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Lead Critic for the site, as well as serving as an editor when needed.
Austin Butler seems to be the King of the Summer. Beginning with 2019’s Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, his following films—with the exception of Dune: Part Two—are all huge summer releases, including this summer’s The Bikeriders.
Written and directed by Jeff Nichols (Midnight Special), the film is inspired by journalist Danny Lyon’s photobook of the same name. His photobook is full of pictures and interviews of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, based in a suburb outside Chicago, Illinois.
Community & Family
Nichols based his screenplay on the club aspect and built his story and characters around that. The Bikeriders presents the Vandals MC, and their trials and tribulations during the same time period. The audience is introduced to Benny (Butler), who just screams cool right through the camera, without even trying. Butler is surely a bonafide movie star by now. He drips with echoes of those twentieth-century icons, such as Marlon Brando, James Dean, and Steve McQueen. The Bikeriders also has a similar atmosphere to some of their own films, such as Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause and Peter Yates’s Bullitt.
A core aspect of the film revolves around its need for the characters to have a community for themselves. Benny, who speaks only when he deems it necessary, is continually in search of this sense of community, and ultimately, happiness. Likewise, Tom Hardy’s Johnny doesn’t really believe in his own family, so he creates one in the Vandals. After watching Brando in László Benedek’s The Wild One, Johnny seemingly gets the idea to create a biker community.
The story itself is presented pretty linearly. Quite nicely, Kathy (Jodie Comer), is presented as being interviewed throughout the film’s events by Danny Lyon (Mike Faist) while also seemingly narrating the film. Butler and Comer are great on-screen and have fantastic chemistry. Benny is constantly caught between his love for Kathy, the club, and Johnny. It is implied Benny never really had a father figure in his life, and Johnny is arguably the closest he has to one. Johnny is also caught between his feelings for what truly makes him happy, which is probably the club. It’s quite interesting to see Benny stare at what he really needs most, right in the face of Kathy. He constantly retorts and goes back to the club, but how far is too far?
Devolvement
To see characters devolve on screen is sometimes more fun than evolving. Johnny has constant power over the Vandals and its members, however, he often lets them go too far. The Vandals eventually grow too big for one man to truly maintain within a good light. The Bikeriders eventually introduces The Kid (Toby Wallace), who witnesses Johnny and the Vandals at their peak ride through town. The Kid and his friends become a club of their own and attempt to join the Vandals.
Johnny ultimately vetoes their self-recruitment, and seemingly somehow, they end up in another chapter of the Vandals. This was probably inevitable anyway. Once The Kid comes back, he challenges Johnny for leadership of the Vandals. Expectedly, The Kid murders Johnny in cold blood, and Kathy narrates how the Vandals eventually became a fully-fledged notorious biker gang, committing crime after crime.
This subplot ultimately shows that too much of a good thing can sometimes be a bad thing. Johnny laments this to Kathy before his murder, which it seems he almost knew would happen regardless of how the fight went. It’s a great anecdote for the overall view of the subject matter and seems to remind Johnny just how out of hand he let things get.
Michael Shannon’s Zipco also embodies the most patriotic of Americans at the time. He discusses his rejection of the draft board several times throughout the film. It’s nothing major, but Nichols touching on veteran affairs occurring at the same time as a major war was nice. It doesn’t feel like it is satirizing the Vietnam veteran or supporters (or opposers). Rather, the film simply uses Zipco to comment on the complexity of the war, as there were so many factors to it.
A Really Cool Lead
Austin Butler seems to be choosing the most distinct roles. With The Bikeriders, his presence within a scene alone can pull the audience further into the film. All you want to do is watch this cool, relaxed biker bro ride his bike away from the slow cop cars. Butler is the perfect lead for this film. Although, perhaps one of the film’s few flaws is its desire to show more of Johnny than Benny during the second act. Ultimately, however, Benny does choose Kathy.
Benny is one of the coolest main characters in cinema, and Butler amplifies the film as such. The relationship between him and the camera is great to watch, and Nichols’s direction is excellent in this regard. The scenes and the shots of motorcycles and their riders are some of the best the film has to offer.
Technical Details
Adam Stone’s cinematography is honestly some of the best of the year. While they could have used a lot of Steadicam for this film, it doesn’t feel like there actually is much use for it, if any, at all. The actual scenes of the cast members on bikes are so smooth and fun.
David Wingo’s (Midnight Special, HBO’s Barry, FX’s Mayans M.C., The Exorcist: Believer) score along with the use of music throughout the film make it that much cooler. Additionally, Julie Monroe’s editing is very slick and smooth, and many of these elements add to the crispness of the film. It even makes you want to sit outside on a fall afternoon in Chicago, which is wild. The film is ultimately so damn cool to just look at.
Final Thoughts on The Bikeriders
The Bikeriders is one of the coolest films of the year. It feels like one you could put on, turn off the sound but watch play out. The film also feels like it could have strong rewatch value; and thematically, its screenplay holds greatness. It also is very chill and crisp in its own right. Austin Butler and Jodie Comer have some nice chemistry; and ultimately, the entire cast makes being a biker look way too cool. The film subtly calls back to others such as The Loveless, and even The Wild One as it’s also shown on screen.
4.5/5 stars.
Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders is playing in theatres everywhere!
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Lead Critic for the site, as well as serving as an editor when needed.
This article was edited by John Tangalin.