Mark Kermode on… Kathryn Bigelow, a stylish ruffler of feathers

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From vampire noir to Bin Laden, Point Break to Detroit, the first woman to win an Oscar for best director has never pulled her punches Watching new Jeff Nichols release The Bikeriders , starring Austin Butler and Tom Hardy as 60s Chicago greasers, I was reminded of two other movies: László Benedek’s 1953 Marlon Brando vehicle The Wild One , explicitly cited as an inspiration, and The Loveless , the 1981 feature debut of Kathryn Bigelow , the American film-maker (b.1951) who would go on to become the first woman to win a best director Oscar with her 2008 war drama The Hurt Locker . A symphony of leather-clad posing (with just a touch of Kenneth Anger ), The Loveless was a staple of the late-night circuit in the 80s, often on a double bill with David Lynch’s Eraserhead . Sharing directing credits with Monty Montgomery, Bigelow playfully deconstructed masculinity and machismo in a manner that was one part wry to two parts relish. I remember seeing The Loveless at the Phoenix in East
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Muzzle review – Aaron Eckhart out-acted by German shepherd in cop-mutt thriller

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Eckhart can’t match his canine co-star (with titanium teeth) in this shonky and forgettable police thriller

No offence to Aaron Eckhart, but “Sad Aaron” doesn’t quite have the same emotional thwack to the soft parts as “Sad Keanu”. Like John Wick, Muzzle begins with a dead doggie, and Eckhart plays LAPD officer Jake Rosser, an army veteran with PTSD; his only meaningful relationship is with his K9 partner, a German shepherd called Ace. There’s an excruciating scene setting up their deep bond, Rosser musing on the misuse of the word “literally” as he drives to work, Ace listening dutifully in the passenger seat next to him.

When Ace is killed in a shootout, Rosser finds himself embroiled in a police scandal. Footage emerges from the crime scene of him head-butting a paramedic who insists – quite reasonably, you might think – on treating human casualties first. After a few sessions with the police therapist, Rosser is back on the job and out for revenge. His new partner is Socks, an aggressive mutt traumatised by an undercover job which involved her being fitted with titanium teeth.

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