What person hasn’t looked at a prototypical “bad boy” and thought that they’d end up being the one to change him for the better? When that guy looks like Austin Butler and rides a cool motorcycle and has a dangerously explosive dynamic with his bike club leader, well, you can understand why Jodie Comer’s character finds herself in such a predicament in “The Bikeriders.” In Jeff Nichols’ extremely capable hands, this story that could’ve felt like a poor man’s “Sons of Anarchy” riff feels every inch as compelling as the filmmaker intended.
Written and directed by Nichols, the movie is marketed as a fictional story that’s nonetheless inspired by a 1968 photobook by photographer Danny Lyon titled “The Bikeriders.” If the high praise coming out of Telluride wasn’t enough to convince you to give this movie a chance, then surely the ensemble cast will. It stars Butler as the “wild, reckless bikerider” Benny, Comer as his wife and fellow member of the Vandals bike club Kathy, and Tom Hardy as the head of the Vandals named Johnny. Joining them for the ride: Jeff Nichols regular Michael Shannon, “West Side Story” breakout Mike Faist, Boyd Holbrook, Norman Reedus, and more.
The film, which boasts the fact that much of the cast “did their own riding on an array of period-correct bikes,” will next screen at the London Film Festival in October before coming Stateside for its award-friendly theatrical release on December 1, 2023.