Ed Harris | A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies.

It is never a good sign for a new movie release when a key fact on the poster does not match the movie. The main character, Becket Redfellow, can inherit 18 Billion Dollars (from the movie), not 28 Billion Dollars (from the movie poster). From ChatGPT, this could be about movie marketing, but for me, this looks like a glaring error right from the start.

After one of the women in a wealthy family marries the wrong man, whom she later divorces after having a son, she is barred from having anything to do with the family or their money. What doesn’t make much sense in the movie’s main premise is how her son could have any claim to the 18 billion dollar family fortune after she was banned from the family, and later dies. Why would her son somehow be able to kill the seven relatives in the family who are the remaining heirs, and then be somehow unbanned from the family because he is the only remaining relative? It also does not appear that the son or his mother are the kind of people who would consider mass murder for money. Why would anyone think they could kill seven people in a row and get away with it? From the start, this logline or movie concept should never have been greenlighted.

“How to Make a Killing” stars Glen Powell as Becket Redfellow, Margaret Qualley as Julia who is a former insane girlfriend of Becket, Jessica Henwick who plays the love interest in Becket and Ed Harris as Whitelaw Redfellow, who is the head of the family and the subject of a hunting rifle and bow and arrow scene with Becket at the end of the film – one of the few impressive scenes in this below average movie. Unfortunately, this movie does not work on several levels, including the rare attempts at humor or irony.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings are a correct and very low 48%, and I agree with this rating and do not recommend this film.

Squalor, a miserable terrible job, homelessness, a bleak and poor future, and extreme depression are all realities that are the beginning of the new movie “Love Lies Bleeding”. This movie starts with the main character Lou, played by Kristen Stewart, with her arm (while wearing rubber gloves) inside a disgusting clogged toilet bowl trying to fix the clog. Perhaps the dilapidated gym she was working in did not have a plunger? This first scene sets the tone of this movie, which is shocking, at times disgusting, vile, and all about the lowest levels of humanity, including even homelessness.

The story is about the lesbian relationship between Lou, and Jackie a female bodybuilder played Katy O’Brian, who starts to use steroids. It is Jackie’s steroid abuse and the domestic abuse suffered by Lou’s sister Beth, played by Jena Malone from her husband JJ, played by Dave Franco that are the main parts of a story that deteriorates into a Shakespearian tragedy involving multiple murders.

There are several scenes of the intense physical relationship between Lou and Jackie, obviously making this film not for children. While the story is good overall, there are the standard “let’s try and be different” insane and delusional visual scenes that are derived from the gross abuse of Jackie’s constant shooting vials of steroids. Some of these scenes are so crazy that anyone could argue they almost ruin the entire movie. Why try so hard to create visual effects that nobody has ever seen before, rather than just concentrate on the quality of the overall story?

Ed Harris, plays Lou Sr, Lou’s father, who is not only the wealthy owner of a gun shooting range but also has most of the police force under his control. Lou’s horrendous poverty, despite her father’s wealth, is due to their severe estrangement and is a source of numerous scenes of rage and conflict throughout this film.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Love Lies Bleeding are way too high 92%, with my rating at 80%, and a recommendation mostly for the acting and the parts of the story that do not include off-the-wall visual scenes that have no business being in any movie.