The Bikeriders Review | Austin Butler, Tom Hardy & Jodie Comer Lead Multilayered Exploration of a Biker Gang

Summary

• Jeff Nichols’ film, The Bikeriders, explores the deep sense of belonging and loyalty within a fictional biker gang, delving into their stories and unique forms of loneliness.
• The film portrays the power struggle between Kathy and Johnny over Benny, highlighting the conflicting desires for stability and adventure within this subculture.
• Despite the lack of real meaning in the characters’ lives, The Bikeriders is a captivating and poignant cinematic experience that immerses viewers in the world of these enigmatic and emotionally fragile men.

As revered psychiatrist William Glasser once claimed, a sense of belonging is one of a human’s five genetic requirements, alongside survival, love, power, and freedom. This insatiable inner-yearning to feel a fundamental part of something, whether that be a cause, organization, group, or relationship, takes front and center stage in Jeff Nichols’ upcoming film, The Bikeriders. Based loosely on photojournalist Danny Lyon’s 1968 picture-book of the same name, we are taken on the back of a sea of growling Harley-Davidson’s across Midwestern America as a fictional biker gang establish their notorious, cult-like status.

Revving into action in ‘60s Chicago, we are immediately introduced to a hunched over Austin Butler sitting at a dingy, low-lit bar with “Chicago Vandals” emblazoned on the back of his leather jacket. After a leg-breaking altercation with some disgruntled regulars, the voice of Kathy (Jodie Comer) assumes control of narration duties, for this is a tale of unwavering loyalty, love, and a search for purpose and belonging told through the retrospective lens of the non-rhotic New Yorker.

Tom Hardy and Austin Butler

The Bikeriders

Release Date December 1, 2023

Director Jeff Nichols

Cast Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, Mike Faist, Boyd Holbrook

Rating R

Runtime 1hr 56min

The Vandals are the birth-child of head-honcho, Johnny, portrayed exceptionally by the ever-squinting, rough-and-ready heartthrob, Tom Hardy. A truck-driver by day, the gang’s leader builds the group from the ground up, from a disorganized rabble to a heavy-metal-like, leather-clad, revered and feared organization. The bikers are made up of an eclectic assortment of societal misfits, each with their own stories to tell, and their own unique form of loneliness that permeates from within.

Johnny’s second in-command, Benny, is presented by the forever-smoldering Austin Butler, who has ostensibly never come off the Elvis-induced cloud he floated away on under Baz Luhrmann. Butler’s Benny is coolness personified, making girlfriend and future wife, Kathy, weak at the knees during their first encounter at the Vandals’ club. Benny’s a man of few words, and thus laconic in nature, arguably smoking more cigarettes than he does forming basic utterances. There is an irresistible mystique to this anti-hero, whose nomadic existence makes him thoroughly unpredictable.

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Everything We Know About The Bikeriders

Nichols’ Exploration of Biker Brotherhood and Loyalty

20th Century Studios 

Over the course of this half-black-and-white, half-polychromatic hybrid, Nichols does a fine job at delving deep into this peculiar subculture, built around money, power, an unbreakable brotherhood, and, of course, motorcycles. This sworn loyalty is at the film’s very heart as a power struggle between Kathy and Johnny ensues over Benny, with Kathy wanting her man to leave this volatile life of criminality behind before he gets himself killed, while Johnny attempts to persuade him to become the heir to this badass biker mini-kingdom.

The Bikeriders is not only beautifully shot by Nichols’ long-term collaborator and cinematographer, Adam Stone, but Nichols himself realizes his vision of tapping into a previously untapped breed. There’s always been an air of mystique around these groups of bearded men that usually look an awful lot like Michael Shannon’s Zipco and Norman Reedus’ Funny Sonny (members of the Vandals), so infiltrating this band of brothers is something that Nichols does superbly.

Comer puts in a career-defining display, guiding this picture with wit, charm, and a killer Northeastern accent reminiscent of a mob-boss’ wife. There’s a steely resolve to her that doesn’t let this emotionally incompetent group of men get the better of her. This is a film as much about the toxic world of masculinity as it is about the wily strength and emotional maturity of a single woman who isn’t afraid to defy what is expected of her societal position in the 1960s States.

Related:

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The Changing of the Guard and the Meaning of Life in a Biker Gang

20th Century Studios

As the years tick on, and the group grows in number and notoriety, Johnny’s appreciation for his own mortality and disdain of the extremist approach many of the younger members have taken, leads the future of his leadership and the group in doubt. And thus, the direction of the entire organization is thrown into disarray, as the question of “fists or knives?” turns into “knives or guns?” without him even knowing.

While this entire biker world is built on grappling with existentialism, there is an inherent emptiness and stark lack of meaning and purpose to their respective existences. These weekend offenders are a contradiction, a confusion of men in crisis, with their alpha-male stance and mega-macho outlook, yet plagued by the fragility of the male ego. Other than drinking, fighting, and forming this insular men’s legion, these pseudo-gangsters have precious little going on, yet narratively, director and screenwriter Nichols does a flawless job of making The Bikeriders into an all-absorbing piece of cinema and, despite the group’s lack of real meaning, there is a depth and eloquent poignancy in everything The Bikeriders depicts.

Like Johnny is inspired by Marlon Brando in The Wild One, it’s certainly foreseeable that people will want to put the pedal to the metal and become bikers themselves after watching.

The theatrical release date for The Bikeriders was originally set for December 2nd, 2023, but due to the SAG-AFTRA strikes, the film’s release has been delayed. You can watch the trailer below:

You can view the original article HERE.