
The Loveless. 1982. USA. Written and directed by Kathryn Bigelow, Monty Montgomery. With Willem Dafoe, Robert Gordon, Marin Kanter. 35mm. 83 min.
In 1959 a group of bikers en route to the races at Daytona get waylaid in a rural Georgia town—“a veritable Walker Evans theme-park consisting of a diner, a garage, a motel, and a honky-tonk” (J. Hoberman, The Village Voice). The film studiously examines Americana, personified by the film’s loitering youths, languidly revealing a simmering tension that culminates in stylized chaos.