It's been a good long while since Jeff Nichols made a movie as his last two projects (Midnight Special, Loving) were released in 2016. Maybe all the time away from the job produced some rust because his comeback feature The Bikeriders doesn't feel like the work of a seasoned, gifted artist.
This period drama inspired by Danny Lyons' photobook of the same name follows a Chicago-based biker gang called the Vandals from roughly the mid 60's to the early 70's. To tell the story of the Vandals rise and fall, Nichols uses a framing device of Lyons (Mike Faist) interviewing a woman named Kathy (Jodie Comer)-who is married to Vandals member Benny (Austin Butler)-to fill in the blanks of what happened with the club after he stopped riding with/photographing them in 1967. By having Kathy recount a set of stories that are comprised of more secondhand anecdotes than her own personal experiences, Nichols creates a pretty massive distance between what appears on screen and the true heart of the club. Sure, Kathy witnessed some important things, and she knows what the burden of the club's slow descent into the criminal underworld has done to Benny, but the majority of the most seismic events that changed the trajectory of the Vandals didn't involve her or Benny. While this whole scrapbook-y narrative approach is a nice way to honor Lyons' work, Nichols primary intention here is to use the Vandals' story as a way to demythologize the American biker and being so far zoomed out from the innerworkings of the club renders these humanizing efforts largely ineffective.
Without any real interest in exploring these characters, the culture of the time or really anything of substance, Nichols relies a lot on the inherent coolness of biker gangs and the magnetism of his lead actors to get by. And to his credit, there are times where this approach pays off. There are some stirring moments of old school gangster movie brutality and freewheeling fun to be had as the Vandals evolution from a group of friends bound together by their love of motorcycles to something much more sinister is taking place while Comer, Butler and Tom Hardy-who steals the show as the club's gruff founder Johnny who slowly becomes terrified by the beast he helped create-all threaten to add some depth to the proceedings with the quiet humanity they bring to their thinly written characters. There's a version of The Bikeriders where the focus on the aesthetic and how its actors fit into it is strong enough on its own to make this movie a really great time, but sadly, what made it to the screen isn't compelling enough to overcome how it little it has going on beyond the sea of leather vests, loud bikes and bareknuckle brawls that are the center of the bulk of its frames.
The Bikeriders will unquestionably end up going down as one of the most aggravating watches of the year for me. Nichols and his cast are far too talented to be responsible for putting something so hollow and fragmented into the world. This could've been Goodfellas on motorcycles or a period version of Sons of Anarchy if done right, but the movie never even sniffs being propulsive, vulnerable or smart enough to travel down either of those superior paths. Let's hope that Nichols' next project has some more panache and weight behind it, or it may be time to start questioning whether he's capable of making something as good as Take Shelter or Mud ever again.
Grade: B-
No comments:
Post a Comment