As it still rides on in cinemas, Universal Pictures debuts their star-studded bike-riding feature on UK digital home screens to rent and buy from today. The film, originally screened during the late 2023 festivals is a dynamo of a drama with three stunning performances front and centre in Tom Hardy, Austin Butler and Jodie Comer.
Based on the non-fiction photo book of the same name by Danny Lyon, The Bikeriders sees Comer as Kathy, our lead and narrator, interviewed by Mike Faist, playing Lyon as he goes about meeting those involved with and a part of the infamous Vandals Motorcycle Club in America’s midwest in the mid-1960s. She recounts meeting magnetic, moody rebel Benny (Austin Butler), a biker among the members of the club which is led by its founder, Johnny (a superb Tom Hardy), a truck driver and father who harbours his deep love of two wheels, channeling it into the Vandals MC which is revealed to have been set up initially as a motorcycle race club.
After viewing The Wild One, the 1953 movie led by Marlon Brando, Johnny is inspired to bring together similarly minded individuals who share the open road in their spare time, meeting in fields, local bars and tearing up the tarmac. Their breaking of the law is minimal; their breaking of the law limited to speeding, and fighting until Benny gets into trouble with a couple of locals when he refuses to take off his colours in a nearby bar. In need of instant revenge, Johnny and the crew set about the duo who set on Benny while Comer’s Kathy chats on; both providing back story and taking us further into Jeff Nichols’ engrossing story which sees the gang expand which ultimately leads to intense conflict.
Nichols draws us into the story slowly, though the narrative is always engrossing. He spends time drawing us in, introducing the many characters within the club – look out for Michael Shannon, Boyd Holbrook and Norman Reedus in great turns – and the world in which they inhabit, unknowingly involved in a weekend bike club which will evolve to something altogether different in the years to follow.
The Bikeriders‘ main asset is the central performances. Hardy and Butler are electric as Johnny and Benny, but it is Comer who ties it all together absolutely brilliant as Kathy. It’s one of her best roles to date and she more than holds her own against Butler’s sheer screen presence and Hardy’s natural magnetism.
The film is also beautiful to look at. Cinematographer Adam Stone, who has worked on Nichols’ brilliant Midnight Special and Take Shelter, among others, captures the beautiful vistas of rural Illinois and contrasts it with the dark. moody interiors of smoky Chicago bars.
While it is still enjoying a relatively good theatrical run, the film will undoubtedly find a wider audience at home – hence Universal’s decision to release digitally so soon after the cinema run. A captivating feature from start to finish, The Bikeriders is on of the best dramatic films of the summer and an absolute treat among a calendar full of lacklustre sequels and redos. See it on the big screen or at home but do see it.
The Bikeriders is available to rent or buy beginning July 22, 2024, available from Sky Store, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV & other digital retailers, from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. The film is also still playing in cinemas.
The Bikeriders
Summary
A slow-burning, slick piece of filmmaking from filmmaker Jeff Nichols diving into a motorcycle club’s origin story. Come for the roaring engines, leave being delighted having witnessed the terrific performances from the three leads; Hardy, Butler and Comer.
