Austin Butler in The Bikeriders is ridiculously pretty and cool

Preview of the new version: Bikeriders comes from the film’s European premiere at the 2023 BFI London Film Festival. It will be out in December.

Elvis Presley’s sadly unfulfilled ambition for his movie career was to be the next James Dean. So it’s an ironic coincidence that Austin Butler, who played Elvis in 2022’s Best Picture Oscar nominee Elvis, should with his next role take direct aim at the kind of simmering yet poised, unutterably cool and devastatingly handsome role that James Dean typified in the 1950s — and score a bullseye. He looks ridiculously good in Bikeriders.

Butler plays Benny, an angry, laconic, and sarcastic member of the Vandals biker group in Chicago. Butler, who plays Benny in the movie, has greased and artfully mussed hair, as well as a scruffy beard. His clothing is a mixture of leather, denim that’s frayed and sometimes sleeveless, as well as many layers. He also wears rings on his fingertips. He smokes. He is a pool player. He is always leaning on the things around him. He’s a man of few words who mostly mooches around the scene lankily, or stares into the middle distance with moody intensity. He can also burst out in violent violence.

Of course, he’s riding a massive, growling helicopter. See also Bikeriders If you’re looking to hear every bike roar and swoon, then you should go into the loudest theatre you can. His signature trick is to ride his bike offhand and coolly one-handed, as shown here:

Austin Butler looks amazingly cool as he rides a motorbike one-handed, surrounded by his clubmates, in The Bikeriders

Here’s another still of the one-handed bike-riding thing. This photo is a quote taken from the 1968 book of photojournalism, Also called BikeridersDirector Jeff Nichols ( ) is the director of this movie. Director Jeff Nichols (Mud, Midnight Special(first saw the book in 1995 and thought about adapting it long before that, not only because its themes were so masculine and it was cool, but because it had such a strong message. The same goes for his film. So does Austin Butler.

Austin Butler, in black and white, rides his Harley-Davidson across a bridge one-handed, looking back over his shoulder in a very cool way in The Bikeriders

BikeridersThis is an old, familiar song. GoodfellasIt’s a story of outsider men from the working class in America during midcentury, who were looking for brotherhood, a sense that they belonged, before being eaten by corruption and violent crime. But Butler isn’t our garrulous, fast-talking guide to this world, like Ray Liotta’s Henry Hill. He’s the stillness at the center of the movie. Jodie Comer plays his wife Kathy in the movie, and she has a hilarious Chicago accent.

Austin Butler smokes and looks cool while leaning his head on Jodie Comer’s head in The Bikeriders

Capital-A is acting as a heavy-lifter alongside Comer. BikeridersTom Hardy is Johnny, the gang leader. Hardy does that quizzical, menacing-yet-soulful, raspy-voiced thing that he’s so good at. Johnny loves Benny in a way that’s both touching and a little scary. In their scenes together, Butler just stands there almost silently and soaks Hardy’s intensity up. It ought to be too passive and one-sided, but instead it’s magnetic, because of Butler’s presence, his quelled energy, his burning eyes, and his Look at those hairs!.

Austin Butler and Tom Hardy have an intense conversation, backlit and silhouetted in darkness in The Bikeriders

Butler has the least to do of the movie’s triumvirate of leads, and his character is the simplest, to the point of being more of an icon than a real person. But it doesn’t matter. But it doesn’t really matter. ElvisIf you have any questions, Bikeriders Seals the deal: He is a star and this performance is one of a film-star. The actor never fails to impress, and the sheer power of his magnetism pulls the audience into his orbit.

Bikeriders This is an old-fashioned film with simple pleasures. It has great music, great costumes, great myth-making scenes, and great actors who are really into it. Michael Shannon and others are included, but they’re not the only ones. West Side Story’s Mike Faist, Justified’s Damon Herriman, and a completely unrecognizable Norman Reedus as a shaggy Californian wildman biker.) It’s a film about looking at the gorgeous, unknowable people on the screen — and that one gorgeous, unknowable person in particular — just as Hardy’s character does at one point with Marlon Brando in The Wild OneThinking: How would you like it to be? You can also read about how to be a better person. them?

BikeridersRelease date for the movie is Dec. 1, 2009.