The Bikeriders review: Star-studded cast does Goodfellas on motorcycles

The Bikeriders concerns the life and times of a Midwestern motorcycle gang, and plays like Goodfellas on choppers. Though while it never reaches the dizzy heights of Scorsese’s gangster classic, the film – which Jeff Nichols both writes and directs – is a good story, well told.

Where Goodfellas was based on Henry Hill biography Wise Guy, The Bikeriders has more unusual source material. As Nichols was inspired to make the movie by Danny Lyon’s 1967 photo-book of the same name.

Featuring stills and interviews with a variety of bikers, the writer-director fell in love with their tales – and Lyon’s stark black-and-white images – so crafted a script about a fictional gang, but filled it with real-life stories.

The result is a record of what one character calls “the golden age of motorcycles.” As well as the rise and fall of a gang called the Chicago Vandals, and the colorful characters that make up its membership.

What is The Bikeriders about?

The Bikeriders utilises a framing device whereby photographer Danny (Mike Faist) interviews a woman called Kathy (Jodie Comer), first in a laundromat in 1965, then in her home in 1973.

Kathy is therefore our eyes and ears throughout the movie. We meet the gang when she enters their bar, and immediately decides they are all “animals.” But then Kathy meets and falls for handsome, mysterious Benny (Austin Butler), and in a matter of months – via some smartly efficient storytelling – they are married, and she’s a biker gal.

Through Kathy we also meet Vandals President Johnny (Tom Hardy), as well as the gang’s leading members, including Brucie (Damon Herriman), Cal (Boyd Holbrook), Zipco (Michael Shannon), and Cockroach (Emory Cohen).

They each have a unique look – and uniformly bad teeth – as well as rich, distinct personalities, with some of the film’s best scenes revolving around the guys just hanging out and shooting the breeze.

Tom Hardy and Austin Butler are The Wild Ones

Indeed, there’s little in the way of plot, with Bikeriders much more concerned with character. We see the origins of the gang, which suggests there’s little authentic about these people, who spend their days play dress-up so they can act like Marlon Brando in The Wild One.

While we also see the contradictions inherent in a group of guys who refuse to play by society’s rules, then setting up a club that’s obsessed with rules. The audience can see the irony inherent in this juxtaposition. But just in case we miss it, Kathy tells us so. Frequently stating the obvious. But with a humor that means many moments in The Bikeriders are laugh-out-lout funny.

Jodie Comer goes big and goes broad in the role, but keeps Kathy just the right side of caricature. Though as ostensibly the film’s protagonist, she’s a bystander for much of the action, which makes for a strange viewing experience.

Butler gives good “strong, handsome, silent” as Benny – think Ryan Gosling in Drive. Though there are times when he seems less like a three-dimensional character, and more like an empty vessel. Or the cool guy in a cigarette advert.

While Tom Hardy glares, grunts and groans his way through proceedings, as Tom Hardy so often does. But he’s a colossal presence at the heart of the film, and a mischievous humor underpins his performance, making the movie even more unexpectedly funny.

What The Bikeriders is really about

The Bikeriders is really about the battle for Benny, and Benny’s soul. Kathy loves him, and becomes convinced that the bike will be the death of him. So begs her man to give up the thing he cares about most. While Johnny looks up to Benny, and loves him too – maybe literally as there are homoerotic undertones to the scenes they share. Meaning all he cares about is keeping Benny in that Vandal leather.

It’s a fascinating tug-of war, one that sees the film tackle masculinity from multiple angles, with the gang a healthy way for the men to let off steam early on, before turning more toxic as the club grows.

That ties into the progression of time, with Nichols’ story positing that the 1960s were an innocent time for biker gangs, before the honeymoon was over, and darkness descends in the 1970s. So new chapters of the gang appear, filled with men returning from Vietnam with PTSD and a very different energy. Suddenly hard liquor is superseded by hard drugs, and squabbles are settled with firearms rather than fists.

All of which lends the film a strong sense of time and place, with the Vandals transforming just as America changed, and then spiralling out of control, with violent and ultimately quite devastating consequences.

Is The Bikeriders good?

The Bikeriders is a fascinating account of a bygone era, where men drank and fought and f*cked, while their women looked on goggle-eyed. But by placing Kathy – who has no time for such nonsense – at the heart of the movie, the film celebrates such behavior, while at the same time poking fun it.

The film looks amazing, with cinematographer Adam Stone bringing those source stills to life in stunning fashion. While it sounds incredible, both through the audio design through which you can feel the rumble of those bikes. And via an incredible jukebox soundtrack that combines doo-wop with girl-groups, and rock n roll with rhythm and blues.

It’s a heady mix that entertains, though largely on a superficial level, as in spite of spending nearly two hours with the Chicago Vandals, the film fails to reveal who they really are.

The Bikeriders score: 4/5

A wild ride that very nearly does for motorbike gangs what Goodellas did for gangsters.

The Bikeriders screened at the London Film Festiva. For more more movie reviews, head here.