The Bikeriders

The Bikeriders (2024) is about a motorcycle club formed in Chicago in the sixties. It starts with a few friends and within ten years becomes something else: hierarchy, chapters, violence and money. The film delivers that change through Kathy, a woman who marries one of the members. The source is Danny Lyon's 1968 photo book. Jeff Nichols came across it in 2003 at his brother's place in Memphis and the film grew from there. Lyon had lived with the club, photographed it and recorded conversations with its members, and the film's narration and speech rhythms come straight out of those tapes. Jodie Comer plays Kathy, with Austin Butler and Tom Hardy as two of the members. Its distribution history ran into the strike. 20th Century Studios had it set for 1 December 2023 and pulled it because the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike prevented the cast from promoting it. New Regency shopped the project to rival studios and Focus Features acquired it on 22 November 2023. It finally opened on 21 June 2024. It was made for between 30 and 40 million dollars and grossed 36.3 million worldwide. It runs 116 minutes. Good for: sixties America, motorcycle culture, and group portraits. Less good for: the plot is thin and the film is a series of anecdotes. The violence is sudden and graphic. Kathy narrates without owning her own story; the camera stays on the men.