I am thrilled to be hosting David Bradley in Q&A at Brum’s wonderful Mockingbird Cinema following the 6 pm screening of “Kes.” This Sunday, April 13th – a few tickets available, so snap ’em up!
https://mockingbirdcinema.com/MockingbirdCinema.dll/WhatsOn?f=501372
In a recent interview with Indiewire, the British director and screenwriter Rose Glass said: “Just speaking for myself, anyone who tries to kid themselves that sex and violence aren’t some of cinema’s most important cornerstones is wrong. There is something exciting about living vicariously through these sorts of stories, which speaks to something more primal or shameful in all of us.”
Sex and violence are the cornerstones of Glass’s Love Lies Bleeding, the much-awaited follow-up to her BAFTA-nominated debut feature, Saint Maud (2019). A gun-toting neo-noir set in the worlds of professional bodybuilding and crime, Love Lies Bleeding is a transgressive queer love story-thriller set in small-town Americana. The always great Kristin Stewart is reserved gym manager Lou, who falls hard for the new girl in town, Jackie (Katy O’Brien), a bodybuilder with her sights on winning the state championships who starts working at Lou’s criminal father’s gun range (a fantastic Ed Harris as the bug-loving—and chomping—Lou Sr., a kingpin with a “skullet” hairdo of the actor’s own design). As Lou and Jackie’s relationship intensifies, they are pulled into the murky and violent goings-on of Lou’s family with some shocking, brutal, and gruesome results.
Glass has always been a visual director, and Love Lies Bleeding uses its late 80s setting to utilise neon colours, mullet haircuts, bad teeth, shades of red, and a pulsing electronic soundtrack complimented by Clint Mansell’s thumping score. Gritty and sleazy, with elements of She-Hulk and a cautionary tale of Roid Rage, Love Lies Bleeding is a darkly comic and propulsive thrill ride.
*A version of this review first appeared on ichoosebirmingham.com 2 May 2024.
Late Night with the Devil, a found footage horror in which a live late-night talk show goes horribly awry, is 1992’s Ghostwatch for the Shudder generation.
As the host of Night Owls with Jack Delroy, Delroy (an excellent David Dastmalchian) is a modestly successful host who “five nights a week helps an anxious nation forget its troubles.” Although happily married and a member of a powerful all-male secret society called The Grove, Delroy still can’t compete with the popularity and accolades of Johnny Carson.
But with wife’s death comes dwindling fortunes and figures, and bids at television sensationalism prove unsuccessful. That is until the night of 31 October 1977, when a disastrous Halloween episode of Night Owls with its spiritually connected guests – including a psychic, a parapsychologist, and a possessed young woman — made Jack Delroy infamous.
With its meticulous 70s aesthetic, horror references, and satirical nature that refuses to verge into parody, the third film from Australian siblings Colin and Cameron Cairnes offers a contemporary twist on the live TV meets found footage formula. Darkly funny yet refusing to verge fully into parody and coming it at 86 minutes, Late Night does enough to keep audiences on their toes. As is said at one point “join us for a live television broadcast as we attempt to communicate with the devil. But first, a word from our sponsors…”
*This review first appeared on ichoosebirmingham.com on 21 March 2024.
Sabina Stent 