There are a number of ways one could describe Love Lies Bleeding (2024), the second feature from director Rose Glass (Saint Maud). It is a neo-noir thriller, as well as a lesbian romance, and also a black comedy. On top of that it features moments of body horror, and of surrealism – one could easily argue it expands into elements of magical realism. Ultimately describing it seems less a matter of what it is as what it is not: Love Lies Bleeding is not like other films.

Kristen Stewart plays Lou Langston, a small town gym manager and estranged daughter of local crime boss Lou Sr (Ed Harris). Lou’s mother has long vanished; her sister Beth (Jena Malone) is trapped in an abusive marriage with the odious J.J. (Dave Franco). When Lou meets an aspiring bodybuilder named Jackie (Katy O’Brian), a passionate relationship sparks with unexpected and violent consequences.

Love Lies Bleeding plays in a well-furrowed territory of American crime, and juggles a lot of familiar tropes and stereotypes: the femme fatale, the corrupt police chief, the abusive partner, and elements of drug addiction, unintended murder, and spiraling conspiracy. It is creative territory over which numerous long shadows have been cast, including those of the Coen brothers, Elmore Leonard, and others. You can feel their influence looming over Glass’ film. It is a deeply cine-literate work. Where Glass excels – she also co-wrote the film with Weronika Tofilska – is in how these elements are re-arranged and remixed into unexpected and provocative forms. Typical narratives are regularly disrupted and rejected. Gender roles are muddied and reversed. By the climax, which has already proved deeply divisive, Glass pushes the story in a direction that abandons audience expectations entirely.

Kristen Stewart is exceptional here, and it is a toss-up between this and Personal Shopper (2016) over which is her best screen performance ever. There is a sharp realism and a spontaneity in her acting that is truly arresting to watch. Katy O’Brian is given a career-making opportunity here – her earlier works seem restricted to genre fare like The Mandalorian and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. She takes it in both hands. She runs with it. She is electric on the screen. The supporting cast mostly consists of well-proven and effective actors; Ed Harris is reliably brilliant. Jena Malone is in excellent form.

When violence strikes, it is sudden and it is graphic. In this kind of bleak thriller, violence needs to be seen to hurt. If it causes discomfort, all the better. The same goes for Jackie’s growing steroid abuse, which is a guaranteed stressor for any viewers with an aversion to needles. The entire piece is stylishly shot by Ben Fordesman. Clint Mansell contributes an effective, propulsive musical score.

Glass won widespread acclaim for her first film, the English religious thriller Saint Maud. I was not as enamored as many were. This time around I feel the critical consensus is right on the money. We’re currently approaching the halfway point of 2024, and it feels safe to say that Love Lies Bleeding is going to be one of the films most talked about come year’s end.