. You must embrace the ephemeral. You must be willing to love things that may not love you back, that might betray you, or that may die an untimely death. As the great philosopher Mr. Mitchell Lee Hedberg said "I'm not gonna stop doing something because of what happens at the end."

[homkamiro]

Lil Pootis but I was inspired by a really old USSR film "Wolf and Calf" which made me really emotional

[purple-iris]

Star trek short film - Unification by the Roddenberry archive available on YouTube

[zanephillips]

Willem Dafoe, John Pankow and William Petersen To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)

[gameraboy2]

Halle Berry in Die Another Day (2002)

[coneyisl3nd]

[classicfilmblr]

PANDORA'S BOX | Die Büchse der Pandora dir. Georg Wilham Pabst | 1929

[whichcouldmeanothing]

this is a great excuse to post my favorite vic quote of all time again

[weirdlookindog]

Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (1920)

[femalescharacters]

BRITTANY SNOW & SOPHIA BUSH John Tucker Must Die | 2006

[moonlightsdream]

John Tucker Must Die (2006) — dir. Betty Thomas

[l0st-marblezz]

Ngl I would love it if Film Theory covered the Hatchetfield series lore. They’ve covered other YouTube series before so it could be possible.

[luhvrlis]

My “this will be the best summer” so far in 6 picture