Title – The Bikeriders (2023) 

Director – Jeff Nichols (Mud) 

Cast – Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, Tom Hardy, Mike Faist, Emory Cohen, Damon Herriman

Plot – Inspired by a true story, The Bikeriders charts the world of a Midwestern motorcycle club known as the Vandals that is overseen by Johnny (Hardy) and includes the headstrong Benny (Butler), whose relationship with wife Kathy (Comer) will be tested by his allegiances to the club that is struggling to keep its identity intact.  

“I’ve built this from nothing. This is our family”

Review by Eddie on 12/07/2024

Enduring a rough ride to cinemas after being completed all the way back in 2022 and then being dumped by Disney after they acquired its distributing studio 20th Centaury Studios, critical favourite director Jeff Nichols long-gestating passion project adapted from Danny Lyon’s real life expose of an American Mid-western motorcycle club in the late 60’s and early 70’s finally has ridden into the public realm to a relatively muted response, a sad outcome for a film that’s quality in many ways and close to greatness in others. 

A star-studded affair that gives its lead trio Jodie Comer, Austin Butler and Tom Hardy further chances to showcase their significant talents, it’s hard to explore The Bikeriders without focusing in on the fact there’s a strange sense of what could have been, with this film that never outstays its welcome in a sub-two hour running time a work that comes perilously close to becoming a modern day classic but gets held back by weak and obvious components throughout. 

Structured around an odd storytelling vision from Nichols that sees Mike Faist’s journalist Danny hang around the club and mainly interview Comer’s long-suffering Kathy (with Kathy becoming the heart of the otherwise male-dominated film) over a period of years, often taking us away from the engaging plotlines present, The Bikeriders never comes to grips with the way it wants to portray this story which in turn weighs down our investment in the stories characters who we never get to know or engage with in the way that would’ve allowed Nichols project to really soar on the open roads. 

Full of charisma, smarts and nuance, Comer, Butler and Hardy (accents and all) would all have to try very hard to not be engaging screen presences and Nichols struck gold by getting them all on board for his vision of Lyon’s tale, with Butler in particular once more adding to his recent works that all point towards him taking over Hollywood while Hardy and Comer are both awards circuit worthy as the well-intentioned club president and kind hearted but determined wife respectively. 

With these performers all on song and great support from the likes of Nichol’s regular Michael Shannon, Boyd Holbrook, Emory Cohen, bike fiend Norman Reedus and Australian expats Damon Herriman and Toby Wallace, The Bikeriders will likely go down as one of the best stacked ensembles of 2024, creating an experience that ends up becoming quite the moving one despite its shortcomings and an undeniably fascinating exploration of the biker culture that took over America in the period in which this film is set. 

Undoubtedly suffering from a lack of a “genuine” plot or point A to B driving things along, with further fine tuning The Bikeriders would have likely been a breakout hit amongst mature audiences, critics and awards season voters, as it stands we have a good film that could’ve and perhaps should’ve been a great one, making this a watching experience you won’t regret but will likely most ponder upon in a what could have been fashion. 

Final Say – 

Some great performances, an intriguing backdrop/subject matter and some fine craftsmanship ensures the oft-delayed/frequently unloved The Bikeriders is still a very good drama but one that also comes frustratingly close to being more. 

4 broken windows out of 5