The internet’s sapphic community has cast Love Lies Bleeding in a largely positive light, entranced by the film’s adrenaline-inducing body horror and eroticism. As a proponent of all things lesbian, I wanted to love the film as much as the internet was telling me to. I wanted to fall head first into the Kristen Stewart fandom and to deep dive into Glass’s euphoric use of 1980s pop culture. But I just couldn’t: not for the full film at least.

Love Lies Bleeding’s cinematic landscape and cast performances create a compelling direction for the story. As an A24 film, the arthouse aesthetic is undoubtedly alluring. The film takes place in the liminal setting of a New Mexican desert town filled with criminals, psychopaths, and gym buffs. Lou (Kristen Stewart) works as a gym manager and falls for Jackie (Katy M. O’Brian), a bodybuilder passing through town on her way to pursue her dreams in Las Vegas. The characters themselves are equally compelling, with mysterious, largely covert backstories and hot-headed temperaments, ramming through any obstacle or challenge in their way.

The first third of Love Lies Bleeding has high potential. However, I found the latter two thirds to be too reliant on genre conventions that only distract from any concrete plot or meaning. After Jackie temporarily moves in with Lou, the film strays from their relationship to Lou’s family lore – a complex web of crime and deceit held together by her ringleader father. As a result of this narrative shift, the women’s budding character development is flattened, and any explanation for their actions or inner motivations is lost. It seems that all we will ever find out about Jackie is that she’s an avid bodybuilder. Furthermore, Lou and Jackie’s relationship gets sidelined and commandeered by men until the film’s confusing final moments, when Jackie turns into a giant to pin down Lou’s father once and for all.

Despite receiving praise for subverting the “male gaze,” the film seems to do just the opposite, falling into the same fetishistic trap that plagues so many other WLW films. The six single men who sat in front of me at the Cineplex Forum’s Friday night screening only reinforced my initial impression: this film may have been written about queer women, but it was not a film made for them.

Love Lies Bleeding displays women’s bodies without establishing necessary empathy between the characters and the viewer. A quick search on the voyeuristic qualities of the film led me to find numerous news articles about men who had been arrested in the last week for lewd behaviour while viewing Love Lies Bleeding in theatres. Remarkably, these articles haven’t really been acknowledged on TikTok or other social media platforms. The behaviour of these male viewers, and how quickly it has been ignored, says a lot about the politics of lesbian representation and moviegoing.

While this doesn’t seem like any fault of the film inherently, I was surprised by how quick people were to praise its representation and to remark upon how amazing Lou and Jackie’s relationship was when the couple spent the majority of the film either trying to kill each other or having sex. It felt almost performative, like the sex scenes were only put in to appease the viewer and substitute an actual foundation for the characters’ relationship.

The release of this film was an unfortunate reminder that lesbian films have not been able to escape objectification and fetishization by men unless they explicitly critique patriarchal and heteronormative expectations (I would argue the recent queer film Bottoms was more effective at achieving this). But of course, not every lesbian film should be expected to offer some sort of critique in order to be taken seriously. While it’s important that both characters survive and presumably stay together, to emphasize such an ending feels like commending the bare minimum of a film that leaves other elements of queer representation unexplored. All this to say, Love Lies Bleeding is an entertaining experience from an intriguing filmmaker with an obvious body-horror speciality. I am curious to see more of these elements in whatever Rose Glass decides to create next.

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Jam for Justice recognizes that music is an optimal activity to connect with others, and have stretched this potential to reach underprivileged communities as well. For years their events have garnered donations under a pay-what-you-can mandate to support different local Montreal charities. “We make our events as accessible as we can for those interested,” says Zeina Alsibai, Jam for Justice’s 2023/24 President. Their primary goal is to raise donations, using music as a means of both building and supporting a community. They’ve collaborated with Montreal Children’s hospital, School of Music Montreal, and Project 10 among other local organizations. Last year they hosted two open mics, a more formal performance at Le Depanneur Cafe, karaoke at Gerts, and an epic Battle of the Bands at Casa Del Popolo where all proceeds went to Midnight Kitchen. They have an upcoming coffee house on November 22. Jam for Justice’s Finance executive Dmitri Pelletier estimates a few thousand dollars have been raised over the last couple of years. 

There’s a lot of potential for Jam for Justice performers – one of the bands, Societal Siege, who performed frequently at past events even “made-it-big” according to Sadie Bryant, Jam for Justice’s VP External. For other performers, the low-key environment of a coffeehouse might be the perfect opportunity to sing in front of an audience for the first time, or showcase a new song they’ve been sitting on. In an article published two years ago, Times Higher Education reported on the phenomena of music groups on college campuses. They found that music on campus is not only an overall rewarding experience for students, but also facilitates initiatives that foster team-building and collaboration.

The hosting of performances on campus to encourage socialization, especially in the wake of COVID-19 isolation, contributed to increased positive mental health effects of students and staff alike. Another study, “Non-Music Major Participation in College and University Ensembles” published in 2021 by the College Music Society builds on this idea further by researching the specific benefits of music on non-music majors. While most research focused on campus music groups targets students who are majoring in music, non-music students’ participation in music groups and music outreach programs is equally, if not, more relevant for higher-education institutions. This is because non-music majors are more likely to spread an awareness of music initiatives to those who are more removed from music environments. Non-music majors who are part of music groups on campus are driven by an intense passion, personal attachment, and high commitment to music that is inspiring by virtue of the fact that these attitudes are not necessarily formally taught or instilled in them by music professionals. Non-music majors also reinforce that involvement in music groups is not about talent, or even the music that is being played, but an overall enjoyment of music as a socially-rewarding communal act. Jam for Justice shows that student-run and student-led organizations can be rewarding two-fold: both by supporting local collectives, and by establishing a student network driven by the unifying aspect of music.

After speaking with others at the park jam, they all said renditions of the same thing; Jam for Justice is where they have met some of their closest friends, and where they can come together to do something they love. It is always collaborative and even more welcoming. These sentiments were immediately obvious from joining the jam, and even by the time I left the music had shown no sign of stopping. 

If you’d like to get involved, consider following Jam For Justice on their Facebook and Instagram pages for information on upcoming events. Other inclusive on-campus groups and organizations include School of Music Montreal, McGill Choral Society, SSMU Symphonic Band Club, and the McGill Arts Collective.

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