Mucking with Movies: 'The Bikeriders'

Austin Butler looks so hot on that motorcycle. I’d go to jail for that, too.

Playing Benny, the irreverent boy prince of the burgeoning motorcycle club The Vandals, you assume we will be following him through the film’s duration. But, our port of entry is his eventual wife Kathy’s (Jodie Comer) interview with biographer Danny Lyon (Mike Faist) who would go on to write the real-life book of the club that the movie is based on. Opposite her as antagonist is Johnny (Tom Hardy) setting up the push-pull between the two as they fight over Benny’s future — both believing they know what is best for him. Kathy believes settling him down will save his life, and Johnny believes there is nothing anybody should do to stop an individual from getting in the way of their own decisions. 

The actors and their characters carry the film, each performance turned in sublime with credit to all for losing themselves in their roles. Comer injects a level of levity into Kathy that the film needs to remain balanced. It could have been taken in a different direction where director Jeff Nichols has her portray Kathy as a vapid, manic, pixie, dream-girl shell with Benny and the club infusing her with their life outlooks — the cinematic world is filled with a surplus of those unfortunate depictions — but instead having her maintain her character’s foundation. One that bends into a neat arc throughout the narrative while never forfeiting authenticity. 

While not quite as handsome as Butler, Hardy certainly still pulls off the denim and leather. But, he does turn in a superior performance. That’s not a knock on Butler; he’s more than a very, very pretty face as he uses gentle maneuvering to make the most of his limited dialogue. As my movie-going friend Nora — who turned down a producer career in Hollywood but still insists on sitting through the entirety of the credits to honor the little people who make it all happen — put it, “We love a non-verbal King.” Butler chews up every bit of screen time that he gets, projecting a palpable and intense charisma that surges through his quiet demeanor. 

Perhaps nobody is better at manipulating his voice to pair with his character than Tom Hardy. In “Dark Knight Rises,” he created a rich contour that belies both danger and supreme intelligence; in “Mad Max: Fury Road,” his few words display a discomfort with himself and the world around him; and now in “The Bikeriders,” he contorts his voice to a lower bass with a raspy delivery that enables the family man desperado idealism Johnny strives for. 

Hardy is never “actoring” — a criticism of performance that I often levy at Leonardo DiCaprio or Bradley Cooper. It’s not a terrible thing: You can be very good at actoring, but it entails a posturing in their work that always feels forced. Hardy’s characters always feel like they wandered onto the set the day they were shooting and they threw him into the film. They are fully-formed upon arrival, creating fresh authentic characters that are not filtered through the actor’s persona. 

No line from him is ever wasted; they become memorable through the fascinating depth they carry. One particular scene towards the end of the film will break your heart into a million, billion pieces, and he does it with a single sentence followed by a flash of pain in his eyes. It tells so much, so much about the sacrifices Johnny has made to take from his flesh and blood to give to his biker family, the realization that this life he has chosen can never last forever, that eventually, it will stumble you into being tired and broken regardless of how wild you were during your days as a brawling swashbuckler. 

Nichols does an excellent job of carrying that tone throughout the film, playing with it subtly to shift your desires for Johnny implicitly. The Vandals go from alluring bandits to a terrifying reprehensibility that has you rooting for their separation as soon as possible. It leads to an incredibly satisfactory ending that hits all the right notes. It ties up loose threads of the characters while still pushing them forward, touches on the melancholy of their previous life, and is a brilliant display of how getting older is not only internal but external.

“The Bikeriders” was the most fun I’ve had at the movies since “Barbie.” It’s a bit flat for sure, but it is cool for coolness’ sake. How many movies can you say that for anymore? 

Critic Score: 7.2/10

Jack Simon is a mogul coach and writer/director who enjoys eating food he can’t afford, traveling to places out of his budget, and creating art about skiing, eating, and traveling while broke. Check out his website jacksimonmakes.com to see his Jack’s Jitney travelogue series. You can email him at [email protected] for inquiries of any type.