On one level, The Bikeriders is a movie about a Midwest motorcycle club, the Chicago Vandals, in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, as it grows and expands and eventually loses its way. But step back a bit and it's easy to see the film as a referendum on American counterculture and radical outsider movements more generally: In the movie's tragic vision, these movements start as something pure and communal and free of the pathologies of the wider world. But eventually, as they grow, they become ugly, empty, cynical, and cruel, torn apart by power struggles and depravity. Enjoy the good things while they last.
Fortunately, The Bikeriders is mostly a good thing, a star-driven adult drama with something to say about the American experiment, its ideals, and its relentless expansion and churn. I say mostly because the film is both too simplistic in its nostalgic worldview and too weak in narrative drive. But it's nicely shot and well-acted throughout, with a top-notch cast that delivers fine work even when the script doesn't give them quite enough to do.
