The Bikeriders (15)

Dedicated family man and truck driver Johnny is inspired to establish The Vandals motorcycle club in 1960s Chicago in response to watching Marlon Brando swagger through The Wild One on his black and white TV set. Johnny assembles a motley crew including level-headed and loyal lieutenant Brucie and dreamboat Benny. Exuberant outsider Kathy falls under Benny's spell at a bar and they marry five weeks into their courtship, shortly before the resident dreamboat is the victim of a violent assault.

LondonNet Film Review

The Bikeriders (15) Film Review from LondonNet

Inspired by photojournalist Danny Lyon’s 1968 book dedicated to the camaraderie of the Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club, The Bikeriders lights a slow-burning fuse on doomed romance and lawlessness at a pivotal moment in American history. The Vietnam War casts a long shadow over writer-director Jeff Nichols’ wistful drama, which is framed as a series of interviews in 1965 and 1973 between Lyons (Mike Faist) and a straight-talking young woman named Kathy (Jodie Comer), who gatecrashes a testosterone-soaked fraternity on two wheels…

Comer vividly embodies this real-life chatterbox with an unfaltering, melodic accent that imbues her narration with warmth and humour. On-screen chemistry with Oscar-nominated Elvis star Austin Butler smoulders and Tom Hardy leverages his imposing physicality to dominate scenes as the motorcycle club founder who insists that challenges to his authority should be settled in public using bare knuckles or knives. Explosions of violence are graphic but dramatically necessary including a wince-inducing altercation with a shovel and a vivid depiction of domestic abuse. An attempted sexual assault during a booze-sodden party is staged with nerve-shredding brio. The plot drifts aimlessly for extended periods and some characters are sketched in broad strokes for the sake of expediency but Nichols evokes a doom-laden era and the biker culture with conviction.

Dedicated family man and truck driver Johnny (Hardy) is inspired to establish The Vandals motorcycle club in 1960s Chicago in response to watching Marlon Brando swagger through The Wild One on his black and white TV set. Johnny assembles a motley crew including level-headed and loyal lieutenant Brucie (Damon Herriman), Benny (Butler), Cal (Boyd Holbrook), Zipco (Michael Shannon), Cockroach (Emory Cohen), Wahoo (Beau Knapp) and Corky (Karl Glusman). Exuberant outsider Kathy (Comer) falls under Benny’s spell at a bar and they marry five weeks into their courtship, shortly before the resident dreamboat is the victim of a violent assault. Johnny exacts swift and brutal revenge.

Realising The Vandals will always exert a vice-like grip over her husband, Kathy fights for her sweetheart’s tormented soul. “You can’t have him. The club can’t have him. He’s mine!” she snarls at Johnny. However, love is no match for the siren song of a revved motorcycle engine. A steady influx of drug-addled new club members, including traumatised Vietnam War veterans, ultimately sounds a death knell to Johnny’s imperious reign.

The Bikeriders is a handsomely crafted study of leather-jacketed machismo that stubbornly refuses to shift into top gear. The script unfolds through the eyes of Comer’s interloper, who is both intoxicated and horrified by her husband’s unwavering devotion to the brotherhood. Gently simmering romance shares a saddle with tragedy but Nichols’ picture requires more fuel in the tank to firmly convince us to be in his gang for two hours.

– Jo Planter