27/06/24

Cineworld, Edinburgh

The poster for The Bikeriders might lead a viewer to expect something rather different from what this film actually is: a serious recreation of the misadventures of a motorcycle club, founded in the early 60s and initially memorialised in a 1967 book by photojournalist Danny Lyon.

In Jeff Nichols’ film, we see Danny (Mike Faist) conducting a series of interviews with Kathy (Jodie Comer). She’s the long-term girlfriend of Benny (Austin Butler), a member of `The Vandals’, a Chicago-based group of bike enthusiasts, created and led by Johnny (Tom Hardy). In its early days, the group has a rigid code of honour that none of its members will ever ignore. Indeed, when we first encounter Benny, he’s about to be badly beaten up by a couple of rednecks when he refuses to remove his ‘colours’ in a local bar.

But as the years move on and the Vandals’ numbers inevitably begin to swell, that original code becomes increasingly muddied by the raft of newcomers, each with their own agenda. They include The Kid (Toby Wallace), a tough young wannabe, who has set his sights on joining up and who isn’t about to let anything stand in his path.

While The Bikeriders is light on plot, it’s loaded with characterisation. Comer is extraordinary as Kathy, who chronicles the group’s history in an eerily impressive midwestern accent; and Hardy too is eminently watchable as their leader, channeling early Marlon Brando (at one point we even see Johnny watching The Wild One and virtually taking notes). He’s somewhat mystified to discover that the Vandals are increasingly like a runaway train that, once kicked into life, proves impossible to stop. As Benny, Butler has very little in the way of dialogue, but his chain-smoking, smouldering presence makes it easy to understand why Kathy is so obsessed with him.

The other members of the gang have their own opportunities to shine. Nichols’ regular muse, Michael Shannon, is effective as the dim-witted Zipco, a man who has been repeatedly passed over by society since childhood and who has found his spiritual home amongst this gang of misfits – and Emery Cohen is also effective as Cockroach, who is destined to ride a motorcycle in the future for an entirely different reason. The 60s and 70s settings are convincingly evoked and fans of vintage motorcycles will doubtless be drooling at the sight of scores of bikes thundering in formation along the highways. But the tone of the film is essentially an elegy, a lament for the many ways in which an original idea can be twisted and debased until its original aims have all but vanished.

This won’t be for everyone. There’s no denying that it glamourises thuggery and, with a running time of nearly two hours, it could perhaps have benefitted from a tighter edit, especially around its flabby midsection. Nichols has spent the best part of twenty years putting the film together and it feels very much like a labour of love. Those looking for thrills and action might prefer to look elsewhere. But if it’s classy performances you’re after, you’ve definitely chosen the right vehicle.

3. 8 stars

Philip Caveney