Jeff Nichols was obsessed with a series of photographs of bikers in a book of photography called The Bikeriders by Danny Lyon. The book was published in 1968 and recorded images of the early days of the biker movement as they formed rival gangs and fought for territory. It defined an era now beautifully brought to full color by Nichols, featuring a knock-out performance by Jodie Comer, and great supporting turns by Austin Butler (James Dean-prototype) and Tom Hardy (Marlon Brando-prootype).
The Bikeriders is a very different film for Nichols and perhaps most resembles his film Loving in terms of taking real-life events and building a story around them that hovers between documentary and fiction. The film is full of heat and fire, depicting a time in American life that was tamped down in the post-WWII Eisenhower Americana. The wildness was simmering just below the surface, a powder keg about to explode in the 1960s with the last counterculture movement that reshaped American life for decades to follow.
Here is a trailer:
From writer-director Jeff Nichols (“Loving,” “Midnight Special,” “Mud”), 20th Century Studios and New Regency, “The Bikeriders” is a furious drama following the rise of a fictional 1960s Midwestern motorcycle club through the lives of its members, starring Jodie Comer (“Killing Eve,” “The Last Duel”), Austin Butler (“Elvis”) and Tom Hardy (“Mad Max: Fury Road,” “The Revenant”).
“The Bikeriders” opens in U.S. theaters on December 1.
An unintentional ASMR flip through of The Bikeriders:
