Movie Review: Bleading Lady (2011)

By James DePaolo

Indie websites are always the first to get all excited when news of a new Ryan Nicholson film is coming out. Sadly, most of them are always the first to want to shit on it when they do see it. Ryan's track record in directing so far is to spoil the gore fans with the adult kills and sex and just sacrifice story and plot, so the fans can get blood, deaths and just something to either offend the casual viewer or make them a fan. As a director, to me Ryan has been very misunderstood, till now.

Buy Bleading Lady on DVD



I am one of the few fans who waved my flag in the air for Gutterballs and said that was Ryan's classic. Also, I am one of the fans who hated Hanger. I felt like with Hanger, Ryan was just trying to offend just to offend, just by offering nothing new or fresh, but just saying..ok if this does not offend people, what about this or this. Trying to one up himself and it failed. It came across as a horrible follow up to Gutterballs. Bleading Lady, though is something different. This is in ways a ( dare I say) " new" Ryan Nicholson. The plot is about Don who is a driver of indie movie stars to their sets and locations. He is on a downward spiral, much like dare I say Michael Douglas in Falling Down. Along comes scream queen Riversa Red. Don knows everything about her and while being her personal driver becomes more and more obsessed with her. Basically this film is Ryan's tongue and cheek take on indie film making and how he views the horror genre. The dialogue is at times sort of preachy, and it needs to be. He almost seems like he is telling the movie goer, that he does not cater to the stereotype or the flavor of the month and does not understand why fans don't see his films the way he intends them instead of over analyzing them or maybe pre judging them. This film dare I say is dialogue heavy. The scenes between Don and Red come across as very suspenseful, like you know something is coming but when and will it? It is almost like 2 films at once, you got the Don and Red story and the making of a indie horror film.



The movie runs a little under 76 minutes and about 49 minutes in, Ryan takes the film in a entirely different direction that is very dark, graphic, brutal but also very patient. Like Ryan, wanted the fans to savor the carnage not just keep going and going, And it worked. This film you get the "new" Ryan Nicholson, changing camera lenses, almost a romantic subplot till a scene with her panties, you get character building, and you get a 20 minute finale that shows Ryan is trying to grow and give fans what they want but also knows that you have to redefine yourself.

Will a die hard Ryan Nicholson fan get this film..who knows? I mean a lot of critics will still be hard on Ryan, and some of the fans will see this as some sort of " sell out" film. Ryan took a lot of chances and gambles, and they worked for the most part. Some of the dialogue scenes do drag at times, and some of the jokes in this film fall flat. But, there is more than enough here to recommend. Next up Ryan Nicholson will remake Citzen Kane. Buy this film, rent this film. Bleading Lady is a good time.