Tom Hardy was made for The Bikeriders’ filthy tale – but he’s overshadowed by a captivating co-star-Tori Brazier-Entertainment – Metro

The Bikeriders immerses audiences in 1960s American counterculture (Picture: 20th Century Studios)

The Bikeriders offers the audience a raw and exciting ride, powered mostly by the engine of its slick, sweaty style and a cast led by Austin Butler, Tom Hardy – and a show-stealing Jodie Comer.

Inspired by the 1968 book of the same name by documentary photographer Danny Lyon, writer and director Jeff Nichols has created living and breathing characters – to a point – from the pages of Lyon’s moody subjects.

Here, the real Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club is thrown out for an entirely fictional motorcycle gang, the Vandals, founded by the powerful but deceptively quiet Johnny (a role for Tom Hardy to feel at home in).

Austin Butler is his young pal and fellow rider Benny, reckless and achingly cool in his torn-off shirtsleeves, messy hair and Levis with riding gloves hanging out the back pocket. It’s very much a film in which the actors can live out their bad boy fantasies.

These two actors were born to play in this era’s counterculture sandpit and depict a believable friendship among the original, tight-knit gang in the film.

The Bikeriders unsubtly harks back to Marlon Brando’s turn as motorcycle gang leader Johnny Strabler in 1953’s The Wild One. That character went on to become a cultural touchstone of the era; Nichols leans into this by showing Hardy’s Johnny sitting rapt in front of the film, even muttering a Brando line under his breath, trying it on for size.

Tom Hardy is an ode to Marlon Brando as Vandals motorcycle gang founder Johnny (Picture: 20th Century Studios)

Acknowledging the similarity between Hardy and Brando and playing it for laughs is a sensible move. The Bane actor has long sparked comparisons with The Godfather icon, mostly thanks to his habit of mumbling.

Hardy also does ‘tough but tortured’ well, just like Brando, so it’s almost a foregone conclusion to see him in a leather jacket with slicked back hair, leaning on a motorcycle.

Humour is a major component of the movie, both from Hardy – who can underplay for laughs masterfully – and some of his more well-meaning biker disciples, including Damon Herriman’s Brucie, Michael Shannon’s Zipco (who you can almost smell through the screen) and Boyd Holbrook’s West Coast transplant Cal.

Austin Butler’s Benny provides a lot of the anger for the gang (Picture: 20th Century Studios)

Meanwhile, Michael Shannon offers a dirty dollop of realism (Picture: 20th Century Studios)

Is it predictable to see Hardy in this role? Probably – but that’s fine (Picture: 20th Century Studios)

It’s an entertaining collection of characters for sure, if at times feeling a little short on substance in their ‘ride or die’ mentality with the Vandals – something which ends up taking on a foreboding (and literal) meaning later in the film.

The Bikeriders’ stuffed soundtrack is almost like another character, offering up Muddy Waters, the Shangri-Las, Cream and many others, to sweep you up in the sweaty glamour of the gang.

However, this film ultimately belongs to Jodie Comer’s Kathy, a chatty Chicago girl (of course, another accent nailed) who is pulled into the Vandals’ lifestyle, despite her reservations, courtesy of her magnetic attraction to Butler’s Benny.

Nichols is aware that both the camera and the audience love Butler, so he turns up the heat, offering lingering shots of biceps and cigarettes dangling from his lips, sucking both us and Kathy under Benny’s spell. It’s certainly effective, although Benny fades a little in the film’s third act.

Jodie Comer steals the show as Kathy, who retells her life with the Vandals to a photographer (Mike Faist) (Picture: 20th Century Studios)

Labelled the attack dog, he channels most of the Vandals’ dangerous energy to begin with as the guy who is loyal to a fault and punches first without even asking questions later. It’s testament to Butler’s talents that there’s still suggestion of a soft underbelly beneath that, even when Nichols seems to abruptly shift his story from fifth to first gear.

Comer’s timing and wry observations as she tells photographer Danny (Bafta nominee for West Side Story Mike Faist) of her entanglement with the Vandals serves as The Bikeriders’ narration and main driving force, set between three periods from 1968 to 1973.

Director Jeff Nichols makes the most out of Austin Butler’s appeal (Picture: 20th Century Studios)

The film is certainly a moody fashion moment, but loses power in its third act (Picture: 20th Century Studios)

As the Vandals expand across the Midwest and induct new chapters and members, the film starts to sprawl slightly and lose steam, while dealing with an increase in unflinching violence and crime.

The ending doesn’t quite stick the landing either, coming quite abruptly and ending on an oddly cheesy tone.

However, The Bikeriders works as a stylish and dirty ode to a toxic lifestyle that’s long been glamourised by American culture – especially the world of fashion – and thanks to its picture-perfect cast.

Expect to see ripped jeans, worn leathers and biker boots back on the streets soon.

The Bikeriders will release in UK cinemas on Friday, June 21.

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