What's The Movie About?
Based on a photo book, the movie follows a photographer interviewing the wife of a biker, and tells the story of the founding of the Vandals Bike Club.
What I Like.
A lot more than I thought I would. This movie is just basically a nostalgic longing for the first days of the Vandal Bike Club, and while I figured that would annoy me, they do a damn good job making the lifestyle appealing. The Billy character was pretty interesting, him being such a free spirit he's basically a nihilist. I like the dichotomy of his wife and the leader of the Vandals competing for his affection, basically. I also like that they don't quite shy away from the more unsavory aspects in the early days. The Vandals are constantly getting arrested and the Kathy character has a lot of good point about how horrible it for her nerves to have her husband constantly getting in trouble. I'm consistently impressed by films that show some really rough stuff, like assault or nasty injuries, but I don't want to look away from the screen. There's a lot of really good acting in this movie too. Both Michael Shannon and Norman Reedus are in the movie and I had no idea before sitting down. Michael Shannon is always someone who surprises me in how good he is in everything. Not sure why, since he's usually one of the best actors in whatever he's in. The cinematography and directing is really good too. There's a really awesome shot with a character in shadow that made me slightly agog, not gonna lie. And the music is good, since the film takes place at the dawn of rock and roll. Finally, I liked that the ending felt ambiguous. I didn't know whether is was a happy or sad ending and I think that was cool.
What I Didn't Like.
Just Jodie Comber and Tom Hardy's accents. Jodie somehow sounds like she's from Minnesota, Chicago, and Boston all at the same time, and I'm just convinced that Tom Hardy has it in his actor's contract that he just needs to talk weird in every movie he's in. I guess I don't really love the masculine standard the Vandals have but I don't really think the movie takes sides on whether the way they act is good or not. The movie does kinda act like an apologist for the original Vandals, it's like "Hey, these guys might break every traffic law and they burned down that one guy's bar, but the real trouble is when all these kids showed up an started running the show. That's when drugs and murder happened." But again, I feel like the movie doesn't really make a statement about whether they way the characters act is the way to be or not.
Final Summation.
The Bikeriders is good. You probably aren't surprised by that, but I was. I dunno, maybe I'm cynical, but I was expecting a movie experience like Zone of Interest or Civil War. But I actually like the Bikeriders. It's an easy recommend.
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