review: the bikeriders

Review: The Bikeriders

Not many movies are adaptations of photography books, but photographer and filmmaker Danny Lyon’s eponymous 1968 collection enjoys a rare honor. Directed by Jeff Nichols (Mud, Midnight Special), the bikeriders in question - named ‘The Vandals’ in the movie - are based on the true-life stories of a real midwestern bike gang called The Outlaws. 

Lyon (played here by Mike Faist) rode with them for a few years in the early 1960s, taking photos. He also interviewed the gang members and their wives and girlfriends, and his interviews with the real life Kathy Bauer (Judy Comer) set up the story.

It’s a riff on a Goodfellas-style retelling, Comer relishing Bauer’s clipped, aspirational working class accent as she spills all into Lyon’s ever-present microphone. It begins with Kathy being prised away from her regular life when she meets Benny, a handsome, monosyllabic bad boy (Austin Butler). Although she has reservations about the biker lifestyle, she falls for him and is quickly subsumed into the group. 

The Vandals are lead by Johnny (Tom Hardy), a taciturn, aging veteran who veers between loving family man and violent psychopathy. This triangle, with Kathy and Johnny trying to lure Benny to domesticity and gang leadership respectively, forms the dramatic core of the film. Johnny sees himself as a Wild Ones-era Marlon Brando type, with Benny having more of a James Dean vibe.  

Via Kathy we meet other gang members, most notably Zipco (a delightfully unhinged Michael Shannon) and Funny Sonny (Norman Reedus, a compulsory casting choice if the movie involves motorcycles). The gang grows quickly, spawning regional chapters, with the attendant aggressive challenges to the leadership.

We mostly follow the gang's antics. Large meetings take place where they drink and fight, we see them in their clubhouse where they drink and fight, and they come across rival gangs, who they fight and drink with. All good, knockabout stuff. 

As Johnny looks to anoint a leader, though, and Kathy tries to remove Benny from an increasingly violent situation, tensions rise. They both want Benny for themselves, and Benny just wants to ride his motorbike, get into trouble and broodingly smoke cigarettes. New gang members arrive with new ideas, and high-stakes power struggles ensue, with The Vandals having to reckon with an existential crisis. 

The three leads have turbo-charged levels of charisma, with Comer standing out in a truly memorable role for her. Some scenes faithfully recreate the book’s most famous photographs, and whatever you think about their lifestyle, it’s hard not to empathize with their camaraderie and rebelliousness. Despite a bare-bones story arch, the time spent with the Vandals is in turn hilarious and shocking, Nichols packaging it in a thoroughly entertaining way. (PO) 

The Bikeriders is playing at the Prytania, Canal Place