The Bikeriders

Last night I went to a Thursday preview of The Bikeriders and I liked it but I didn't love it.  Photojournalist Danny Lyon (Mike Faist) rides with the Vandals Motorcycle Club, based in Chicago, from 1965-1973 and interviews Kathy (Jodie Comer), the wife of a volatile member named Benny (Austin Butler), about her experiences.  Kathy tells Danny that she met Benny when her girlfriend invited her to a biker bar and that they immediately connected.  She soon becomes a part of the club, created by Johnny (Tom Hardy) as a place for a group of outsiders to belong, which also includes Brucie (Damon Herriman), Cal (Boyd Holbrook), Corky (Karl Glusman), Wahoo (Beau Knapp), Zipco (Michael Shannon), and Cockroach (Emory Cohen).  Kathy eventually begins to resent the hold that the club and Johnny have on her husband and, when the club morphs into a dangerous criminal organization through expansion to other chapters, the introduction of drugs (by a hilarious Norman Reedus), the inclusion of disaffected Vietnam war vets, and a challenge to Johnny's leadership from a violent young member (Toby Wallace), she issues Benny an ultimatum to choose between her and the club.  The story is simple but very compelling because the audience is slowly immersed into biker culture and the specific time period (the gritty production design is incredibly authentic).  Both Comer and Hardy give outstanding performances (their accents are not quite as grating as I feared they would be) but Butler is absolutely off the charts because he oozes both charisma and danger (I loved his expression in the final shot).  My biggest issue with this is that I felt emotionally disconnected from the characters because I didn't really know who they were or what their motivations were.  I definitely wanted more backstory for Benny (The Kid, a minor character, gets more backstory than any of the other main characters) and I wanted a deeper exploration of his relationships with Johnny and Kathy because, even though this triangle is integral to the story, it is very superficial.  There is a lot to recommend with this movie (and I suspect people will enjoy it more than I did) but I just didn't feel very invested in it.