‘Love Lies Bleeding’ and the 21st Century Noir Movie Canon

The Newsthe next 24 months of announcements

Dune: Part Two 2024

Held up as proof that large-format is now the center of the business, and the reason the hosts are giddy that Paul Thomas Anderson's untitled $100M Leonardo DiCaprio movie (dated for August 8, 2025) will play in IMAX.

Eddington 2024

Ari Aster's original Western, confirmed this week with Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, and Austin Butler. Amanda, no Western fan, still buys in on the cast.

Venom: The Last Dance 2024

The third Venom, re-dated to October, where Sean insists the horror-adjacent symbiote belongs. He spends several minutes explaining the premise to Amanda and calling the title chef's kiss; his thesis is that Venom is as dumb-smart as it thinks it is, unlike Deadpool.

Venom 2018

The first one, which came out the same weekend as 'A Star Is Born' and became a running Amanda bit. Michelle Williams plays Eddie Brock's forlorn ex; Sean reads the whole thing as an allegory for a toxic relationship.

A Star Is Born 2018

Invoked only as the movie Amanda was riding the wave of the weekend Venom opposite it.

The Batman Part II

Bumped to 2026 in the Warner Bros. reshuffle. Sean liked the first one and Matt Reeves; the two of them wonder who the villain is and whether Colin Farrell's Penguin (whose spinoff show Sean has been cutting) factors in.

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 2 2024

Amanda's milestone-birthday movie, arriving the day after. She is told to savor it.

‘Love Lies Bleeding’Rose Glass's bodybuilding noir

Love Lies Bleeding 2024

Kristen Stewart, full mullet, as a New Mexico gym clerk who falls for a bodybuilder (Katie O'Brien) passing through; Ed Harris, bald on top with long hair down the back, is the violent father she's hiding from. Sean reads it as a fairly faithful noir with one big exception: a literalized Attack-of-the-50-Foot-Woman finish he loves and compares to the levitation in 'Saint Maud.' Both hosts rate the physicality, gore, and Stewart-O'Brien chemistry; both find the last third, once Jackie goes to Vegas and turns into a steroid monster, hard to follow.

The 21st Century Noir Canonthe final 10, in the order they read it

Shutter Island 2010

Scorsese; Sean calls it one of the great underrated movies of the last 25 years, noir dress-up staged inside a delusional mind, with DiCaprio imagining himself as a Bogart-esque detective.

Mulholland Drive 2001

Lynch; a no-brainer for Sean, a surreal noir about fame, love, and identity that's also a gay love story.

Brick 2005

Rian Johnson's debut; too overt an homage to leave off, a Humphrey Bogart movie relocated to a high school.

Decision to Leave 2022

Park Chan-wook; pays homage to the genre while subverting expectations of it. Amanda's pick to include.

Gone Girl 2014

Fincher; the most conventional entry (Affleck the confused dipshit, Rosamund Pike the femme fatale) and the one that turns the conventions inside out. Sets off a long Kate Middleton tangent about 'gone-girling' a husband.

Inherent Vice 2014

Paul Thomas Anderson; true to the spirit and updating it via the stoner-PI haze. Sean notes it spawned a major fight in his marriage.

Killer Joe 2011

William Friedkin, written by Tracy Letts. Sets up a tangent about Letts's wife Carrie Coon and her 10,000-Blu-ray physical-media collection.

Memento 2000

Nolan; picked for what it signaled: the tonality he'd carry into 'The Dark Knight' and 'Inception,' which everyone else started chasing.

Sexy Beast 2000

Jonathan Glazer's debut; a sunny, Spain-set 'retiree noir.'

Drive 2011

Nicolas Winding Refn; the example, the one Sean added first. Kicks off an appreciation of the Ryan Gosling renaissance.

Also Consideredthe ones that just missed

Nightmare Alley 2021

Del Toro's remake of the 1947 noir, sold in black-and-white; the traditional-but-absurd carnival noir the hosts break down (per the earlier Patton Oswalt episode) as a template for the genre.

Phoenix 2014

The Petzold film, on Sean's shortlist and a movie he loves.

The Place Beyond the Pines 2012

Cianfrance; part of the Gosling stretch Sean cites as noir-adjacent.

25th Hour 2002

Spike Lee; one of Sean's favorite movies, a fit that ultimately didn't make the 10.

Oldboy 2003

Park Chan-wook; Sean says it kind of sort of fits.

Widows 2018

Steve McQueen; one of Sean's favorite movies of the last 10 years, its second mention on the show that week.

A Touch of Sin 2013

Jia Zhangke; on the shortlist Sean reads out.

Looper 2012

One of the 'how could you not put in' near-misses.

Under the Silver Lake 2018

Another of the 'how could you not put in' near-misses.

Mystic River 2003

Floated as a Sean Penn entry that didn't make it.

Match Point 2005

Woody Allen; raised in the same breath as 'Mystic River' and left off.

In conversation

Rose Glass on

Love Lies Bleeding 2024

Glass co-wrote it with Veronica and set it in 1989 New Mexico to strip out phones and heighten the isolation; the ending grew out of the surreal bodily elements teased throughout, filmed against tennis balls and a digital Ed Harris. She sees Lou, Jackie, and Maud as spiritual sisters and wanted a romance that's parasitic rather than redemptive.

Rose Glass on

Saint Maud 2019

Her isolating, one-location debut, which she credits for how they pulled it off; Ed Harris's wife Amy was a fan, which helped land him. The 50-foot finish echoes Maud's ambiguous levitation.

Rose Glass on

Jason and the Argonauts 1963

The Harryhausen skeletons she saw young, the 'how did they do that' spark that got her into stop-motion, then filmmaking.

Rose Glass on

Spencer 2021

The Oscar-nominated role Kristen Stewart came off just before signing on, when 'she can do whatever she wants.'

Rose Glass on

Love Me 2024

Stewart's other Sundance film, which Glass caught there and calls 'so odd and lovely.'

Rose Glass on

Eno 2024

The Brian Eno documentary that self-generates a different edit every screening, the Sundance standout that has Glass thinking about non-traditional, immersive formats.

Rose Glass on

Bigger Than Life 1956

Nicholas Ray's James Mason drug parable that Sean pairs with 'Attack of the 50-Foot Woman' as the homage he reads in the ending; Glass hasn't seen it.

Also mentioned raised along the way

Classic-noir touchstones The Maltese FalconThe Big SleepGildaChinatownThe Long GoodbyeThe Last SeductionBoundSet It OffHeat

The Nolan–Villeneuve lineage The Dark KnightInceptionPrisonersEnemyMemories of MurderMinority Report

Ryan Gosling's noir stretch Blue ValentineOnly God ForgivesThe Fall Guy

‘Love Lies Bleeding’ touchstones Happiest SeasonMagazine DreamsAttack of the 50 Foot WomanAnt-Man and the Wasp: QuantumaniaThe Terminator

In passing SaltburnThe BatmanDeadpoolThe Turning PointThe Goodbye GirlAnnie HallNijinsky

Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads

TV & streaming series FelicityThe MandalorianThe PenguinThe Last DanceThe Tonight Show

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