Those Mumbly Boys on their Motorbikes.
Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders, an attempt at an epic look at an American motorcycle gang, lands short.
Austin Butler’s (Elvis) youngest fans will not understand the reference that he delivers a very Marlon Brando performance throughout writer/director Jeff Nichols’ period motorcycle drama The Bikeriders, an adaptation of a 1968 photography book by Danny Lyon.
The flickering image of Brando on a TV screen early in the movie is an unnoticed movie Easter egg. To the Brando fans in the audience, the irony behind my comparison is that Butler’s mumbly performance is a criticism.
As Benny, a young lieutenant in the Vandals, a violent motorcycle club in the Midwest of the 1960s, Butler delivers a tied-down, stare-at-your-shoelaces performance better suited for a low-budget Mumblecore drama from twenty years ago. It’s a disappointing performance from the usually dynamic Butler. Is it too much to ask him to channel Brando circa On the Waterfront (1954) instead of Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992)?
Lead Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises) matches Butler’s restraint as Johnny, the longtime leader of the Vandals who fails to stop the motorcycle club’s decline into a criminal gang. Mike Faist fades into the background as Danny, a college kid and photographer who’s documenting the Vandals for a book. Only Michael Shannon (The Shape of Water), who’s been collaborating with Nichols since the 2007 family drama Shotgun Stories, packs a punch as Zipco, a Vandals member embittered about being disqualified for military service in Vietnam. Shannon brings a welcome jolt to The Bikeriders every time he’s on-screen. It’s too bad his co-stars fail to match his energy.
As Kathy, Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) channels a young Meryl Streep with a beehive hairdo and accent-heavy performance smacking of Midwestern style. Comer play-acts with enthusiasm and easily outshines the surrounding men as the female observer of the Vandals’ rise and fall.
Fans of American Indie cinema know Nichols and cameraman Adam Stone for their standout dramas Midnight Special (2016) and Take Shelter (2011). Nichols is a risk-taker and a talented storyteller, but, just like Benny early in the movie, he runs out of gas with The Bikeriders. Shocking scenes of macho confrontation and violence fail to pack a full punch. Sequences showing Benny struggles to make a home with Kathy lack heartache. Stone delivers some beautiful images of Benny leaning against his motorcycle, but the cinematography is far from epic.
Composer David Wingo provides a standout musical soundtrack heavy on Sixties girl pop like The Shangri-Las. I wish Wingo had included Peggy Lee singing Is That All There Is? during one of Comer’s fantastic scenes. It’s also what I’m thinking while writing this review. Is that all there is to The Bikeriders?
Behind the Screen:
Writer/director Jeff Nichols adapts photographer Danny Lyon’s acclaimed 1968 book The Bikeriders, an immersive look at Chicago’s Outlaws Motorcycle Club. Stay for the film’s closing credits and see Lyon’s photographs.
Rating: Rated R for language, drug use, sexuality, and violence.
Cast: Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, and Jodie Comer.
Director: Jeff Nichols
Grade: B- Filmmaker Jeff Nichols’ attempt at an epic look at an American motorcycle gang lands short.
