The Mosley Review: The Bikeriders

Now here's something you never really see anymore. The classic era of film where the true meaning of a bad boy was explored. The rebellious nature of going against the standard cookie cutter American dream. Where you could be tough, rugged and an outcast and it was cool. This film brings that flavor of the freedom of riding your motorcycle on the open road that solidified the Americana style of storytelling. There was a culture of bikers that got together in a social club and they just road for the pure love of it. Yeah there were some rebellious bad apples that got into fights and drank, but that was the extent of it before the eventual corruption and criminal element took over. It was majestic, different and cool. This film was based on that time and was a cautionary and somewhat origin story of the rise of the criminal element in the biker community. It follows the same idea of starting something out to be for fun and to be a home for the wayward, but as we already know things tend to spiral out of control without structure. I do like the different perspective as we see the story of the motorcycle group from the outside looking in.

Jodie Comer delivers an excellent and somewhat annoyingly rhythmic performance as Kathy. She carries the films’ story and emotional resonance throughout expertly. It took some getting used to hearing her Midwestern accent as she would do the typical up and down with her vocal tone that became grating at times. Austin Butler was the poster child of the classic young biker with attitude fueled look and feel as Benny. He was not a man of many words as you'd expect, but that was one of his strongest traits in the film. The allure of danger, carelessness and emotionally guarded was all in his eyes and that fueled the chemistry between him and Kathy. Tom Hardy was excellent and enigmatic as the president of the Vandals MC, Johnny. He was also a very expressive person in the eyes and you feel his pride and joy when he was out with his fellow club members. He was the father figure that was stern, smart and fair. I liked the friendship he had with Benny as he wanted to mentor him to take over. Tom truly portrayed the hardship and weight of being the leader toward the latter half of the film as you she his efforts of expansion became too wild. Mike Faist was good as the photographer and documenter, Danny Lyon. He really was the human tape recorder of the film and he did exactly what he needed to be for the story. He listened, documented and didn't get in the way of the focus of the story. Boyd Holbrook is someone I always enjoy seeing and as Cal, I liked him alot. I almost wish he had switched roles with Austin, but Austin had the more youthful look. Norman Reedus was nearly unrecognizable as Funny Sonny and I loved his light hearted spirit and joyful demeanor.

The film does feature a score from David Wingo and when its present, it nails the mood. The majority of the film has no score and I loved because it doesn't get in the way of your engagement with the people. The sound design was on point with the mechanical sounds of a bike starting up to the looming roar of ten bikes cresting over a hill and into town. I truly loved the moments where other MC's would just chat up their love for the custom work on the bikes and their personal stories of how they got to this point in life. That's where the magic of the film truly shines. I did feel the tone of the film was bouncing around the love of the culture and the darkness of envy and uncontrolled ambition. That's where I felt the film was a bit unbalanced. Overall, I thought it was a sweet taste of classic Americana that I have missed in film and I wish the tone was more consistent. Let me know what you thought of the film or my review in comments below. Thanks for reading!