Nearly three decades ago, the documentary Pumping Iron (1977) was released. Its success helped to make Arnold Schwarzenegger a household name. It also helped to mainstream the sport of bodybuilding. It also pushed to change the culture and the standard of male beauty. A sequel to that film came nearly a decade later called Pumping Iron II: The Women (1985), which wasn't as well received. However, a couple of years ago, Netflix released a docuseries called Killer Sally (2022), which was about Sally McNeil, a female bodybuilder who was convicted of a 1995 murder. The case allegedly included physical abuse against a woman, roid rage and a man losing his jaw.
Director and co-writer Rose Glass who follows her feature debut, Saint Maud (2021), seems to have taken inspiration from that 1985 documentary, as well as McNeil's story. Glass seems to have also drawn from the Oscar-winning Thelma & Louise (1991), as her film similarly centers on two women ostensibly on the run from the FBI in which there is a critical moment involving a car going over the edge of a canyon. Glass' film even has one of her protagonists also named Louise. While some prescribed queer themes to that 1991 classic, Glass goes even further making her film an outright twisted, queer love story, but set in the same time frame of 30 years ago.
Kristen Stewart (Spencer and Clouds of Sils Maria) stars as Louise Langston aka Lou Lou or just "Lou," the manager of a fitness gym in New Mexico that is basically a hole in the wall, a dingy, grimy and quite frankly disgusting place. Yet, it is filled with a ton of people lifting weights and sweating their guts out. Lou seems to be there only to unclog the toilets and turn off the lights at night. She goes home to a small, crappy apartment and her cat. There is a woman who shows interest in her as a lesbian but Lou would rather be alone. Things change when a drifter blows into town.
Katy O'Brian (The Mandalorian and Black Lightning) co-stars as Jackie, a bisexual bodybuilder from Oklahoma. She left home because she wants to attend a bodybuilding contest in Las Vegas. She chooses to train for the contest in New Mexico, not because it's some great training spot. It's revealed that she most likely fled from home due to her being bisexual and being disowned by her family. She's probably only in New Mexico cause she ran out of money. It's evidenced because she's homeless, sleeping on the street or under a bridge.
She's desperate and looking for any kind of soft place to land. When she sees Lou, it starts out as that as well as probably naked attraction. However, it grows into something more, as we see the lengths the two of them will go to protect each other. For Lou, she'll clean up whatever mess Jackie makes, which is emblematic of Lou's opening scene of her literally unclogging a toilet. For Jackie, she'll be the big, strong protector, emblematic in her penultimate scene, which has to be a homage to Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958).
Glass' film might not have the same tone of that 1958 thriller, but one could argue that there is some body horror here. The opening could be accused of being exercise porn, but Glass' closeups of flexing muscles and bulging biceps have a more insidious intention and could be prescient for a David Cronenberg flick about to play out. Yet, those shots of muscles mostly underscore the hard work of bodybuilding. Later, we see the beauty of Jackie's physique, but the intention is to show how powerful and dangerous that physique can be. There's a reference to Popeye the Sailor (1933) and the animated result of him eating his spinach, but also a reference to The Incredible Hulk (1977), as we see what happens when Jackie gets angry and those biceps really bulge.
Ed Harris (The Truman Show and Apollo 13) plays Lou, the father to Lou Lou. He leads an absolutely amazing supporting cast. He's the head of a crime family that appears to be smuggling guns and is doing so with some police in his pocket. He has two daughters. Lou Lou is one. The other is Bethany or Beth, played by Jena Malone (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Sucker Punch). It's a question of how involved or how much about their father's criminal activities do the sisters know. There is a division between the sisters. Beth is more of a daddy's girl, but Lou Lou hates her father, mainly due to her blaming him for her mother's absence or disappearance.
The thrill of this narrative comes from how this twisted, family dysfunction resolves itself, and if Lou Lou will go the way of her mother. Glass' film had me enthralled. Shout-out to Anna Katerina (Dickinson and Manchester By the Sea) who rounds out the cast of women. Katerina plays Daisy, an equally dingy and grimy lesbian who becomes obsessed with Lou Lou and becomes a scheming third wheel to Lou Lou and Jackie. She also adds some black humor, as this ditzy, dirty blonde, but brilliantly handled.
Rated R for violence, grisly images, sexual content, nudity, language and drug use.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 44 mins.
In theaters.
