The Bikeriders Review
Perhaps not quite as stressful or menacing as it could be, The Bikeriders is nevertheless propulsive viewing thanks to a trio of stand-out performances among a cast of uniformly fantastic ones.
Out on the town one evening, Kathy (Jodie Comer) falls for Benny (Austin Butler); a member of a motorcycle gang run by leader Johnny (Tom Hardy). Kathy is head over heels for Benny, but doesn’t love the gang. Johnny sees Benny as his protege, and wants to bring him ever closer to him and the gang, and further from Kathy. Benny, meanwhile, can’t decide if he loves the open road and a ride on his motorbike too much to ever truly settle down with Kathy. As tensions mount, and new members start to warp the gang’s morals and ethics, everything comes to a head with fatal consequences.
The Bikeriders, for all the talk, is actually a pretty straight road of a film; it’s a founder story of a guy who started a motorcycle club, and how it went awry, told through the eyes of the partner of the leader’s protege. Everything else is really just window-dressing, and that’s ok because at its core, that central trio is wonderful.
Austin Butler oozes an indefinable sense of rizz throughout the entire procedure; alternately scowling and brooding, he’s every inch the heartthrob. If perhaps the manic qualities don’t come through, it’s not for the worse. Jodie Comer gives an intriguingly accented performance that masks the really wonderful, intuitive and subtle acting beneath the gaudy vocals. Tom Hardy is without fault; perfect to a tee, entirely believable whether he’s got a fatherly vibe going or a bit more of a psychopath bent.
There’s a glitzy array of character actors throughout, including standouts from Michael Shannon and Boyd Holbrook, and it’s all mixed with some surprising action, the deep reverberating bass of the motorcycles, and an indescribable sense of cool. Perhaps most apt as a comparison would be something akin to a Scorsese gangster movie; the rise and fall on full display here. Just instead of shiny double breasted suits, it’s cut off denim jackets.
The only real qualm is the time-hopping jump forward to Kathy’s interviews, which often feel quite forced and draw away from the tension a little bit. While not as egregious as some of the other media might have you believe, it’s undeniable that with the twists and turns of this plot, and some really shocking moments, they would have hit harder without (a) the momentum impact of this device and (b) the non-stop foreshadowing of all the best bits from it.
