The Bik­erid­ers review – a slow but envelop­ing saga

Eight years since his last fea­ture, Jeff Nichols returns with a wist­ful and con­tem­pla­tive depic­tion of a 60s Chica­go motor­cy­cle club, The Van­dals, inspired by the work of pho­tog­ra­ph­er Dan­ny Lyon. Recent inter­net boyfriend Mike Faist (Chal­lengers, West Side Sto­ry) takes on the role of Lyon, as a green stu­dent pho­tog­ra­ph­er fol­low­ing the mot­ley crew around and con­duct­ing inter­views that form the spine of the narrative. 

In the sea of den­im and leather is Jodie Comer’s clear-eyed Kathy, the film’s dom­i­nant voice. With some­times intru­sive voiceover, Kathy’s per­spec­tive on the group – and her hus­band Ben­ny (played with cool detach­ment by oth­er recent inter­net boyfriend, Austin But­ler) – allows Nichols to poke fun at the self-seri­ous machis­mo of these men, pick­ing fights then shar­ing beers later. 

What promis­es to be an adren­a­line-filled Scors­ese-esque rise and fall yarn, is much more in line with Nichols’ pre­vi­ous work, a rose-tint­ed vision of the oft-over­looked Mid­west­ern land­scape with gor­geous cin­e­matog­ra­phy by fre­quent col­lab­o­ra­tor Adam Stone. Though the film’s mar­ket­ing may (clev­er­ly) skew in the favour of Faist or But­ler, two Brits anchor this all-Amer­i­can sto­ry. With the heart of the nar­ra­tive cen­tring on Kathy and John­ny (played with reli­ably unfil­tered mas­cu­line gus­to by Tom Hardy) bat­tling for the loy­al­ty of Ben­ny, with Kathy want­i­ng him as a more con­ven­tion­al hus­band and John­ny groom­ing him as his pro­tégé to take over The Van­dals. Ben­ny, nat­u­ral­ly, is loy­al only to his motorcycle. 

While it’s appar­ent Nichols has been lured in by the cama­raderie and com­mu­ni­ty these men build, the film shows lit­tle inter­est in the bikes that intox­i­cate them. Through Kathy’s voiceover, we learn of the rides they go on and the feel­ing of see­ing them all togeth­er, but in most instances, we are told, not shown. More time is spent drink­ing beers with the likes of Zip­co (Michael Shan­non), Bru­cie (Damon Her­ri­man), Wahoo (Beau Knapp), Cock­roach (Emory Cohen) and Corky (Karl Glus­man), lament­ing the ills of the world and debat­ing whether they should pool togeth­er for a phone in the bar. 

The not-infre­quent bloody vio­lence is pro­pelled by John­ny and Ben­ny, who get into sit­u­a­tions that would make any­one wince. The sto­ry of The Van­dals is fleshed out with the club’s expan­sion, invit­ing some unsavoury char­ac­ters, tru­ly dam­aged men, who are volatile post-Viet­nam vet­er­ans and not harm­less week­end hob­by­ists. John­ny ages out of patri­arch duties and the Kathy and Ben­ny love sto­ry reach­es a sat­is­fy­ing close. While Com­er and But­ler shine on their own, their rela­tion­ship is nev­er all the way con­vinc­ing – she plays Kathy too no-non­sense to endure all she does from blue-eyed Ben­ny and But­ler, and has too lit­tle screen-time to feel any­thing more than an icon of lac­quered Americana. 

The Bik­erid­ers is an enjoy­able ride and one that Nichols fans will get a kick out of. The ensem­ble cast is entic­ing but the tried-and-true sto­ry arc isn’t inject­ed with enough rigour to make this the clas­sic it could be.

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