Greta Gerwig, Ryan Coogler, and Jordan Peele are in leagues of their own when it comes to being the best new filmmakers of the 21st Century. Jeff Nichols isn’t on their level, but he’s only a tier below, making great stuff like Take Shelter, Mud, and Midnight Special. His latest, The Bikeriders, is another quality film from a very, very good director, hopefully on the verge of jumping into a new level: I mean, who else can get smokeshows like Austin Butler and Tom Hardy to both star as bad boys, wooing all the women everywhere?
Nichols took Danny Lyon’s (Mike Faist) photobook about bikers in the 1960s, and conjured a narrative out of it. In the 1960’s the Vandals are a motorcycle gang run by Johnny (Tom Hardy). The movie pretends Lyon interviewed Kathy (Jodie Comer), a Chicagoan who stumbled into a bar the Vandals had taken over that night. While there, she becomes smitten with Benny (Austin Butler), a free spirit, but loyal acolyte of Johnny’s. Lyon’s interviews take us through the world of the Vandals from the late 60s into the early 70s through the eyes of Kathy, Johnny, and other members of the group and the various shenanigans they get themselves into and out of.
With just pictures to go off of, for at least an hour, Nichols proves why he’s one of the sneaky best moviemakers out there. The movie deconstructs the concept of a “biker gang” brilliantly. These guys grew out of the 1950s lives of rules and regulations; as such, the OG’s were probably trapped somewhere between the 1950’s Leave It to Beaver types, but not quite ready for the protesting/violent revolutionaries that would define these groups in history. So, biker “gangsters” were really a mash up of counter culture free spirits, aimless bruisers, family men with a “hobby”, and Johnny, essentially the “business owner” who sees the forest for the trees. Johnny’s strategic choices to assert his power keeps all these societal misfits in line with this new code of ethics, and mostly keeps them out of danger while appearing to be constantly surrounded by it. Along the way, Nichols takes scenes we expect to see: a cop car chase, a bar shakedown, a shocking death, a drunken picnic/party, and completely upends them by the characters he’s crafted to be in this specific group of Vandals, unmooring the audience from movie tropes while probably realistically placing these people in what their real day to day lives were going to be.
But when you have great actors like Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer, Michael Shannon, Boyd Holbrook, etc, you can only sustain the rule breaking storytelling for so long. These actors signed up to be Chicago motorcycle gangsters, and as such, the movie bends to their will in the 2nd half. Even though it’s less interesting than the first, it’s still compelling because of the committed cast. Jodie Comer nails a biker woman’s hard ass exterior: yes, there’s times she’s freaked out, but she knows a bit what she’s signed up for, and gets more agency and force of will as the movie goes along. Tom Hardy loves doing really deep accents: Johnny is a character we’ve seen in countless movies before, but he makes it his own because of his incredible presence and ability to convey power and menace while saying little to nothing at all. And then there’s Austin Butler. This movie can stand with Elvis as his application to be a movie star. The minute Comer (and the audience) lay eyes on him, your face just curves into a smile, because of the sheer charisma on display. The Bikeriders would have been good without Butler, but it’s pretty great because of his star confirming presence.
The great Omar Little once said “a man got to have a code.” Each person here has their little Bikerider codes they abide by. Tom Hardy’s living by doing crazy accents in bruiser action roles. Austin Butler is following the movie star playbook looking like the man. Jodie Comer is living the A list code by holding her own and exceeding other A listers in the roles she chooses. And finally, Jeff Nichols is living by the dual code of great moviemaking and weird Michael Shannon role creations: a Latvian immigrant who wanted to fight in Vietnam? Um, sure.