
THE BIKERIDERS
Starring: Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Damon Harriman, Mike Faist, Boyd Holbrook, Michael Shannon, Beau Knapp, Emory Cohen, Norman Reedus, Karl Glusman, and Toby Wallace
Director: Jeff Nichols

NICK

Jeff Nichols is quietly one of the most consistent directors we have working today, and The Bikeriders continues that trend. The story - promoted around Tom Hardy's and Austin Butler's characters - really belongs to Jodie Comer's Kathy, who does a tremendous job telling it. That's not to take anything away from the men. Butler succeeds in yet another era-specific tale (I'm fine if I never see him in anything modern again), while it's nice to see Hardy back playing a real character. If you ignore the misleading promotion (this isn’t a violent, action-packed, gangster film), you’re likely to enjoy it much more.

ADRIANO

Going into The Bikeriders, I was told this was essentially “Goodfellas on bikes,” and while some elements do give this truth, it's too unfocused for it to be compared to that classic. While Jeff Nichols' direction is pretty great and the visual language of the film is striking, the acting does a lot of the heavy lifting, namely Tom Hardy (that said, Jodie Comer's accent is rough). The character writing is as paper-thin as can be, and the plotting is all over the place, lacking any thematic reason for me to care about anything. A pretty disappointing and forgettable experience, overall.

AMARÚ

The Bikeriders is unreservedly the Jodie Comer show. Some would say her coming out, but if you’ve followed her career, then you’ve seen this breakout performance on the horizon. She’s the driving force behind this engrossing and surprisingly funny movie about nothing in particular. Like most of these kinds of films, the conflicts don’t get too deep, and one event just happens after another, as is life. However, with Comer’s storytelling enhancing your connection to each character, enthralling you with their everyday lives, The Bikeriders is a page-turner of a biography set to motion that I couldn’t put down.

QUENTIN

The Bikeriders, while still very good, isn’t exactly what I expected from a story perspective. It’s more about the slow evolution of one motorcycle club from relative harmlessness to full-on gang, not a violent crime movie akin to Sons of Anarchy. I wanted (and anticipated) more of the latter. Still, though…the acting is terrific across the board (even in what amounts to a few glorified cameos), the period details are on point, and I was never not invested. Sure, it could have been 15-20 minutes longer to show the club’s transition less abruptly and to better develop a few characters, but that’s a minor complaint.

PAIGE

At its core, The Bikeriders shows the camaraderie built from the fumes of a Harley, and is a straightforward yet solid portrayal of a prominent Chicago motorcycle club. The sound design roars, and director Jeff Nichols succeeds in bringing the 1960s to life with rich detail. However, the story's delivery lacks drive and feels a bit scatterbrained. This may have been Nichol's intent, though, as the film is more about the journey than the destination. Overall, the movie required more fuel in its tank to set itself apart from stories like Goodfellas.

PRESTON

As someone who falls hard for the nonconformist, play-hard camaraderie typical of the “one-percenter” motorcycle clubs, my hopes for The Bikeriders were not entirely met. Tom Hardy and Austin Butler keep the “shiny side up, rubber side down,” but Butler’s stoic nature never lets up enough to allow full connection to his character. Perhaps to eliminate any glorification of the real-life manner in which these guys live, the movie lackadaisically putts along until we learn our lesson in the end. Jodie Comer’s storytelling is on point, but the timelines are muddled. Overall, expectation management is warranted regarding the film’s more muted presentation.