Many would say a choice between the love of your life or a community built on booze, fighting and motorcycles would’t be a hard choice. But if you leave the motorcycle community in the 1960’s, you might be giving up more than just your colors when it’s all said and done.
This is the choice that Benny (Austin Butler) must make after running for years with the notorious Chicago motorcycle club led by the rough and stoic Johnny (Tom Hardy). The Bikeriders follows the fictional story of the creation of a 1960’s motorcycle club, Vandals MC. Directed by Jeff Nichols and inspired by the 1967 photo book of the same name, we follow Benny, Johnny and Kathy, played by the brilliant Jodie Comer, who serves as the narrator and the main point of view, through which we discover the origins of midwest motorcycle gangs.
First of all, the performances are all top-tier and it all starts with Jodie Comer. The English actor totally embodies the midwest accent to evoke a sweetness, but also an edge that is required to pal around with these hardcore bikers. As the audience avatar she does a sublime job bringing us into this world and strips away the gruff leather clad exterior that these men posses. For example, when bringing in the character Johnny, played by Tom Hardy, she explains he is a short road truck driver with a family. The way Nichols, who also serves as the screenwriter, weaves these lines of exposition in so perfectly. Comer steals the film for me with her charm and quirkiness, but never giving into violence or the usual hardcore female counterpart to the main protagonist.
That brings us to Austin Butler. He just oozes charisma and really doesn’t need to say much. He is played up as a mystery. We never learn about his backstory and that seems to be the point. The moment he hits the screen you can see why Kathy is awestruck as he lurks over the pool table at the bar of their first meeting, muscles perfectly toned and his dirty blond hair a perfect mess. He is the man at the center of the film and is used as the connective tissue between Johnny and Kathy. His charisma is magnetic, which is why both Johnny and Kathy struggle to make him completely their own. He does a fantastic job portraying his love of the open road and his love of Kathy. He is an actor that says so much without saying a word. It is a skill that takes most actors a whole career to master. I would love to see Butler go big a little more in the future.
The struggle is centered around Johnny’s need to have a successor for the Vandals MC and for Kathy’s desire to live peacefully with her husband Benny. This is only one of the plots that The Bikeriders tries to tackle. A growing faction of new members who are becoming more and more interested in partaking in the illicit activities of a motorcycle group rather than the community that Johnny was trying to build. The issue that I had was there were so many rich stories to discover in the film, and it felt as if Nichols really wanted to show as much of this community as possible, but would always eventually veer right back to conflict between Benny, Johnny and Kathy.
It is usually a good to keep the focus on your main characters, but there were so many interesting moments outside of the core three. Like where this new guy from California shows up and reveals he was sent to rough up a Vandals member for not turning in his colors and just joins the group. Another possible plot to follow was when a young up-and-comer, played by Toby Wallace, tries to challenge Johnny and is turned away, which becomes a revenge plot revisited towards the end of the film. The acting by all of the players is on another level. With actors like Mike Faist, who was already in a box office smash in Challengers, and seasoned professionals like Michael Shannon and Damon Herriman playing smaller roles, but just eating up the screen in the best possible way. It just left me desiring more in terms of plot and pacing.
Authenticity is a huge thing for me and you can tell this was shot in the midwest where it is set. Cinematographer Adam Stone delivers electric shots of motorcycle clutches and boots along with dark moody set pieces around fireplaces and pool halls. He delivers the tone you want of a rough and rumble group of people, but captures the sense of ownership of the places these people inhabit.
Against a budget of $40 million I can see this film doing relatively well at the box office. If my screening was any indication it was pretty full for an afternoon advanced screening on a Thursday. It will ultimately come down to which audiences turn out for the film. Much of my audience was 40 and up and male. If this film wants to inch past it’s $8-$10 million dollar projection, it must capitalize on it’s young stars Austin Butler and Jodie Comer. I also believe that Comer stands out enough to warrant an Oscar run this year and has a really good shot at landing on the ballot next January.
— Written by VSiN’s Brian Ortega
