Watch The Loveless For Free

Better Late Then Never

As Good As It Gets

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

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.

Actually, I haven't seen "The Wild One" lately, but just re-watched "The Loveless" on DVD. To my thinking, if you like Terrence Malick's movies, this is like finding a "lost" one, although maybe a little less intelligent. "Rumble Fish" would be another close comparison. This is very worthwhile, as long as you're in the mood for mood. Even though it has a story, that's not really the point. It's "biker Noir"...not a whole lot of point to it, but very beautiful. And Willem Dafoe is in it, so that's a sure thing. And Robert Gordon, too. One bonus... the bikers are on their way to Daytona, and there's some actual old Daytona footage, when it was races on the beach, on the sand. That's the kind of authenticity this movie brings, capturing things that really don't exist anymore. If you're a fan of getting a glass Coca- Cola bottle out of a machine, this is for you.

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.

I think this movie comes closest to what bikers experience while on the road. Boredom, waiting, mechanical problems, prejudice of the locals. I have done many transcontinental motorcycle rides alone, and this one captures it best. You're not going to come across Timothy Leary in the middle of nowhere (Roadside Prophets), or pick up Nicholson and get blown away (Easy Rider). There are long stretches where absolutely nothing happens. There is a scene where Dafoe sits in the bar and it is filmed in real time, security-camera style. Unbearable minutes go by and nothing happens at all, while a gorgeous Brenda Lee song "I Want To Be Wanted" plays in the background.The loneliness of riding alone and coming into town alone is what makes this movie poignant and beautiful in a quiet way.This movie is also a rockabilly heaven. Eddy Dixon's superb opening song Relentless is possibly one of the most difficult songs to find in print. NYC rockabilly singer Robert Gordon also serves up some over-the-top method acting here. DaFoe's narrative voice is already wonderful here, as is Bigelow's filmmaking style. Sometimes I explain this movie to people as one where the tables are turned and men get objectified. It's an interesting dynamic to see what mainstream films have done for so long to women done to men.The plot is about a group of bikers who are en route to Florida to see some auto/bike racing. They are coming from different states and planning to converge at a meeting point. One of the biker's Harleys break down and there is a delay that holds them up in a small Georgia town. Dafoe runs into a daughter of a redneck at a gas station and hooks up there. Everything finally hits the fan at the local bar.Lots of nice shots of vintage bikes. Harley shovelheads and knuckleheads are in effect throughout the movie.