Title: The Bikeriders
MPA Rating: R
Director: Jeff Nichols
Starring: Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer
Runtime: 1 hr 56 mins

What It Is: Kathy (Comer) is strangely drawn to biker Benny (Butler). When he is also drawn to her she’s now embroiled in the biker lifestyle as his “old lady”. But life on the way is not as easy as it seems. Quickly Benny must deal with the consequences of his pride. As his motorcycle club, The Vandals begins to gain a reputation its leader Johnny (Hardy) may or may not be able to handle all of it.

What We Think: Yeah, this is fine. It gets some things right but misses the mark in others. It feels rather rushed, and the direction isn’t quite up to par, frankly. The material also feels quite bare. Butler, for his part, is stoic, but he comes off as too arrogant, and that approach didn’t work for me. Tom Hardy should’ve been a better fit here, but he wasn’t—and I can’t quite put my finger on why. There’s just something about the overall mood that didn’t resonate with me. Jeff Nichols, as a director, usually takes a methodical approach, but I don’t think he was the right choice for this project.

Our Grade: C, A sufficient motion picture that suffers from having the wrong guy behind the lens. Jeff Nichols is normally nothing short of fantastic. Films like Mud and Take Shelter work for what he likes to do. Also, I think Tom Hardy is a bit miscast here. It isn’t that he’s not good, he is. It is entirely true that his style doesn’t mesh with this film’s substance. It is somewhat entertaining and in this perspective, the film does have value. Butler is fine. He usually is. Everyone in this is fine it’s simply a matter of a square peg pushed violently into a round hole.