Adapted from Danny Lyon’s book of photography, Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders tells the loosely plotted story of a gang who bikes round the midwest, picking fights and raving about their motorcycles. Years of research were condensed into a book of photography, now further condensed into a two-hour film. At its best, this kind of ever-shrinking transferal can perfectly encapsulate life in art; something huge and all-encompassing rendered singular, something with the potential to stretch on indefinitely, bookended by a sure beginning and end. Unfortunately, Nichols’ interpretation feels like a blind wandering through uncharted land, populated by a host of chiseled yet undeveloped characters. The Bikeriders is a shallow parade of cool images.
The Bikeriders follows gang leader Johnny (played with entrancing gusto and gruffness by Tom Hardy) as he assembles a host of directionless young men, intent on racing through the streets on scrappily constructed motorbikes. Through such recklessness they weld together a steely, unpliable brotherhood, one that acts as the bedrock of their lives, much to the chagrin of their exasperated wives. One of Johnny’s riders, and his hopeful successor, is Benny (Austin Butler), who is married to the perpetually frustrated Kathy (Jodie Comer).
Comer’s ability to settle into characters, seamlessly dropping into accents, is a muscle that she has flexed across her career. The Bikeriders boasts some of Comer’s most self-assured choices, including a broad Chicagoan drawl and unshakeable pout—emblematic of an unmoored performance, far removed from any semblance of reality. Kathy may be the narrator, anchoring the film with her wry observations, but she is a vacant space at the center of the story: A perpetually frustrated housewife, driven by the desire to get her husband to commit.
Nichols is a smart filmmaker, one skilled enough to use a variety of genres to wrestle with the same ideas around commitment and marriage. Take Shelter utilizes the image-making of sci-fi thrillers while Loving follows the linearity of a straightforward romantic drama, but both are concerned with what we owe those we love most. The Bikeriders is a further meditation of these themes, a love triangle between Johnny, Benny and Kathy, where responsibility and feeling bounce around the trio, gaining speed and ferocity over time. Unfortunately, with such underdeveloped characters, this thematic tug of war loses any sense of dramatic tension.
During one of the bikeriders’ infamous “picnics” (excuses to drink beer and shout), Zipco (Nichols regular Michael Shannon) tries to decode the worldview which holds this group of rebels together: “If you can’t work with your hands, you ain’t no fucking good.”
It is a worthwhile insight, weighed down by the practicality of living a life painstakingly sculpted and engineered away from the mainstream. But it is indicative of The Bikeriders’ underlying problem, which is an inability to tie these half-interesting characters together with a meaningful plot. Nichols may understand why these characters are here, but the practicality of their passions goes unexpressed. In particular, there aren’t any scenes giving shape to the romance between Kathy and Benny, whose longevity as a couple is inexplicable in the context of the story.
There are moments in the film that transcend its scattered middle, particularly when David Wingo’s slick score and Julie Monroe’s explosive editing (with particularly memorable uses of freeze-frame) meet in bursts of self-awareness. And yet, The Bikeriders is ultimately a stylish vacuum, with the plot gradually collapsing in on itself as the runtime stretches on. Despite Nichols’ history of twisting genres to complement his thematic preoccupations, there is nothing under the hood to sustain The Bikeriders’ character-based journey, and as such it rumbles along on an empty tank.
Director: Jeff Nichols
Writer: Jeff Nichols
Starring: Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, Mike Faist, Norman Reedus
Release: December 1, 2023
London-based film writer Anna McKibbin loves digging into classic film stars and movie musicals. Find her on Twitter to see what she is currently obsessed with.