I appear on “CTV News at 11:30” with anchor Rahim Ladhani to talk about the best movies and television to watch this weekend, including the surreal Crave series “Fantasmas,” the revved-up “The Bikeriders” and the nonagenarian thriller “Thelma.”
I sit in with NewsTalk 1010 host Jim Richards on the coast-to-coast-to-coast late night “NewsTalk Tonight” to play the game “Did Richard Crouse Like This?” This week we talk about the revved-up “The Bikeriders,” the nonagenarian thriller “Thelma” and Russell Crowe’s “The Exorcism.”
I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with host Zuraidah Alman, to talk about the revved-up “The Bikeriders,” the nonagenarian thriller “Thelma” and Russell Crowe’s “The Exorcism.”
I join the CTV NewsChannel anchor Renee Rogers to talk about the revved-up “The Bikeriders,” the nonagenarian thriller “Thelma” and Russell Crowe’s “The Exorcism.”
I joined CP24 Breakfast to have a look at new movies and television shows coming to theatres and streaming services. Today we talk about the revved-up “The Bikeriders,” the nonagenarian thriller “Thelma,” the sports drama “Clipped” on Disney+ and the Netflix docu-series “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders.”
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres and streaming including the revved-up “The Bikeriders,” the nonagenarian thriller “Thelma” and Russell Crowe’s “The Exorcism.”
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to snap your fingers! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the revved-up “The Bikeriders,” the nonagenarian thriller “Thelma” and Russell Crowe’s “The Exorcism.”
LOGLINE: The 1960s set “The Bikeriders,” a new drama starring Jodie Comer, Austin Butler and Tom Hardy, and now playing in theatres, is about the rise and descent into lawlessness of The Vandals, a motorcycle club founded as a surrogate family for its members.
CAST: Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, Mike Faist, and Norman Reedus. Written and directed by Jeff Nichols.
REVIEW: “The Bikeriders,” based on a 1967 photo-book of the same name by Danny Lyon, wants to be an ode to individuality, but lacks the grit and spirit of rebellion required to feel authentic. It does do a good job of essaying the evolution of motorcycle clubs from groups of outsiders who didn’t belong anywhere—except with one another—their loyalty and camaraderie, to criminal organizations that used fear and illegality as currency.
As a timeline of how male bonding turned toxic within this subculture, the sociological history lesson is interesting, but director Jeff Nichols allows the biker aesthetic and posturing to overshadow the nitty gritty of biker gang life. It’s more effective in its portrayal of how this shift in culture affects the leader of the gang, Johnny, played by Tom Hardy. He becomes a tragic figure when he realizes his club is out of control, and legacy is not what he intended.
Using the chatty narration of Jodie Comer as Kathy, wife of the sensitive but rebellious rider Benny (Austin Butler), as a framework, Nichols injects a different and welcome point-of-view to the story. Biker movies often treat female characters as afterthoughts, but Kathy is the hub from which the story emanates. This is essentially a love story, a story of the platonic love between the bikers, and Kathy’s almost unquestioning love of wild child Benny. It’s a showcase for Comer and her plain-spoken mid-western accent, allowing the “Killing Eve” star to reveal the personality layers of someone who says, wistfully, “I used to be respectable.”
The episodic “The Bikeriders” plays it by the rules to tell a story about people who don’t.