Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Tacticalin An absolute waste of money

Borgarkeri A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

caseymoviemania Before director Kathryn Bigelow became widely recognizable with her later effort in 1987's NEAR DARK, 1991's POINT BREAK, 1995's STRANGE DAYS and of course, right down to 2009's Oscar-winning war drama THE HURT LOCKER, she made her first feature debut in a low-budget independent drama called THE LOVELESS when she was still studying in NYC as a film student. THE LOVELESS is a stylized and eccentric genre movie that pays homage to 1950s biker movies (notably Marlon Brando's THE WILD ONE) with art-house sensibility. This movie is also notable as Willem Dafoe's first lead role.Set in 1950s, the story centers on Vance (Dafoe), a leather-clad biker who rides into a small Southern town where he supposes to meet up with his fellow motorcycle gang at a cafe somewhere at Highway 17. Their plan is to head over to Daytona Beach for the races, but they forced to postpone for a while when one of their motorcycles breaks down. While waiting the broken motorcycle to get fixed in a nearby garage, Vance and his motorcycle gang hang around at the cafe. Along the process, Vance flirts a bit with a widowed waitress named Augusta (Liz Gans). She also hooks up with Telena (Marin Kanter), the rebellious teenage daughter of a psychotic father, Tarver (J. Don Ferguson).THE LOVELESS is also co-directed by Monty Montgomery, who is best known for producing David Lynch's WILD AT HEART (1990). Both he and Bigelow favors a lot in fetishism (mostly close-up on leather outfit, motorcycle, chrome) that it's quite mesmerizing to watch their stylized eroticization of a '50s biker culture. Somewhere in between, you can also see Bigelow's earlier attempt in lurid direction that will later becoming one of her trademarks in her subsequent movies. Despite its low-budget standard, the visual is adequate enough for this kind of genre, while Robert Gordon's (who also appeared as an actor here, playing one of Vance's motorcycle gang member named Davis) rock soundtrack is a standout. As for Willem Dafoe, he made quite an impression playing a stoic lead character.But most of the movie is a disappointment. Despite clocking at a brief 82 minutes, the movie can be excruciatingly tough to sit through. The pace is deliberately slow to a crawl, especially in the long-winded first hour. Here, the movie lingers in a circle as we watch the characters sit around and talk about nothing in particular. Other times we see them stare silently into space, waiting for something to happen, and all the mundane tasks that goes on and on. The purposefully-stylized dialogues, which meant to be cool, are mostly borderline into self-parody. Meanwhile, the sudden burst of violence that occurs in the final act, fails to deliver any would-be shocking impact.Suffice to say, THE LOVELESS isn't much of a recommended effort, other than those who always curious to see how Bigelow and Dafoe get started during their early careers.www.caseymoviemania.blogspot.com

Martin Teller Kathryn Bigelow's first feature, as well as Willem Dafoe's first credited role. Dafoe plays a 1950's biker who rolls into a small Georgia town en route to Daytona and meets up with some biker friends. The locals treat them with a mixture of fascination and contempt. But this isn't EASY RIDER or THE WILD ONE... its moody atmosphere plays more like a meeting of Kenneth Anger and David Lynch. Eerie bright colors, an aura of sleazy cool, homoerotic imagery, long lingering shots, smoky score and hip soundtrack. I found it fascinating and it unexpectedly drew me into its world. Some of the performances are weak and some of the writing is corny, but ultimately these flaws just add to the sense of iconography at play, a kind of mythical recreation of archetypes from another time. These characters (both the bikers and the townsfolk) are indeed "loveless", living without drive, detachedly picking up cheap kicks wherever they can. I really enjoyed watching this stylish, elegiac film.

Lilcount There are two things I liked about this film: the opening, featuring Willem Dafoe, a motorcycle, and a sunrise; and the excellent recreation of the late 1950's. That's all. The rest is turgid.The script, with equal portions of blame allotted to co-directors Kathryn Bigelow and Monty Montgomery, is the problem. Everything is boring. Even the sex scenes are boring.I saw this film at MOMA, and Bigelow herself conducted a Q-and-A after the show. She said at the time she made this film she was interested in the process by which audiences identify with characters on the big screen. Sad to say, there is not a single character with whom this audience member could identify. In fact, I felt positively invited to view the entire cast with condescension and/or contempt.The drawback to starting one's career with a masterpiece like "Citizen Kane" is there's no place to go but downhill. I'll give Bigelow credit for one thing at least. She left plenty of room for improvement.

Johnboy1221 I love Near Dark, and consider it an absolute classic vampire movie....right up at the top of the list of the best, but this film. Whew! What can I say? A boring biker movie? Yeah, and then some. It's all talk and no action.I stayed with it to the end, hoping for a big finish, but it didn't happen. I guess I had worked myself up for a big Tarantino-like shootout in the bar, and it was over almost too soon to catch, if you blinked. Too bad. At least a blood bath at the end might have given me something to enjoy.I'm also a big fan of Willem Defoe, and he's very good in what little he does. One could still see the potential for greatness that would follow.I guess what really disappointed me the most was that I wasn't convinced that this was a real biker gang at all, just actors pretending to be bikers. They talk a lot, smoke cigarettes a lot, and drink beer a lot, but there's no real tension here, and ultimately the "bikers" turn out to be about like everyone else. There's no rumbles, no fights, just talking....long periods of talking.Still, if she never makes another movie, Katherine Bigelow can at least say that she made the best vampire movie ever produced. Near Dark rocks.