THE BIKERIDERS - 2024
Directed by Jeff Nichols
Starring Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, Mike Faist, Boyd Holbrook, Michael Abbott Jr, Damon Herriman, Emory Cohen, Karl Glusman, Beau Knapp, Phuong Kubacki, Paul Sparks, Toby Wallace, and Norman Redus
Genre: Crime Drama (Audio clip)
Yes apparently what I have been hearing about this film over the past year was accurate....it IS very much like Goodfellas With Motorcycles, only picture if Goodfellas was told almost entirely from Karen's POV. :) Not a bad way to go if you have the right cast. And in this case, we have a pretty STACKED cast to pull it off....and the Karen role is actually Kathy played by rising star Jodie Comer. Comer is British speaking in a very laid-back, stretched vowel "Chic-aggo" accent which at first took me out of the movie a bit but grew on me more as it progressed. š«¢
And the two men she is mainly chronicling (via a narration flashback device which works better than most) are the James Dean-like Benny (Austin Butler in an effective, very surface-level performance which seems to be the point as his character is ALL smolder at points) who becomes her husband and the sorta-'50's era Marlon Brandon-like Johnny (Tom Hardy delivering his best performance in years) who starts the motorcycle club (The Vandals based out of Chicago) which consumes most of this story.
Director Jeff Nichols (who also wrote the screenplay) is basically spinning a very archetypical story chronicling the rise of a criminal organization...or gang more simply. It's just mainly told from the perspective of folks who - unlike a Henry Hill or Michael Corleone - are simply NOT wired to get enveloped in the corruption of it. Sure they can relish in the violence but moreso from a purely egotistical "Fight Club" kinda perspective....these are guys who just mainly want to ride their motorbikes or hang out or just hang out talking about riding their motorcycles. Yes the involvement of alcohol and eventually more drugs complicates matters resulting in more violence....but these are not the types to order contract hits and/or fight for territory. ;)
It's a "club" which morphs into a "gang" and it's the eventual involvement of other motorcycle gangs which brings more potential danger. This is not to say that neither Johnny nor Benny are simply misunderstood warrior-poet types - they're both soft-spoken but they're also both full-on thugs at their cores who can be prone to stir trouble or throw a quick fist! We see this in an opening sequence with Butler just confidently sauntering into a bar wearing his "colors"....only the bar doesn't serve his type. š The owner and bartender calmly ask him to take off his jacket....only Benny is not only having it just sitting calmly at the bar but he utters very nonchalantly:
"You'd have to kill me to get this jacket off."
And what results is some pretty strong violence involving a shovel doing some damage to Benny, though not as much to that beautiful face as you would think....and therein lies the tonal stance of this movie overall which will likely determine if you enjoy it or not. There's violence, there's profanity, there's drug use, and there's SOME sexual content....there's even a somewhat harrowing (though not graphic) incident of attempted sexual assault which occurs towards the end of the film. The movie earns its R-rating....but you would be forgiven for finding that it sanitizes its darker elements and for the most part actually romanticizes the subculture depicted in this movie. There's nothing here approaching the shocking violence of the Billy Bats sequence from Goodfellas even though some lives are lost along the way.
This DOES seem to be a conscious choice on the part of Nichols as he is mainly adapting "The Bikeriders" picture-novel from 1967 by Danny Lyons which is comprised entirely of stark B&W photos of the riders, their bikes, and the scenery they surrounded themselves with. The key driver of this adaptation seems to be the iconography of this particular club from this particular era....and on that end with great help from frequent collaborator DP Adam Stone, I feel as if he more than succeeds. :) There are no shortage of simply GORGEOUS shots of these these men maneuvering through crowded streets on their bikes or simply flying down country roads or expressways!
It's fun, thrilling, and of course inherently cinematic - even the characters on-screen are aware of this, including one funny moment early on when we see Hardy's Johnny pause a bit watching The Wild One from '53 on his TV. It dawns on him watching Marlon Brando swagger on his motorcycle with his vocal affectation that THIS is the guy he wants to emulate.....which he pretty much does for the remainder of the film. š¤
Besides him, the whole cast is pretty great and one highlight for me watching this was just noticing a steady stream of memorable tough guy character actors - with such distinct faces - popping up in small and mid-sized roles throughout (mostly as fellow bikers) each bringing the heat regardless of how much screentime they got. š Boyd Holbrook, Michael Shannon (whom I can never have enough of and he's a Nichols regular), Emory Cohen, Beau Knapp (fresh off of some memorable violence in the recent Roadhouse remake), and DARRYL (from The Walking Dead) himself....Norman Reed in what HAS to be his first big-screen appearance in quite some time. He steals his scenes as Funny Sonny, a super-scraggly former Hell's Angel who has just relocated from the West Coast.....where apparently they had GHASTLY dental care at the time? š It's just such a ideal rogues gallery of bad-asses on-screen here, I had to wonder....where's Jon Bernthal??
Best Needle-drop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film):
You COULD make a case that a lot of the Goodfellas comparisons to this movie have been overblown ā they are VERY different movies in the end. But one area where they hold water would certainly be the soundtrack ā itās a DAMN impressive collection of needle-drops, all period-specific too. The movie is pretty much wall-to-wall with ā60ās pop music of various genres including The Shangri-Las, Muddy Waters, Gary US Bonds, and The Sonics. (Audio clip)
Me personally, my favorite stuff from this particular era came from British Invasion bands like The Kinks, Creation or of course The Beatlesā¦.but I completely understand why itās not as well represented here considering the setting. Of course wouldnāt you know it, one particular needle-drop which stuck out the most to me WAS in fact from one of those British rock bands invading from across the pondā¦.but honestly, it never occurred to me they were British sorry. Which is kind of silly in retrospect considering that the band included legendary British guitarist Eric Claptonā¦.Iām referring to Londonās OWN Cream. They didnāt last that long as a band, only about four years, and didnāt even make it out of the ā60āsā¦.but they made their mark with some BIG hits including āSunshine of Your Loveā and āWhite Room.ā The song of theirs which we hear featured here occurs about halfway through playing over one particularly scene ride featuring the entire club on the open roadā¦..wind blowing in their hair, all in a nice triangular formation (I think), and passing pristine farm land alongside them. Gorgeous sequence with JUST the right type of psychedelic bluesy rock playing overheadā¦..the song is from Creamās 1966 album, āFresh Creamā and its lyrics match up almost TOO perfectly. I love it, just a catchy-ass song which would also be remade about twenty years later by Belinda Carlisle into an equally catchy rock song ā Iām referring to āI Feel Freeā (Audio clip)
Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film):
Oh but we DO have Mike Faist here - hot off of his strong work in Challengers - actually portraying Danny Lyons himself not only taking the pictures but also conducting the ongoing interview with Comer's Kathy throughout the movie. Even grunged up himself for this role, he's admittedly fun to watch but honestly not given anything to do but ask follow-up questions. His photographer was apparently embedded with the Vandals for quite some time riding along them while he built up his novel....it feels as if there was some other dimension to his character but it's simply never explored. š¤ Has me wondering if maybe some of his scenes were left on the cutting room floor....
Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):
If Iām being honest, this might NOT be the most well-filmed cycling scene in the movie but itās just the one which stuck out the most having seen this only once. And that would be about 25 minutes into the film as watch Butlerās Benny take a solo ride through the streets of Chicagoā¦..and into the countryā¦..being chased by the policeā¦..and evading themā¦.until he runs out of gas. Itās crisply shot and edited and it also features what I believe MIGHT be the only point in the movie where we actually Benny raise his voiceā¦..hey Iām always a sucker for a good āWahoo!ā (Audio clip)
MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film):
Hardy really does dazzle in this role in a way I have not seen from the actor since his stellar lead performance in the one-man drama Locke about ten years ago. He effectively portrays a cocksure brute on the surface who presents himself as a natural leader (which he is) with all the angles and knowledgeable about all of the "rules" of the club which he has to enforce. But we can also see over time how he's struggling to keep a handle on this rapidly shifting environment, very much resulting from more riders returning back from serving in Vietnam among other societal changes. :o There's more drugs, more territoriality, more criminal enterprises being carried out by motorcycle gangs....bottom line more that he has LESS control over. He never gives up the overall swagger but we can see a sense of dread behind those eyes....for demonstrating once again that he remains one of our most interesting and commanding actors, Tom Hardy is the MVP.
Final Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5
Overall I really enjoyed this even though the central conflict brewing at its core (a sorta love triangle among Karen, Benny, and Johnny) is barely addressed or even resolved.....but it's just more of an ambling story exploring a particular subculture with JUST enough plot to sustain it! I'm always a sucker for those types of movies whenever they're done well.....Saturday Night Fever, Rounders, Beat Street, Swingers, Priscilla Queen of the Desert....MAYBE Hackers? š (If it had portrayed actual hacking)
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And that ends another EASY RIDING review!
