Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders is a film about revolution, both on a societal and personal level. Appropriately, Nichols’ film itself feels like an act of revolution; it’s an old-school studio programmer whose primary selling point is the simple pleasure of seeing some genuinely great performers doing some capital-A acting. The Bikeriders is the kind of film that studios relied on in the ’90s but has been largely abandoned in recent years. As blockbusters have become increasingly expensive, the mid-budget film has almost become as outdated a concept as the idea of a ‘movie star’ itself. That’s likely why Nichols’ film, originally set to be released in December of last year by the Disney-owned 20th Century Studios, was ultimately shelved and sold to a different distributor: it feels like an artifact of a bygone era. And yet, in many ways, this is The Bikeriders’ ultimate act of revolution and one that may just be a harbinger of things to come.
TOP FIVE OF “THE BIKERIDERS”
5. The Cast
Not since last year’s release of Oppenheimer has there been a film that also doubles as a veritable cavalcade of recognizable faces. Nearly every single biker that appears in The Bikeriders is either a bona fide star or an actor destined to make you think, “Where do I know this guy from?” for the rest of the movie.
It is genuinely an embarrassment of riches. The headliners, Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, and Tom Hardy, are in a category unto themselves, but the film also features appearances from Michael Shannon, Mike Faist, Norman Reedus, and Boyd Holbrook. Everyone in the ensemble delivers outstanding work, with Nichols’ direction generously affording them the spotlight to shine in gregarious and unexpected ways. I was especially fond of Michael Shannon’s rambling and untethered performance as a member of the Vandals who was just as likely to indulge the group with raucous dirty jokes as he was to launch into monologues about the ways his life had passed him by.
On the other side of that coin, I found Faist’s performance as Danny Lyon (the author of the photo-book on which the film is partially based) to be the film’s most understated and subtly charismatic. Much like Lyon himself, Faist often feels like a disarming fly on the wall, capable of working his way into the midst of a scene full of bigger personalities to document it rather than lead it.
4. Nichols’ Documentarian Approach
In taking the core of Lyon’s photo-book to heart, The Bikeriders sees Jeff Nichols and cinematographer Adam Stone creating a vast and varied lexicon of visual language for the film. While the film does undoubtedly work to visually evoke elements and artifice of the era, Nichols is not interested in photographing this time period in the way it would have been captured at the time. Instead, The Bikeriders takes the documentarian essence at the heart of Lyon’s book and crafts a post-modern look at this era of film, culture, and masculinity in flux.
From having actors occasionally speak directly to the camera, with Nichols’ frame quite literally inhabiting the world of Lyon’s own camera lens in-narrative, to Julie Monroe’s editing working in tandem with Nichols’ camerawork to achieve a real sense of verisimilitude in the grammar of the film, The Bikeriders feels emotionally authentic to the time and place of these events in profound ways.
This visual style also works in conjunction with the narrative structure of the film, with Jodie Comer’s character reflecting post-hoc on the history of the Vandals. In this way, Nichols’ directorial choices feel directly motivated by the structure and perspective of the narrative itself.
3. Weak Spot: Trapped Within a Passive Protagonist
Austin Butler is one of the most buzzed-about young stars in Hollywood at the moment. From his Academy Award-nominated performance in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis to his scene-stealing antagonistic work earlier this year in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two, Butler has captivated audiences with his thoughtful and thorough work over the past few years. So, seeing Butler in a film like The Bikeriders, tailored to affording performers a space to really strut their stuff in overt ways, is exciting. It’s doubly so to see him sharing the screen with the likes of Tom Hardy and Jodie Comer.
While Butler’s performance within the film is distinct and deeply admirable, he ultimately feels a bit underutilized. His character, Benny Bauer, is, at least in theory, the protagonist of the film. He is the one we start and end the film with, and yet we ultimately know very little about him. Within the narrative, Bauer remains incredibly passive, allowing much of the story to simply happen to him. In tandem with this, while everyone in the film is essentially doing their own riff on Marlon Brando (not a jab, it’s a literal part of the text of the film’s story), Butler’s portrayal is the most aloof and deliberately distant.
All of this results in Benny feeling like a foreign presence over the course of the film. We never experience anything through Benny’s eyes, and that’s by design. We’re told things about Benny time and again by Comer’s narration and other characters’ dialogue, but little of the character’s arc feels like something we are privy to experiencing with him. He’s an unemotive character who remains passive in his life’s choices, leaving him feeling far less compelling than the lead performers he’s sharing the screen with.
2. Tom Hardy
Tom Hardy is genuinely one of the most brazen, bold, and charismatic actors of his generation. He’s a performer you can always rely on to disappear into a character, making some capital-C choices and taking some big swings. Given that over the last several years, Hardy has essentially been trapped in the doldrums of leading Sony’s fledgling Venom films, it feels especially thrilling to see him command the screen in such captivating fashion here in The Bikeriders.
As Johnny Davis, Hardy brings a real sense of melancholy and tragedy to this Vandals founding father, painting him as someone increasingly caught in a trap and trying to gnaw off his own limbs to break free over the course of the film. The early scene of Hardy watching Marlon Brando on television and immediately taking to mimicking Brando’s bravado and delivery, all of which leads to the founding of the gang in the first place, could’ve so easily felt goofy in lesser hands. But Hardy sees the inherent truth of the moment: a man trapped in a monotonous suburban lifestyle, desperately trying to break free, and seeing Brando as his opportunity.
It’s a genuinely fantastic performance, and one that I can’t overstate the impact of on a big screen. Seeing Hardy’s face fill up the theater, each nuance and tick of his face filling up Nichols’ frame, was a real joy.
1. Revolution Gives Way to Imitation
One of the most compelling elements of The Bikeriders to me is one that is paramount to the integrity of Hardy’s performance, and it’s the way in which the idea of social revolution changes over time. As the Vandals grow and evolve from the late ‘60s into the early ‘70s, the kinds of individuals joining the club fundamentally shift. Whereas Hardy’s Johnny Davis or Butler’s Benny Bauer were rebelling against a conformist mentality imposed by suburban America, the new recruits are Vietnam veterans with different ideas about the club’s direction.
This narrative of revolution’s escalation runs parallel to the story of how the Vandals inspire imitation. Starting as imitators of Marlon Brando, they inspire others to imitate them, reflecting the escalating chaos of the times. As the Vandals rebel against the mundane, they inadvertently contribute to the chaos that overtakes their original intentions, leaving them struggling to adapt.
These themes come to a head in the film’s climax, where the revolution outgrows its founders, becoming something beyond their control or comprehension.
RGM GRADE
(B-)
Overall, The Bikeriders is a well-crafted film showcasing outstanding performances. It embodies a type of movie that Hollywood produces less frequently nowadays, but hopefully, The Bikeriders can influence a shift in that trend. Audiences are increasingly drawn to films with unique voices and compelling performances, and The Bikeriders delivers on both fronts. With its exciting creative choices, the film may just demonstrate that mid-budget movies and movie stars still have a place in cinema.
