Film: The Bikeriders
Cast: Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, Mike Faist, Boyd Holbrook, Norman Reedus, Michael Abbott Jr., Damon Herriman, Beau Knapp, Emory Cohen, Karl Glusman,Toby Wallace, Happy Anderson, Paul Sparks.
Director: Jeff Nichols
Rating: 3/5
Runtime: 118 min

This one’s a subtle Johnny(Tom Hardy) and Benny (Austin Butler) homo-masochistic love story. Benny, the blue-eyed James Dean-like stereotype of existential freedom exhibits a laconic kind of sadness as he haunts us through  his wife, Kathy’s (Jodie Comer) account of life with ‘The Chicago Vandals motorcycle club’ dominated by Johnny. Since the gang consisted mainly of uneducated men who let their bikes do the talking, Kathy becomes the obvious choice to tell this story. Jodie Comer justifies that confidence with a riveting sassy, sceptical tone that lends sublime heft to this telling.

This film based on Danny Lyon’s 1967 book of photographs and interviews taken of a real gang, has Kathy narrating to Lyons ( Mike Faist) regarding her meeting up and falling instantly in love and marriage with Benny while recounting how the biker gang evolved from the mid 60’s to the early 70’s, after which the gang took a turn for the worse. We get to see their world through her eyes. Jeff Nichols and team make this a typical fictional reproduction of the outlaw biker movie of the 50’s and 60’s. There are obvious references/tributes to László Benedek’s The Wild One, and also to Easy Rider, as both get a mention here.