The Bikeriders (2024)

[AngieBee1]

Written and directed by Jeff Nichols (Midnight Special, Loving) and originally slated for a December 2023 is THE BIKERIDERS which was inspired by Danny Lyon's photobook of the same name that featured The Outlaws Motorcycle Club.

Starring Jodie Comer, Tom Hardy, Austin Butler and a slew of excellent character actors in fairly small roles (Michael Shannon, Damon Herriman, Boyd Holbrook Karl Glusman and Beau Knapp), THE BIKERIDERS is a surprisingly near meditative film about belonging. I think people may expect it to be action packed and rough and tumble, but to me it's more about community and the growing pains that comes with life.

Opening in the mid to late sixties, Kathy (Jodie Comer) is recounting to Danny Lyon (Mike Faist) her entry into the circle of The Vandals by way of getting involved with member Benny (Butler). Coupled with Lyons interviews with the other members, we get a look into the lives of these riders under their leader Johnny (Tom Hardy).

For all the promo Butler is doing, the film really focuses on Comer's Kathy and Hardy's Johnny and their tug-of-war for Benny, with Butler seemingly used as a symbolic and idealized figure of a motorcycle rider: one just seeking freedom on the road. 

Very interesting film. If I had one complaint I wish it had gone deeper into (what they only touched on) how the bike culture changed from being a sort of social club to criminal enterprise. 

[chediavolo]

It was violent from the start.  Never a fun loving social club. Gang/herd mentality & the promise of riches from drug dealing.  The social club aspect was never a mild one. These were men who, for the most part, came back from war with PTSD & received no help. They turned to each other & it became like ruminating is in the psych world. All that anger & mental stress exploded. Misogyny, prejudice, racism, sexism, hatred, greed. 

[AimingforYoko]

I was a little disappointed. Midnight Special is my favorite movie of the previous decade and this was so by the numbers. 

And I love Jodie Comer, but that accent was straight out of the SNL Superfans sketch. 

[Shannon L.]

I didn't hate it, but I did think it was a little slow.  I expected it to be more intense.  I thought Comer* was great, but since she was narrating and Kathy's partner/husband was Benny, and since Comer and Butler got top billing, I expected a lot more about him specifically.  

*I did think her accent was kind of off, but I know some people who have really thick accents, and I have no idea what an Illinois accent sounds like. 

[One4Sorrow2TooBad]

Chicago accent sounds like Detective Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) on NYPD Blue. 

[Laurie4H]

I really liked it.  Acting good and I love the era.  
 

Did they say what Benny and Kathy did for a living?  They had a house but was it ever said how they had money?

[lasu]

I thought it started great, and went downhill. I was holding back laughter in the theater towards the end. I was pretty disappointed,  although just staring at Butler was worth the price of admission.

[isalicat]

Well, I thought it was great from start to finish - wonderful acting and amazing evocation of the period. Nothing really happens until the end (and you can see it coming all the way through really) and I really did not care...just a brilliant step into a place and time that is gone forever.

(Disclaimer: I will watch pretty much *anything* with Tom Hardy and/or Jodie Comer in it - you add Austin Butler and this cat has got her cream 😸).

[Linderhill]

On 7/1/2024 at 8:21 AM, Laurie4H said:

Did they say what Benny and Kathy did for a living?  They had a house but was it ever said how they had money?

that was one of my questions too.  Besides mentioning that Benny working in a garage but not what how they paid their bills.

[chediavolo]

Based on a book of photographs taken from the 60s to the 70s I think. This movie was horrible. What a waste of Tom Hardy. Only thing I could relate to was the Vietnam vets came back and started joining MC clubs, it all started getting out of control . Which attests to the bigger problem of post traumatic stress disorder being left untreated along with out of control testosterone in a group/gang setting but otherwise the movie was just hard to watch.