THE BIKERIDERS Special Screenings

Screening to be followed by a conversation with director Jeff Nichols.

The rise and fall of a Chicago motorcycle gang is given epic treatment in Jeff Nichols’ magnificent THE BIKERIDERS, which confirms the writer/director of LOVING, MIDNIGHT SPECIAL, MUD and TAKE SHELTER as one of the most distinctive artists in American cinema today. Inspired by Marlon Brando’s iconic turn in THE WILD ONE, truck driver Johnny (Tom Hardy) founds the Vandals motorcycle club, which morphs from a gathering of gearheads getting their kicks on the weekend into something bigger, brasher and more all-consuming. Oscar® nominee Austin Butler plays Benny, a top lieutenant to Johnny, who radiates charisma but whose bravado borders on recklessness. Jodie Comer is Benny’s wife Kathy, whose observations on the biker subculture she has married into, as relayed to photojournalist Danny (Mike Faist), provide a crucial counterpoint to this hypermasculine, mythic-macho world of the Vandals. Inspired by Danny Lyon’s 1968 book and photo essay “The Bikeriders,” Nichols has created a visionary fable about postwar American masculinity, sensitively attuned to where the love of freedom goes wrong, and anarchy, oppression and corruption seep in. The terrific supporting cast includes Boyd Holbrook, Norman Reedus, Emory Cohen and Nichols regular Michael Shannon. –Todd Hitchcock