If you were to judge a movie by its poster, then you might expect The Bikeriders to be anchored by Austin Butler’s brooding, wild-haired motorcycle fiend. His name is Benny, and though he’s an integral part of the narrative, Benny is only a participant in half the movie’s scenes, sidelined with a foot injury for most of the runtime, and speaks only a handful of lines. Of those, many are fragments or single syllables. An erudite lead, Benny is not.

The real core of The Bikeriders, written and directed by Jeff Nichols, is Benny’s wife, Kathy (Jodie Comer), who narrates the film thanks to the presence of reporter Danny (Mike Faist), who interviews her after the events of the narrative for a book he’s working on. Danny also embeds himself in Benny’s Chicago-based motorcycle fraternity, the Vandals Motor Club, with a recorder and camera, allowing for some behind-the-scenes access beyond Kathy’s narration.

Nichols lets you know up front that the events depicted in The Bikeriders are based on the book the real-life Danny Lyon published in 1967 about the Illinois Outlaws MC. Photos from Lyon’s book pepper the end credits, which shows Nichols’ fidelity to the image—many of the characters in the movie, even the framing of certain shots, look like Lyon’s book come to life. It’s impressive.

But what’s curious is how Nichols uses Kathy and Danny as The Bikeriders’ framing device. Similar to how Karen Hill described her attraction to Henry Hill and how the mob functions in Martin Scorsese’s GoodFellas, Kathy recounts from the moment she saw Benny across a crowded bar to the Vandals’ disintegration. And that includes detailed events where neither Kathy nor Danny are present. How does this information get relayed for Danny’s book? The Bikeriders doesn’t say. Only Benny was present for the fight that kicks off The Bikeriders’ narrative. Yet, Nichols’ camera shows the altercation with a level of detail beyond Benny’s usual monosyllabic response.

That’s nitpicking. Does anyone watching a movie really care where the plot comes from and if the movie plays within the boundaries it creates? No. Not if the movie is engaging and the performances are electric. And by that rubric, The Bikeriders contain some electric performances. Comer is an ace, as is Tom Hardy’s Johnny, the leader of the Vandals, who controls not with an iron fist but with sheer bullheaded stubbornness. If Comer is the consciousness of The Bikeriders, Hardy is the heart. The hair comes courtesy of Butler. It’s amazing.

But engaging is not the word I would use to describe The Bikeriders. Clocking in a shade under two hours, The Bikeriders drags and seems to have no nucleus pulling the performances and events into some sort of cohesion. The movie is about the end of an era. That might make The Bikeriders sound melancholic, maybe even elegiac. It’s neither. Instead, it’s a couple of really great performances from Tom Hardy and Jodie Comer and some really, really great hair from Austen Butler.

The Bikeriders (2023)
Written and directed by Jeff Nichols
Produced by Sarah Green, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Arnon Milchan
Starring: Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, Mike Faist, Boyd Holbrook, Norman Reedus
Focus Features, Rated R, Running time 116 minutes, Premiered Aug. 31, 2023 at the Telluride Film Festival

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