'The Bikeriders' is the best outlaw biker movie in years

Told through interviews with photojournalist Danny Lyon (Mike Faist), Kathy (Jodie Comer) recounts her life and times with an outlaw motorcycle gang called the Vandals. Led by Johnny (Tom Hardy), Kathy soon becomes enamoured by Benny (Austin Butler) and marries him. However, the motorcycle gang soon grows in size and as the years wear on, the Vandals soon become a force to be reckoned with that not even Johnny and Benny can control...

Though much of the reviews and the attendant marketing tries to make 'The Bikeriders' appear as 'Goodfellas' on motorcycles, there's a lot more going on than Jeff Nichols merely aping Martin Scorsese's most recognisable work. In recent years, movies like 'Rumble Fish' and shows like 'Sons of Anarchy' have helped to solidify the idea of outlaw bikers as rebels and outcasts, very few have tried to dig underneath to explore the why instead of the how. In 'The Bikeriders', it's all about the performances - both by the actors, but also by the characters themselves.

Jodie Comer's character, Kathy, breathlessly recounts meeting Austin Butler's Benny in a smoky bar that looks initially like an establishing shot from 'Cruising' before it shifts gears into something like a Lana Del Rey song, all swept up in a darkened Americana romance on the back of a motorcycle. From there, we meet the outcasts and reprobates that make up the Vandals, led by Tom Hardy's character, Johnny. Again, it's the performance of it all that drives 'The Bikeriders' and the motorcycle gang, as we see Johnny take his whole inspiration for it from Marlon Brando and 'The Wild One'. There's all this masculinity and bravado on the surface, but the truth of it is they ride together in a horde out of protection. By the end, many of the characters are either gone from the life or living some kind of facsimile of it. Norman Reedus' character, Funny Sonny, is paid by a film studio to rev his bike outside screenings of 'Easy Rider'.

It's fascinating stuff, and the cast is completely dialled into the vibe and the ideas. The relationship between Tom Hardy, Austin Butler, and Jodie Comer plays along subtle notes akin to 'Challengers', where Austin Butler is pulled away from the gang by Comer but then back to it by Hardy. One scene with Butler and Hardy brings this almost to the edge without going over, underlining how smart the writing and directing by Nichols is. The supporting cast is just as tight, with Michael Shannon, Damon Herriman and Norman Reedus standing out in particular. Shannon plays the alchy Zipco, all drunken sadness and self-loathing, while Herriman has more of the steely pride of a determined outcast.

Nichols deliberately leaves out any kind of cinematic tricks, instead opting for a natural, documentary approach. This has the effect of giving the performances more room to manoeuvre and be as authentic as they can be, but it also adds more miles to the story when it could probably have found a more direct route. The use of Mike Faist as the interviewer and Jodie Comer as narrator - both of whom get sucked into the world of the Vandals and eventually get spat out - keeps the thing moving, and the terrific soundtrack choices locks you into the time and place.

Smart and knowing, 'The Bikeriders' is a deep examination of the outlaw biker, and the genre itself. It moves with a studied confidence that belies a vulnerable, self-aware look at masculinity as both a performance and a prison. This awareness, this willingness to get close and underneath the skin of it makes it the best outlaw biker movie in years.