Starring Willem Defoe and jointly directed by Monty Montgomery and Kathryn Bigelow, all in their feature debuts, The Loveless (1981) follows a motorcycle gang who pull up in a small town on their way to Daytona so they can fix up one of their bikes. Their disrespect towards the town and its residence leads to both a disdain from its older residents, and morbid curiosity from its younger ones, with the underlying, bubbling tension eventually spilling over into violence.
I’m not entirely sure where to start with this one. I don’t think I liked it, but I didn’t dislike it. It has some decent moments and could have been interesting, but it mostly feels directionless narratively and so it is hard to get to grips with it. The problem I am having though, is I’m unsure whether that is what the film was going for. Maybe it was influenced by the films of the French New Wave which had as little plot as possible and were more slice of life films, but at the same time it feels like it is trying to have at least somewhat of a narrative through line. It feels a bit confused in this sense, but then again if that is what it was going for then it just happens that it isn’t the kind of film for me. One thing I did not like was the soundtrack for the film. Not for the soundtrack itself which is fine and helps place the film in the era it is set, but it is almost always there, and I just found it a bit grating. I cannot criticise the direction however which is very solid, and there are a couple of moments where you can really see the talent of the filmmakers shining through and it doesn’t surprise me that they went on to have successful careers, and in the case of Kathryn Bigelow becoming an Oscar winner. And of course, Willem Defoe remains great in the film. It is a little more understated then perhaps he has become well know for, but he still has that endless charisma and screen presence, and he continues to be one of my favourite actors. This review feels slightly vague and directionless, but I guess that it matches the film in that way. While I was watching it, I thought of one or two people I might recommend it to because it seems up their street, but I don’t think I would broadly recommend it.
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