Kristen Stewart’s queer thriller Love Lies Bleeding announces streaming date

To the delight of LGBTQ+ fans everywhere, Kristen Stewart’s critically acclaimed film Love Lies Bleeding has announced a release date on streaming platforms.

Directed by Rose Glass of Saint Maud, the queer thriller received rave reviews following its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in January. Critics praised lead actors Stewart and Katy O’Brien’s “cracking chemistry”, evident in the believable sapphic intimacy scenes, which are plentiful. 

Set in the late 1980s, the hit lesbian film follows reclusive gym manager Lou (Stewart) who meets and falls hard for ambitious bodybuilder Jackie (O’Brian). Jackie rolls into Lou’s sleepy Nevada town on her way to a Las Vegas bodybuilding competition, and the rest is history.

However, Lou’s father (Ed Harris), who owns a nearby shooting range, and her misogynistic brother-in-law (Dave Franco) make it difficult for the pair to act on their true feelings for each other. 

Now, Love Lies Bleeding has a release date on Max, Warner Bros Discovery recently announced. 

Love Lies Bleeding’s tagline describes it as a “romance fuelled by ego, desire and the American Dream”. The film’s synopsis notes that the pair’s passionate relationship sees “their love igniting violence, pulling them deep into the web of Lou’s criminal family”.

Elsewhere, Stewart is set to make her directorial debut in The Chronology of Water, after previously refusing to ever act again if the film didn’t garner the necessary funding to be made.

The actor-turned-director recently shared details about her upcoming rendition of the 2011 queer memoir by Lidia Yuknavitch, which appears to be finally coming to fruition. The film is set to be shot in Latvia, Europe.

“I needed a sort of radical detachment. I am not a director yet. I need to make a student film. I can’t do that [in the US],” Stewart told Net-a-Porter.

Yuknavitch’s memoir discusses gender,  violence, sexuality, family, addiction, self-destruction, and survival; topics Stewart was worried might be “hard to watch” for viewers. 

Love Lies Bleeding is available to watch now on Prime Video and Apple TV+, and will arrive on Max on 19 July.