The life of a biker gang is shown no more exhaustingly as in the aptly named The Bikeriders, journeying through the long and tiresome lives of the members of the Vandals gang in 1960s middle America. In a Scorsese-esque presentation, we follow this biker gang from creation to downfall through the lens of an outsider, Kathy. Jodie Comer adds another accent to her TikTok compilation with a cigarette in her mouth and a beehive in her hair. Our two other stars are in the gang, playing important roles within the group. With Tom Hardy’s Johnny as the leader and Austin Butler’s Benny as the bad boy biker with minimal dialogue and maximum blue steel stares.
Our story is simple, boys on bikes with twin cylinder engine issues. They ride, smoke, drink and once in a while, they fight. Kathy is our narrator, telling hers and the gang’s story through some interviews that Danny is doing.
Danny is a photographer, studying in college at the time when we first meet him, he spends his days with the gang, documenting their escapades through audio interviews and visual photography. This felt like an easy way for us to gain context on these characters without it feeling unnatural for them to be explaining their backstories.
I enjoyed the uniqueness of some of the characters, coming from different backgrounds and having their own individual reasons for being involved, even if the gang was a little lacking in their diversity department.
Kathy meets the gang while going out for a drink with a friend, she is pretty turned off by their brash and intimidating behaviour, almost acting like mean girls in the corner of the bar, snickering and plotting about her. She sees Benny by the pool table and instantly feels the opposite, seeing him as different to the rest.
Benny’s difference is picked up on by Johnny, as Benny has an unfaltering loyalty to the gang, jumping at the opportunity to defend them or proudly displaying their “colours” even when it's not safe to do so. This loyalty does seem true to his stoic character, holding back emotions at every opportunity.
Not to the same degree, but most of the gang share this same steady block of emotional response, with the exception of anger, most being quick to act and leave the thinking until later. These characters do paint a picture of what it must have been like in these gangs, emotional buildup and silent care for one another.
The film relies on its actors to sell a pretty minimal story with not too much emotional connection or chemistry between them, meaning you lack an attachment to their outcomes, watching the events unfold and not necessarily being invested in them.
Jodie Comer and Austin Butler are two actors who I’ve seen create natural and engaging chemistry with their counterparts in other projects, I just didn’t feel like they got the time to build that in this film, leaving their marital relationship to be one that you have to be reminded of throughout the film.
The other relationship I struggled to connect with was the mentor type bond that Johnny and Benny share. In narration, we hear that Johnny likes Benny, but we never really see that in dialogue or actions, leaving us to have to fill in the gaps when there’s not much groundwork for us to work with.
Special shoutout to Mike Faist who always seems to shine in films, no matter how little he is given to do. Similarly to Norman Reedus, who has been typecast as an unhygienic biker for the majority of his career, it would be rude not to allow him to outperform the rest of these two wheelers.
The film fits right into the timeline, looking like it was plucked straight out of the early 70s, with grimey and warm tones on screen. The camera belongs in the spaces it inhabits and shines most in the motor moments, gliding along with the riders, showing the wind in their hair and conveying the freedom that they’re feeling while on the road.
The sound booms and rips through the film, with the engines roaring past, just to make the dad’s in the audience bite their finger in inappropriate attraction. While they do that, I’ll be in the corner swinging my hips and silently clicking along to the Motown 70s pop of The Shangri-Las which feature heavily in the film. The music is added with thought, swelling and dimming at the right times, feeling almost diegetic or part of the story with it’s presence.
Overall, we get a nice looking, great sounding film with a story that doesn’t quite do enough to make me invested in what it has to offer, but just enough for me to walk out singing the end credits song and singing the praises of Jodie Comer’s accent work.
This film clocks in at around 2 hours, but needed a lot more time on the development of both the story and the characters, there is a reason why Scorsese makes these films 3 and a half hours long.
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