Review: The Bikeriders | Houston Press

Describe this film in one jurassic park Quote:

DR. IAN MALCOLM: Ah, now you’re planning to have dinosaurs on your… on your dinosaur tour, right? Good morning?

Brief summary of the plot: That’s when I fell in love with the leader of the pack.

Evaluation using random objects relevant to the film: 2 out of 5 Evel Knievel Stunt Cycles

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Slogan : “Freedom is for those who are not afraid.”

Best slogan: “Plot? Character arcs? A biker doesn’t want those things.”

Not-so-brief plot synopsis: When Kathy (Jodie Comer) agrees to meet her friend at a biker bar, she didn’t plan to fall in love with Benny (Austin Butler), one of the Outlaws himself. Inexplicably marrying Benny and becoming an official “old lady,” she must now confront Outlaws founder Johnny (Tom Hardy), who has bigger plans for Benny.
“Critical analysis: Director Jeff Nichols (Take refuge, mud, love) base Bikers on the book of the same name by photographer Robert Lyon, chronicling several years in the life of a motorcycle club called the Outlaws. The images obviously stuck in Nichols’ mind, as the idea for this film floated around in his head for years. Having now seen the final product, I can tell you that it’s probably best to stick with the book.

I take no pleasure in saying that. Nichols’s To protect was my favorite film of 2011, and both Mud And Magnet are solid films, but for a film billed as a “crime drama”, Nichols includes surprisingly little crime in Bikers.

There was probably something incredibly cool about seeing a biker gang hit the streets for the first time. Nichols understands this aesthetic, so much so that he uses a variation of this shot several times. It’s nice… for a while, but then you start to wonder when something is going to happen.

But the movie looks and sounds great. Adam Stone’s cinematography and Chad Keith’s production design deliver a perfect sepia-toned reproduction of ’60s and ’70s Chicago, and the soundtrack is filled with era-appropriate tracks from underutilized artists like Magic Sam and the Sonics.

So it’s a shame Bikers is disappointed by its storyline and several of the main actors. As the film’s narrator and linchpin of its love triangle, Comer does what she can, all while providing an accent reminiscent of Dan Aykroyd’s character in Tommy boy. Butler, on the other hand, is the ambulatory personification of “flat affect,” and Hardy is all forehead furrows and facial tics. Johnny could very well be the grandfather of Drops Bob Saginowski.

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What am I rebelling against? Oral hygiene.

Only Hardy, Michael Shannon (former Zipco comic) and Damon Herriman (Johnny’s Lt. Brucie) look like real bikers. Butler’s perfect teeth, perfect complexion, and oh-so-disheveled hair not only don’t suit him, they don’t change at all over the course of what we believe to be eight years of difficult life.

What happened to Elvis’ swaggering insouciance? Or the wild psychopathy of Dune Part 2Is this Feyd Rautha? Describing what Butler does here as “sleepwalking” spices up sleepwalking. Worse still, it’s impossible to explain Kathy’s attraction to him. She herself describes Benny as having “no feelings” and “believing we are all better off dead”. What a catch.

Nichols romanticizes the early biker era, when Outlaws were all about drinking beer and personalizing their rides. And there’s a story to be told about watching something you created become corrupt, but it’s overshadowed by images of “new guys” doing drugs and trying to rape Kathy.

Yeah, Comer has another sexual assault subplot hot on the heels of The last duel. Interestingly, Nichols uses this to illustrate the “badness” of the new breed of outlaws when he plays a similar incident when Kathy first meets the gang for laughs.

From a setting, cinematography and soundtrack perspective, Nichols is clearly in his Martin Scorsese period. The problem is that things actually happen in Scorsese’s films. Bikers it may be a teaser, but it’s not much more dynamic than the photos that inspired it.

Bikeriders is in theaters today.