The Bikeriders has been building up buzz since last year, mostly based around the reported performance of Austin Butler coming off the heels of his Oscar nominated turn in 2022’s Elvis. Now, the film finally hits theaters. The Bikeriders begins with a chance encounter at a local bar, where strong-willed Kathy (Jodie Comer) meets a Midwestern motorcycle club called the Vandals and is instantly smitten with Benny (Austin Butler), its newest member. The Vandals is led by Johnny (Tom Hardy) and being followed by photojournalist Danny (Mike Faist) who is photographing the club and taking down their stories. Soon, the club begins to evolve, transforming from a gathering place for local outsiders into a dangerous underworld of violence, forcing Benny to choose between Kathy and his loyalty to the club.
Undoubtedly, the strength of this film lies in the performances of its actors. The three main characters portrayed by Butler, Hardy, and Comer naturally lead the way, with each adding their own vocal affectations and accents meant to bring alive the ethnic enclaves of 1960s Chicago. None of the actors come across as caricatures of the people they portray however, with Comer’s turn as Kathy standing out as particularly authentic and engaging. She comes across as a genuine depiction of a woman from a working class neighborhood, watching her male loved ones try to navigate the pitfalls awaiting them and worrying for them, but loving them nonetheless. She’s not a just a damsel in distress that watches them spiral without speaking her mind, but supports them without being overly judgmental. Hardy is the gruff, tough and intimidating guy we’ve grown accustomed to him playing, but isn’t rote while doing it. His Johnny is an engaging watch whose presence is always felt when he appears onscreen. Butler continues his meteoric rise in Hollywood as Benny, who joins with Comer’s Kathy to provide the bulk of the film’s emotional piece as we watch both their relationship and Benny’s with Johnny and the slowly evolving club. But the quality performances aren’t just limited to The Bikeriders’ stars, supporting cast members like Michael Shannon and Norman Reedus complement them well with their own authentic turns as club members with their own idiosyncrasies. The supporting cast of the film contributes to its natural feel and offers characters that provide richness to the scenery.
Its story focuses on the life cycle of the motorcycle club started by Johnny after he watches the landmark 1953 Marlon Brando film The Wild One while at home with his family. And indeed, Bikeriders’ first half specifically feels at times like a modern update of that film with Tom Hardy portraying Johnny doing his best to embody Brando’s Johnny Strabler character. As time goes on and American culture changes from the Norman Rockwell comfortably rebellious 1950s, early 1960s into the 1970s where America has lost its innocence post-assassinations and Watergate, the club Johnny started similarly goes from a slightly rough social group into something more sinister and criminal as it is inundated by younger, more sociopathic members. The parallel trajectory of the country and the club examines the decline of both entities and how it affects the members of the club, both old and new, as they seek to belong to something that gives them meaning and a place to fit in. The concept is an interesting one substantively, but its execution onscreen doesn’t have the same heft. Instead, The Bikeriders mostly meanders after the first act and opts to just follow the lives of its characters as they unfold in lieu of offering any deeper commentary on them or the world around them. The film is based on a photo documentary book and the film plays out in a manner that suggests the source material is exactly that, just a documentary and not a compelling story or narrative. The end result is a film that has loads of potential and starts off interestingly, but then loses steam it’s never able to regain, no matter how fine of a job its actors do. The Bikeriders mostly feels like a lost opportunity and a tease for something that could’ve been greater.
Image: Focus Features
