A Slick, Sexy, and Shockingly Violent Gem Makes off With the Loot on Streaming

Given that their output for the last 20 years and change has almost exclusively involved high concept sci-fi dealing with so much existentialism that it borders on the pretentious, it’s easy to forget the Wachowskis made their feature-length debut as writers and directors on $6 million crime thriller Bound in 1996.

A million miles away from anything the siblings have ever made since, the noir-tinged story finds Gina Gershon’s fresh out of prison Corky embarking on a passionate affair with Jennifer Tilly’s Violet, before the star-crossed pair concoct an ambitiously dangerous scheme to help her escape from her violent gangster boyfriend with the help of $2 million in mob money.

In the buildup to Bound‘s release, a great deal of the headlines were seized by the sex scenes and shocking bursts of violence, but there’s so much more to the film than just surface-level titillation and shock value. A 90 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and 83 percent user rating underlines that fact, even if it ended up tanking at the box office with a meager $7 million haul.

Cult classics always have a way of circling back around, though, and that’s precisely what’s been happening this week with Bound after it reemerged from the shadows to become one of the top-viewed titles on Starz, as per FlixPatrol. Smart, subversive, and boundary-pushing in the way it presented a lesbian relationship in a mainstream Hollywood production without either lead’s LGBTQ+ status being central to the narrative, there’s plenty going on underneath the hood worthy of attention.

The Wachowskis made a career out of blazing a technological trail, but Bound showed from the beginning that they were ready to upend the formula regardless of genre.

via Summit Entertainment

Given that their output for the last 20 years and change has almost exclusively involved high concept sci-fi dealing with so much existentialism that it borders on the pretentious, it’s easy to forget the Wachowskis made their feature-length debut as writers and directors on $6 million crime thriller Bound in 1996.

A million miles away from anything the siblings have ever made since, the noir-tinged story finds Gina Gershon’s fresh out of prison Corky embarking on a passionate affair with Jennifer Tilly’s Violet, before the star-crossed pair concoct an ambitiously dangerous scheme to help her escape from her violent gangster boyfriend with the help of $2 million in mob money.

In the buildup to Bound‘s release, a great deal of the headlines were seized by the sex scenes and shocking bursts of violence, but there’s so much more to the film than just surface-level titillation and shock value. A 90 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and 83 percent user rating underlines that fact, even if it ended up tanking at the box office with a meager $7 million haul.

Cult classics always have a way of circling back around, though, and that’s precisely what’s been happening this week with Bound after it reemerged from the shadows to become one of the top-viewed titles on Starz, as per FlixPatrol. Smart, subversive, and boundary-pushing in the way it presented a lesbian relationship in a mainstream Hollywood production without either lead’s LGBTQ+ status being central to the narrative, there’s plenty going on underneath the hood worthy of attention.

The Wachowskis made a career out of blazing a technological trail, but Bound showed from the beginning that they were ready to upend the formula regardless of genre.