The Loveless (Kathryn Bigelow & Monty Montgomery, 1982)

Bigelow's first feature and also that of Willem Dafoe as the lead, this film noir-biker flick hybrid sees a gang of young motorcycle punks ride into a Deep South one-road town and upset the locals. It's basically a more violent and graphic version of The Wild One with the added realism making the behaviour of the directionless scumbags less tolerable, but then the redneck townsfolk don't exactly command respect either. Its main message, such as there is one, is that folks are shit and 'We're going nowhere. Fast', in the words of Dafoe's laconic gangleader. It does have a certain style and pithiness of expression, but it's a very unpolished work and stands up less than well against, say, the Coens' Blood Simple from a few years later.

5/10