LOVE (2015) *** ½

Love is a hardcore love story.  It’s an unflinching look at how relationships are fueled by sex, not love.  Director Gaspar (Irreversible) Noe has never been one for half-measures.  In Love, his camera never shies away from his characters’ highs, lows, and excesses.  It doesn’t shy away from their private parts either.  Because of that, the characters (and actors) are naked in both senses of the word. 

The title might be misleading, because the characters rarely say it or show it.  Most of the sex in the movie is comprised of carnal humping, lustful cheating, misguided experimentation, or make-up/break-up sex.  Maybe that's Noe’s point.  Sex is something you do.  Love is something you strive for.

The most annoying think about Love is that most of the characters speak below a whisper.  Several times, I had to turn up the volume to hear what they were saying.  Then, in the next scene, they’re screaming and hollering at the top of their lungs while humping.  Again, maybe that was intentional on Noe’s part.  What they say is unimportant.  What they do is. 

I liked that Noe wore his inspiration on his sleeve.  The main character (Karl Glusman) is a film student who has posters of everything from Salo to Taxi Driver to The Defiance of Good on his wall.  I had to admit I had a tinge of jealousy.  The best part though is the sex club scene where Glusman and Aomi Muyock participate in an orgy set to John Carpenter’s score from Assault on Precinct 13.  You don’t see that every day.   

The structure is unique too.  It moves more or less backwards.  That way, Noe leaves things on a happy beginning, instead of the typical happy ending.  (Don’t worry, there are plenty of “happy endings” throughout the film.)

I wish I could've seen Love in its original 3-D version.  There is one scene that nicely preserves the format in such a way that it doesn’t lose its impact, even in 2-D.  I won't spoil it for you, but you'll certainly know it when you see it.