Review of The Bikeriders, directed by Jeff Nichols

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

For three years I worked professionally as a film critic, and while going to all of the film festivals and interviewing directors and actors was cool for a while, but I wanted to reclaim my time and watch movies I wanted to watch. Sometimes watching all of the new releases is great, and behind ahead of the curve, but I feel like I was falling so behind on movies I was genuinely excited about.

So I quit and decided to focus on this blog, and fell back more into literary criticism. I also randomly fell into a period of unemployment because of unexpected circumstances, and I took a long and hard look at my finances and realized I had enough to take time off. I did end up doing that, traveled for a bit, applied to jobs, and found myself working on the blog now more than ever.

I remember when I still had a car and AMC A List; those were my golden days when it came to watching movies, and that was also an all-time high period for my blog, too. I used to go see movies 2-3 times a week because I wasn’t too far from an AMC theater, and I was in graduate school with a bit of a more flexible schedule because my classes were late at night and only 2-3 times a week.

I remember the trailers for The Bikeriders and I only wanted to see it back then because I knew Mike Faist was in it. It was that fact I remembered when I wandered my local library branch and realized that they had a DVD copy in the depths of the movie and video game sections. So I checked it out and watched it on one rainy Wednesday!

Let’s get into the review.

The story of a motorcycle gang, a romance with one of its leaders, and its potential fall.

This is a movie that toggles between past and present, as the female lead, Kathy, is talking to photography student Danny Lyon about the events being depicted in the movie. How she got involved happened like this: she met Benny, a member of the Vandals Motorcycle Club, when they were both still pretty young.

The two fell for each other pretty quickly (and he was an opportunity for her to get out of her situation in some ways), and they get married within five weeks of meeting each other. The Vandals Motorcycle Club has been expanding across the Midwestern United States, as its leader, Johnny, won a fistfight but gave into member demands to expand the club.

Four years after Kathy and Benny got married, Benny is attacked in a bar because of his association with the club. He nearly loses his foot because of it, but Johnny goes after the bar’s owner, demands the men’s names, and burns the place down. Kathy doesn’t want Benny to get involved with the club while he’s still healing, but Johnny doesn’t care and forces him to come with them to a rally.

We learn that Benny is expected to be the next head of the club, but he doesn’t actually want to do it. Kathy is still giving information to Danny in real time, and the next major event involves someone known as “the Kid.” He wants to join the club with his friends, but Johnny wants to prove this kid’s worth.

He doesn’t want him to join after he realizes he would abandon his friends for his goals, and he tells him not to come back to the Vandals. We learn from the present day that Johnny loses control of the club not long after, as he lost his second in command in an accident, and then Vietnam War veterans, specifically addicts, begin flooding the ranks.

When a Cockroach, who’s been in the club forever, says he wants to become a cop, the new members attack him. Kathy is almost gang raped too by the new members, and Johnny puts an end to that. She demands Benny leave the Vandals after this, but he disappears for a few days and leaves her behind.

Cockroach thinks the new members are going to kill him, so Benny and Johnny come together to stage an event where he’s shot. Johnny asks Benny if he wants to be leader again, as he thinks he can no longer control the situation, which is where Benny decides to quit and leave the area temporarily.

After that, Johnny fights The Kid, who challenged him to a fight in order to try and claim leadership over the Vandals. The Kid shoots him dead instead, and the Vandals become a crime ridden group with the new members. Benny comes back after this and returns for Kathy, and they move to Florida.

He happily becomes a mechanic and gives up his lifestyle as a biker. The movie ends back in the present day, where Benny, who is standing outside, smiles at the sound of motorcycles passing by.

Overall Thoughts

I have to admit that typically this isn’t the kind of movie I’m going for, but this was alright. It has a solid story that progresses from Point A to Point B, and the main character is someone who does realize that there is something wrong going on here. If he stays, he’s going to hurt himself and his wife, so he makes a wise decision in the end.

I do have some problems with the past to present tug and pull that happens throughout the movie. Like I get why this was decided upon for the script and editing, but I feel like it creates some suction out of the immersion the world of the film creates. I also expected more from Mike Faist’s character, but he’s of serving as a Nick from The Great Gatsby here.

This is also quite the masculine film, which is to be expected from the premise and the plot. No qualms from me about it, but I think that I get more bored with these kinds of movies because I would rather fixate on the female lead than the male one. Just personal preference there.

All of this is to say the following: if this sounds like your kind of movie, and you have not seen it already, then go see it! Movies are meant to be experienced and watched, not read about.

Follow me below on Instagram, Letterboxd, and Goodreads for more.