An Austin Butler crime drama that was late to the party and is destined for major award snubs revs up on streaming

The cinematic awards season has officially begun following the announcement of the Golden Globe nominees, meaning that the internet will spend the next several months taking the word “snub” down to the batting cage, loading it into the pitch machine, and flipping to its fastest setting.

Of course, if every awards season took the time to honor every single film that deserved recognition, we would never not be in the middle of awards season. Indeed, cuts need to be made, and The Bikeriders is unfortunately likely to be among those cuts. Of course, that’s not going to stop anyone from heaping praise on Jeff Nichols’ rugged masterpiece, and given how much attention it’s getting on Prime Video, that’s probably precisely what’s going on.

Per FlixPatrol, The Bikeriders has debuted as the seventh most-watched film on the United States’ Prime Video film charts at the time of writing. It may be left in the dust by a swath of compulsory Christmas features (a third-place Frosty the Snowman and a second place Love Actually, just to name a few), but even the Yuletide season needs to be counterbalanced with some more year-round stories.

The Bikeriders stars Austin Butler as Benny, a young but prominent member of Chicago’s Vandals Motorcycle Club, headed by club’s stubborn founder Johnny (Tom Hardy). Benny marries Kathy (Jodie Comer), and is tempted by the possibility of settling down with her, but as Johnny courts Benny for eventual Vandals leadership while the club descends into violent depths, Benny’s loyalties to his wife, his club, and his freedom are dangerously tested against each other.

Having premiered at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival and slated for a December release that same year, the SAG-AFTRA strike held The Bikeriders back from theaters until June of this year, where it will finally be able to compete for those coveted statuettes. But with nary a nod to its name among the Golden Globe nominees, that dream might be dead in the water before it ever begins.

Then again, The Bikeriders is, in all likelihood, more concerned with being a great movie than being an awards season darling, and a great movie it is. The triple threat of Butler, Comer, and Hardy make the dynamic drama of Nichols’ script explode with personality, and the script itself — based on the 1968 photobook of the same name compiled by Danny Lyon (who is a character in the film and is portrayed by Mike Faist) — could have arguably carried The Bikeriders all on its own, thanks to its robust tackling of the theme of freedom.

Indeed, The Bikeriders, as a tale, is primarily interested in both the power and the weight of freedom. Choice begets the act of living, and having choices suggests freedom, but beyond having to decide what choices you’re going to make with that freedom, you also have to contend with the realization that the choices you make will take you further away from that state of being free. And when those choices manifest as attachments like a wife, a mentor, or a group where you well and truly belong, you may tragically discover that freedom and structure don’t tend to gel without incident.