The Bikeriders earns major praise out of Telluride premiere

Last Updated on September 7, 2023

The 50th Telluride Film Festival is underway, with Jeff Nichols’ latest, The Bikeriders, setting the pace with rave reviews all around, with some even saying it is now officially part of the Oscar discussion. Now, where’s that trailer we all want?

Reviews for The Bikeriders coming out of Telluride have particularly pinpointed the movie’s stars, noting that Austin Butler keeps his star power soaring and it gives Tom Hardy one of his best roles. But actress Jodie Comer is nothing to sleep on here, either, as she could very well find herself one win away from EGOT status, as she already has an Emmy for Killing Eve and a Tony for starring in the one-woman play Prima Facie.

Although it’s still early and there are less than a dozen reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, The Bikeriders does currently hold a 100%. While this will obviously drop, one can see it end up being one of the most praised films of the year. That’s definitely promising for fans of Jeff Nichols (and how could you not be?) who have waited seven years since his last feature (Loving, which competed at the Cannes Film Festival and earned lead Ruth Negga an Oscar nod). Could The Bikeriders be the movie that earns Nichols an overdue Best Director nomination?

Other than the aforementioned Butler, Hardy and Comer, The Bikeriders also stars Michael Shannon (who has been in every Nichols movie to date), Norman Reedus, Boyd Holbrook, and Mike Faist as photographer Danny Lyon, whose 1968 book of the same name was the source material.

As per Telluride’s program guide, The Bikeriders “charts the rise and fall of an outlaw motorcycle gang. The gang’s founder and leader Johnny (Tom Hardy) struggles to enforce the rules he’s creating; Benny (Austin Butler) is his charismatic but dangerously unpredictable follower; Kathy (Jodie Comer), a no-nonsense outsider to the gang, is alternately fascinated and horrified by the biker lifestyle…Nichols blends comedy, violence and tenderness with astonishing control, simultaneously celebrating the biker code of loyalty, courage and independence while providing a cleareyed if sometimes ironic perspective on how their “freedom” threatens other ways of being in the world.”

The Bikeriders will pull into theaters on December 1st, giving it a perfect release date to help its potential at the Oscars.

Are you looking forward to The Bikeriders? Do you think it could be a threat at the 96th Academy Awards? Let us know in the comments section below!