‘The Bikeriders’ review: Austin Butler and Tom Hardy’s ‘Easy Rider’ rebels roll out

Switchblades. Hooch. Leather and denim. And the roar of the Harley Davidson. It’s easy to see the appeal to writer-director Jeff Nichols (Midnight Special, Mud) when it comes to The Bikeriders. Inspired by the black-and-white work of Danny Lyon, the American photographer who hung out with a Chicago biker gang in the 1960s, Nichols compellingly chronicles the rise and fall of a Midwest motorcycle club.

President of The Vandals is Johnny (Tom Hardy), a trucker and motorbike nut who decided to form a gang after watching Marlon Brando in The Wild One. Second in command is Brucie (Damon Herriman), but the real rebel without a cause is Benny (Austin Butler). Beloved by Johnny, who admires his stance to “not care about nothin’”, he’s your regular streetfighting man; the kind of kid who won’t take his biker colours off even when he’s taking a beating.

Nichols frames the story via Benny’s girlfriend Kathy (Jodie Comer), who’s being interviewed for Lyon’s book. A regular, plain-speaking gal, she’s our way into this world of bike-meets, bar fights and booze-soaked parties. “I used to be respectable,” she mutters, at one point, but her love for Benny, a sensitive bruiser if ever there was one, trumps everything.

There’s more than a smidgeon of Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas about Nichols’ film – from the opening flash forward to a violent turning point, complete with freeze-frame, to the jukebox soundtrack (The Animals, The Stooges, The Shangri-Las, Dale Hawkins and more). And like Scorsese’s gangster classic, it’s very much about loyalty and camaraderie. As Brucie puts it: “Everyone wants to be a part of something.”

Whatever you think about The Bikeriders, a film that’s episodic in feel, it’s swimming in acting talent. Hardy delivers something akin to his character in 2012’s Depression-era tale Lawless, a man of few words who doesn’t even flinch when a young pretender from the Milwaukee chapter of The Vandals challenges him to a knife fight. Comer, chain-smoking all the way through, again shows why she’s such an exciting talent.

There’s also small-but-potent turns from the Boyd Holbrook, The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus and Nichols regular Michael Shannon as Vandals bikers. But it’s Austin Butler that remains the standout. Proving that his Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 biopic was not a flash in the pan, he oozes charisma in a smouldering turn. So much so that when he disappears out of the story following a brutal fight in which he’s badly wounded, the film struggles for a while to regain its momentum.

Capturing the freewheelin’ live-fast-die-young nature of these bikers, Nichols’ film also, thankfully, comes laced with humour. Like the moment Reedus’ character is paid $5 to sit on his bike outside a cinema showing Easy Rider to draw in the punters. Eschewing melodrama for a more low-key register, it may not satisfy those looking for quick thrills. But this slow-burner is a stylish look at a bygone era, when all that mattered was having enough money to put petrol in your tank.