150 Word Review: 'The Bikeriders' (2024)
Va va vroom
Americans love a loner, especially one on a motorcycle. Director Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders is a muscular crime story with plenty of horsepower and handsome dudes with bad attitudes. It's a paean to the golden age of leather jackets—the 1960s.
Jodie Comer is soulful as the blunt wife of hottie rebel Austin Butler. The leader of the pack is played by squeaky-voiced Tom Hardy, a family man who was inspired to start a gang after watching a movie starring the wild one, Marlon Brando. Hardy's outlaws are half-hearted—mostly, they drink beer. Occasionally, knives are pulled. Comer is the center of gravity in every scene, but there's one moment between Hardy and Butler's characters that is so tender and intimate that I'm surprised they didn't kiss. (They should have.)
The Bikeriders is based on a photo book about real Midwestern bikers, and it resurrects a specific time, place, and smell: exhaust.
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My debut memoir, Theatre Kids, is now available for purchase. Theatre Kids is an awkward coming-of-age story about starving artists, outrageous drunks, and true American weirdos making art that no one wants. Give it a read!
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You mentioned "The Wild One", and that's the closest analogous film I can think of. But I doubt any of the actors has the young Brando's charisma.