The Bikeriders review – 'everything here is a copy of a copy of a copy'

Green Border (15) *****

Something in the Water (15) *

Starring Tom Hardy, Austin Butler and Jody Comer, The Bikeriders is an odd movie. Inspired by photojournalist Danny Lyon’s study of a Chicago motorcycle gang in the late 1960s and early 1970s, this latest film from Jeff Nichols (Midnight Special) is a nostalgic exploration of a group of people who were themselves nostalgic for a group of people who were in turn nostalgic for a way of life already heavily mythologised by Hollywood westerns.

To an extent, The Bikeriders isn’t shy about acknowledging this. Early on we see Hardy’s gang leader Johnny – a midwestern truck driver and motorcycle enthusiast – taking direct inspiration from Marlon Brando in The Wild One to form the Vandals, his own band of chopper-riding outlaws. And later still, there’s an explicit nod to Easy Rider just as the Vandals’ own hitherto tightly controlled group is splintering out of control amid the social upheavals of the Vietnam era counter-culture.

But Nichols is also careful not to interrogate this too much, just as he’s careful not to dwell on the Vandals’ initial status as weekend warriors with families and semi-respectable blue-collar jobs. He doesn’t seem to want to break the illusion (delusion?) that he’s making an authentic biker movie.

This is despite the fact the film is largely told from the perspective of Jodie Comer’s no-nonsense Kathy. She’s being interviewed for Danny Lyon’s book (Danny is played by Mike Faist) about her status as the wife of handsome trouble-magnet Benny (Butler), the Vandals’ nihilistic second in-command. Recalling Lorraine Bracco in Goodfellas, and boasting an entertainingly out-there accent, Comer is excellent. It’s just a shame her function is largely to observe the Vandals, whose toxic torpor makes them seem a little sad and pathetic, even as the film repeatedly goes out of its way to romanticise them with classic needle drops and slow-motion shots of of them riding Harleys through dilapidated small towns (Boyd Hollbrook, Norman Reedus and Nichols regular Michael Shannon are among the actors rounding out the gang.)

There’s a studied, unquestioning coolness to the performances too, be it Tom Hardy’s tinpot Brando routine or the way Elvis star Austin Butler’s pent-up Benny is – in more ways than one – a dead ringer for Cry-Baby era Johnny Depp. They’re movie stars posing as movie stars posing as outlaws. To quote Fight Club, everything here is a copy of a copy of a copy. Unlike Fight Club, The Bikeriders never reckons with the homoerotic tribalism of a group of men who don’t seem to like spending time with women at all. What exactly are they rebelling against? In this context Brando’s “Whaddya got?” line feels like a convenient evasion.

There are important films that are tough to watch, and then there’s Green Border. The latest from veteran Polish director Agnieszka Holland (Europa Europa) is a contender for the most distressing film ever made. It’s also one of the most urgent. Following refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Africa, as well as a border guard and a conscience-stricken civilian as they all intersect on the Polish/Belarus border, it’s a brutal, angry, deeply moral exploration of the immigration crisis. In particular it exposes the savage game of political ping-pong the authorities on both sides are playing with the lives of refugees, batting them back and forth across the border with callous indifference following Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko’s attempts to destabilise the European Union and the Polish government’s hardline stance against the influx of new migrants.

Holland’s ironic use of stark black-and-white adds to the film’s power, forcing us to confront the fact that this isn’t some atrocity in Europe’s dark and murky past, but an ongoing humanitarian crisis, happening right now.

Unlike current barmy French Netflix hit Under Paris, this summer’s other new shark-attack movie Something in the Water is an overly earnest, feebly made survival thriller about a group of British university friends who get stranded in shark-infested waters while attending a friend’s tropical wedding. Tissue-thin characters, risible dialogue and illogical plotting mean the up-and-coming cast – among them Scottish actors Hiftu Quasem and Lauren Lyle – are fighting a losing battle even before the being confronted by a ropily rendered CGI shark.

The Bikeriders, Green Border and Something in the Water are in cinemas from 21 June; Inside Out 2 on general release now.