10 Overlooked First Films By Great Directors
7. The Loveless - Kathryn Bigelow
Jane Campion might have been nominated first, but the first woman to win a Best Director Oscar was Kathryn Bigelow in 2009 with The Hurt Locker.
The fact that she beat James Cameron (her ex-husband) to win this accolade will never not be funny.
Before stealing the show with her war drama, Bigelow was mostly known for action thrillers. She directed Point Break, the movie that gave us that steamy Reeves-Swayze bromance, and K-19: The Widowmaker, easily one of the best submarine-based films of all time.
Really, it's just that and The Hunt for Red October, but shush.
Bigelow's first outing as a director was The Loveless, a precursor to how her marriage to Cameron would turn out.
The film was actually about a group of bikers who roll into a small southern town. Vance, played by Willem Dafoe, becomes entangled with a local girl and her abusive father who wants to rid his settlement of the greasers once and for all.
Tense, moody, and emotionally dense, The Loveless is a great entry point into the catalogue of one of modern cinema's most ground-breaking filmmakers.
Also, Willem Dafoe in leather is never a bad shout.