The Loveless

One may feel a bit empty by the closing titles of 1981's THE LOVELESS, and it could be no other way. This short, tawdry drama set in the 1950's is like some second rate Southern Gothic, but long on style and mood and short on plot.  The film goes "nowhere, fast", the same words used by Vance (Willem Dafoe, in his debut), speaking of himself and his motorcycle gang compadres while they drink and smoke the night away in a dreary bar in the sad little Georgia town in which they're stranded, until one of their bikes gets fixed.  They're headed to Daytona Beach to..... do probably much the same thing.

Vance is established in the opening scenes as a punk, someone who changes a woman's flat tire and then extorts money for it, coping a feel before moving on.  You may notice that he never answers or really responds to anyone; he just says something else.  His buddies show up later at the local diner, more punks who talk tough and hide deep insecurities.  Everyone talks tough in THE LOVELESS, and I guess the locals earn that right for living such sad lives.  Telena (Marin Kanter) is a boyish vamp who trades causticisms with Vance and of course fancies the badass.  Maybe all the townspeople, despite their disapproving maws and harsh summations, envy these leather jacketed nomads. Fact, the local mechanic even states he'd even like to trade places with them for a day or two.  Even after he calls them animals.

The makings are here for a memorable little parable, something almost literary, but THE LOVELESS has higher aspirations than results.  Comparisons to THE WILD ONE are fair.  Writers/directors Kathryn Bigelow and Monty Montgomery, in their debuts, are far better visual artists than wordsmiths, although their characters do get to toss off a few amusing lines:

I knew I was going to hell in a breadbasket.

He's probably off tuning his sideburns.

The film could be called a moving art piece.  There are many static shots, others of people locked in meaningful stares.  Many stylish uses of color, cigarette smoke, long and close up camerawork.  The movie is also wall to wall rockabilly music, courtesy of Robert Gordon, who also plays Davis.  It all adds up to an intriguing but forgettable film.  One of its faults are thin characterizations, colorful as they may be.  A death late in the film doesn't really have the emotional impact it should because of it.  Much of the editing by Nancy Kanter is crude.

Some viewers got a David Lynch vibe from THE LOVELESS.  Yeah, I can see that, but only because of the settings and characters.  This has nothing on BLUE VELVET or any incarnation of Twin Peaks.