I was more than a little surprised when Kathryn Bigelow bagged herself a best director Oscar for The Hurt Locker; I enjoyed Near Dark, Blue Steel and Point Break, but there was nothing to suggest an Academy Award in her future. Having just watched her debut feature The Loveless, I'm surprised that she went on to have a career in film-making of any kind, let alone winning the most coveted gong of them all.
This film should have been called The Plotless. Or perhaps The Pointless. Or, as my daughter suggested, The Lifeless. There is no story to speak of - just 80 or so minutes of leather-clad '50s bikers lounging around a dusty nowheresville truck stop while they fix one of their motorcycles.
Apparently it's 'mood piece' that aims for atmosphere over narrative. This means that when one character asks a question, the other person stares meaningfully for about thirty seconds before grunting a reply. The bikers smoke a lot, comb their hair a lot, and drink a lot (beer, coffee, coke), brooding as they do so. Eventually, greaser Vance (Willem Dafoe, here looking relatively normal) hooks up with a pretty, young tearaway called Telena (Marin Kanter), which upsets her sweaty, gun-toting father. This leads to an altercation in a cocktail lounge which ends with Telena shooting her father and then herself (the only remotely interesting part of the whole film).
After the dust has settled, the bikers climb back on their bikes and hit the blacktop, presumably to hang out in another bar or diner for some more drinking, smoking and combing of hair.
1/10. It's really not my bag, daddio.
This film should have been called The Plotless. Or perhaps The Pointless. Or, as my daughter suggested, The Lifeless. There is no story to speak of - just 80 or so minutes of leather-clad '50s bikers lounging around a dusty nowheresville truck stop while they fix one of their motorcycles.
Apparently it's 'mood piece' that aims for atmosphere over narrative. This means that when one character asks a question, the other person stares meaningfully for about thirty seconds before grunting a reply. The bikers smoke a lot, comb their hair a lot, and drink a lot (beer, coffee, coke), brooding as they do so. Eventually, greaser Vance (Willem Dafoe, here looking relatively normal) hooks up with a pretty, young tearaway called Telena (Marin Kanter), which upsets her sweaty, gun-toting father. This leads to an altercation in a cocktail lounge which ends with Telena shooting her father and then herself (the only remotely interesting part of the whole film).
After the dust has settled, the bikers climb back on their bikes and hit the blacktop, presumably to hang out in another bar or diner for some more drinking, smoking and combing of hair.
1/10. It's really not my bag, daddio.