Rose Glass’ Love Lies Bleeding opens wide today after making a huge splash in limited release. With critical accolades already rolling in, we feel compelled to ask the question, “Can the film be any better than the fantastic score?” If so, we’re in for a treat.
Clint Mansell‘s prior film work has marked him as one of the greats. He’s been responsible not only for memorable themes, but standalone works such as Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, Moon and Black Swan. Love Lies Bleeding demonstrates his diversity, as the timbre shifts to pulp-inflected, 80s synth. The last such score to win us over was Disasterpeace’s It Follows a decade ago. While none of Mansell’s music is included in the trailer, Bronski Beat’s “Smalltown Boy” (1984) is a worthy teaser.
The film is a “blood soaked revenge thriller” crossed with a hot romance, starring Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian, the latter in a breakout role that arrives on the heels of high impact stints in The Mandalorian and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Ed Harris, sporting a horrible hairpiece, plays the villain. Suffice it to say that there’s a lot of running and driving and shooting and sex. O’Brian is the best special effect, her bodybuilding career making us wonder if it’s really possible to flex hard enough to rip clothes. We’re not the first to make the She-Hulk comparison.
The score is propulsive, pulsing with an unrelenting energy. But before it erupts, it lurks, another nod to It Follows. Opening track “Louville” sets the stage with electronic atmospheres before turning into a workout. Mansell is joined by Paris Hurley, performing as Object As Subject, on lyric-free vocalizations. Every time the track slows or grows leaner, one suspects that it is coiling, in the same way as violence seems always ready to erupt in the trailer.
There are no low moments here, no segments quiet and long enough to suggest reflection. The music – like the characters – seems reactive, reeling from one dramatic encounter to the next. At its highest points, the music seems to break boundaries in volume and density, a reflection of the passion shared by the central characters. Crashes cascade in “Turn Up the Heat,” like showers of lava, the heartbeat a heightened pulse of desire, fear or both. Loud factory clanks highlight the distance female empowerment has traveled since Flashdance. The drums of the title track are infused with taiko strength.
One of the more obvious comparisons would normally go without mention, but parts of “Penalty = Prison” are reminiscent of Giorgio Moroder’s “The Chase,” perhaps the best synth-dance number ever to grace a dark thriller. The two scores, connected across time, share an essential grittiness. Moroder won Academies for his work on both Midnight Express and Flashdance; Mansell is long overdue for such an award, especially after seeing his score for Black Swan disqualified due to his inclusion of music from Tchaikovsky. And while Love Lies Bleeding may not be popular enough to compete with the blockbusters (Hans Zimmer’s Dune: Part Two the early frontrunner, with high anticipation for Junkie XL’s Furiosa), we think it’s strong enough to join the early discussion.
The album closes with “I Fucking Love You, You Idiot,” a line that’s truncated in the trailer but that underlines the visceral nature of movie and score. Erupting from the suspenseful trail of “Pain Is Weakness,” the track reaches for resolution before plunging into a dark abyss. Does the film have a happy ending? We’re not sure, but this exciting, edge-of-your-seat score makes us want to find out. Mansell makes the listener want to become a viewer; there’s no higher praise. (Richard Allen)
a closer listen 