“The Bikeriders” is nothing less than a love letter to the culture around motorcycle clubs. This 2024 film follows The Vandals motorcycle club and its eclectic and irreverent, members who are out to have fun and ride their motorcycles. It focuses on a budding relationship between Austin Butlers James Dean-esque Benny and Jodie Comer’s Kathy as Benny tries to balance his relationship with his love of being a member of The Vandals. Simultaneously, the movie features The Vandals’ founder and leader, Johnny, played by the illustrious Tom Hardy, who wants nothing more than for Benny to take over the reins to keep the club from devolving into a cesspool of violence.
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Audiences will be entertained by bar brawls, house parties, road trips, hospital visits, a balanced sense of humor, and, most of all, motorcycles. History buffs interested in American culture might be further entertained with knowledge that the film, much like Charlie Sheen’s “Beyond the Law,” is based on a true story. This 2024 movie took cues from Danny Lyon’s 1968 picture book with the same title. Within its pages, the book collects photographs and interviews from real members of the very real Chicago Outlaws motorcycle club. Unlike the book’s creator, director Jeff Nichols didn’t have to link up and follow around the Outlaws to make his movie.
Which works out for the director because times have changed since Lyon snapped his photos of Johnny, Benny, and others in the Chicago Outlaws MC.
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