The Bikeriders review – a slow but enveloping saga

Eight years since his last feature, Jeff Nichols returns with a wistful and contemplative depiction of a 60s Chicago motorcycle club, The Vandals, inspired by the work of photographer Danny Lyon. Recent internet boyfriend Mike Faist (Challengers, West Side Story) takes on the role of Lyon, as a green student photographer following the motley crew around and conducting interviews that form the spine of the narrative.

In the sea of denim and leather is Jodie Comer’s clear-eyed Kathy, the film’s dominant voice. With sometimes intrusive voiceover, Kathy’s perspective on the group – and her husband Benny (played with cool detachment by other recent internet boyfriend, Austin Butler) – allows Nichols to poke fun at the self-serious machismo of these men, picking fights then sharing beers later.

What promises to be an adrenaline-filled Scorsese-esque rise and fall yarn, is much more in line with Nichols’ previous work, a rose-tinted vision of the oft-overlooked Midwestern landscape with gorgeous cinematography by frequent collaborator Adam Stone. Though the film’s marketing may (cleverly) skew in the favour of Faist or Butler, two Brits anchor this all-American story. With the heart of the narrative centring on Kathy and Johnny (played with reliably unfiltered masculine gusto by Tom Hardy) battling for the loyalty of Benny, with Kathy wanting him as a more conventional husband and Johnny grooming him as his protege to take over The Vandals. Benny, naturally, is loyal only to his motorcycle.

While it’s apparent Nichols has been lured in by the camaraderie and community these men build, the film shows little interest in the bikes that intoxicate them. Through Kathy’s voiceover, we learn of the rides they go on and the feeling of seeing them all together, but in most instances, we are told, not shown. More time is spent drinking beers with the likes of Zipco (Michael Shannon), Brucie (Damon Herriman), Wahoo (Beau Knapp), Cockroach (Emory Cohen) and Corky (Karl Glusman), lamenting the ills of the world and debating whether they should pool together for a phone in the bar.

The not-infrequent bloody violence is propelled by Johnny and Benny, who get into situations that would make anyone wince. The story of The Vandals is fleshed out with the club’s expansion, inviting some unsavoury characters, truly damaged men, who are volatile post-Vietnam veterans and not harmless weekend hobbyists. Johnny ages out of patriarch duties and the Kathy and Benny love story reaches a satisfying close. While Comer and Butler shine on their own, their relationship is never all the way convincing – she plays Kathy too no-nonsense to endure all she does from blue-eyed Benny and Butler, and has too little screen-time to feel anything more than an icon of lacquered Americana.

The Bikeriders is an enjoyable ride and one that Nichols fans will get a kick out of. The ensemble cast is enticing but the tried-and-true story arc isn’t injected with enough rigour to make this the classic it could be.

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