Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17,” a new batch of “Stranger Things’” final season and Kevin Hart debuting a new comedy special on Netflix are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: “Everybody Loves Raymond” gets a 30th anniversary special on CBS, the Hallmark’s special “A Grand Ole Opry Christmas” with Brad Paisley and Mickey Guyton, and a new Beatles documentary series hits Disney+.
New movies to stream from Nov. 24-30
—Taiwanese filmmaker Shih-Ching Tsou, known for collaborating with and producing several Sean Baker films including “Tangerine” and “The Florida Project,” makes her solo directorial debut with “Left-Handed Girl,” about a single mother and her two daughters who return to Taipei to open a stand at a night market. Netflix acquired the film after it was warmly received during the Cannes Film Festival and Taiwan has already selected the film as its Oscar submission. It begins streaming on Netflix on Nov. 28.
—Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17” arrives on Prime Video on Thursday, Nov. 26, for some dystopian holiday viewing. In her review for The Associated Press, Jocelyn Noveck praised Robert Pattinson’s performance (or, rather, performances) as an expendable who is constantly being reprinted anew. She writes, “It’s his movie, and he saves it from Bong’s tendencies to overstuff the proceedings. In an extremely physical, committed, even exhausting performance, Pattinson takes what could have been an unwieldy mess and makes it much less, well, expendable.”
—OK, “The Last Duel,” streaming on Hulu on Sunday, Nov. 30 might be four years old but it’s a far better option than, say, “Flight Risk” (on HBO Max on Wednesday). Ridley Scott’s medieval tale, written by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Nicole Holofcener, is a brilliant spin on the historical epic told from three different perspectives, Damon’s Jean de Carrouges, Adam Driver’s Jacques Le Gris and Jodie Comer’s Marguerite. In his review for the AP, film writer Jake Coyle wrote that it “is more like a medieval tale deconstructed, piece by piece, until its heavily armored male characters and the genre’s mythologized nobility are unmasked.”
— In 2021, over Thanksgiving, Disney+ released Peter Jackson’s six-hour “The Beatles: Get Back” to its streaming platform. The gargantuan project provided fans with a deep-dive into the band’s “Let It Be” sessions – including footage of their entire rooftop concert, shared in full for the first time. It was an ideal release date, to say the least. After all that delicious food, who doesn’t want to settle in for a lengthy journey into one of the greatest musical acts of all time? Well, in 2025, there’s yet another reason to be grateful: Starting Wednesday, “The Beatles Anthology” documentary series hits Disney+. That’s nine episodes tracing their journey. Lock in.
— ’Tis the season for Hallmark holiday films. And for the country music fanatic, that means “A Grand Ole Opry Christmas.” The film follows a woman forced to confront her musical past and heritage in the esteemed venue – and there may or may not be some time travel and Christmas magic involved. Stay tuned for the all-star cameos: Brad Paisley, Megan Moroney, Mickey Guyton, Rhett Akins, Tigirlily Gold and more make an appearance. It starts streaming on Hallmark+ Sunday.
— It’s hard to believe that “Everybody Loves Raymond” has been off the air for two decades. The multicamera sitcom starred Ray Romano and Patricia Heaton as Ray and Debra Barone, a young married couple whose daily lives are interrupted regularly by Ray’s meddling parents, played by Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts, who live across the street. CBS recently taped a 30th anniversary special to air Monday which will also stream on Paramount+. Hosted by Romano and creator, Phil Rosenthal, it recreates the set of the Barone living room and features interviews with cast members including Romano, Heaton, Brad Garrett and Monica Horan. There will also be a tribute to Boyle and Roberts who died in 2006 and 2016, respectively. It’s fitting for the special to come out around the holidays because its Thanksgiving and Christmas episodes were top-notch. All nine seasons stream on both Paramount+ and Peacock.
— ” Stranger Things” is finally back with its fifth and final season. Netflix is releasing the sci-fi series in three parts and the first four episodes drop Wednesday. Millie Bobby Brown says fans will “lose their damn minds” with how it ends.
— Also Monday, Kevin Hart debuts a new comedy special on Netflix. It’s called “Kevin Hart: Acting My Age.” The jokes center around, you guessed it, aging.
— A new “Family Guy” special on Hulu pokes fun at those holiday movies we all know, love and watch. It’s called “Disney’s Hulu’s Family Guy’s Hallmark Channel’s Lifetime’s Familiar Holiday Movie” and pokes fun at the commonly-used trope of a big city gal who ends up in a small town at Christmas and falls in love. It drops Friday, Nov. 28 on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.
— Artificial intelligence: friend to all humanity or existential threat to the planet? In A.I.L.A, Brazilian studio Pulsatrix leans toward the latter. You play as a game tester who’s asked to try out an AI-created horror story. But while you’re busy fighting off ghosts, zombies and ax murderers, the AI may be up to something more nefarious in the background — which could be bad news if you own a smart refrigerator. It all has the potential to be very meta, whether or not you welcome our new robot overlords. It arrives Tuesday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.
What’s fascinating is that seeing the play either live or on the screen inspires viewers not only to reflect, but also to act. Remarkably, it has led to lasting and ongoing real-world change.
“Through NT Live and NT at Home, we have made it possible for over half a million people to see Jodie Comer’s peerless performance and experience the power of this remarkable play,” says Kate Varah, executive director of the NT. “It simply wouldn’t be possible to reach these numbers in a theatre. This accessibility allows the powerful stories told through theatre to drive real-world change.”
For one thing, it has inspired numerous women to find their own voice. “Women who had never spoken about a rape perpetrated against them found courage to tell their close people and many gave evidence to law enforcement,” playwright Suzie Miller tells us. “I know Jodie Comer and the producers join me in the humbling experience of reading so many messages of individual life changing experiences that came about after watching the play live or on NT Live.”
So many women reached out about the life-changing impact of the play, the film’s producer, James Bierman, reached out to Everyone’s Invited, a charity that offers a safe space for victims of sexual assault to share their stories.
“The act of watching Prima Facie enables and encourages survivors to confront and share their own real-world experiences, helping individuals have the confidence to share their stories and underlining the need for a safe space for survivors,” says Soma Sara, Founder of Everyone’s Invited.
But the play has also inspired changes to the system itself.
The filmed version of the play is now being used for judicial education in a number countries. It’s included as a module for secondary school consent education. It is used as an education tool in continuing education of various parts of the UK Police force. It has even been used as source in legal changes here in the UK.
“A Northern Ireland-born High Court Judge at the Old Bailey had the influence to include a viewing of the NT Live version of the play be mandatory viewing for judges in Northern Ireland,” says Miller. “Another Judge called me to say after seeing the play live she had redrafted the direction to the jury on rape law incorporating some of the language and messages of the play.”
The play has also led to the creation of TESSA (The Examination of Serious Sexual Assault Law) by four London barristers, as Miller says, “to interrogate how they can contribute their knowledge to changing the law from within.”
Kate Parker, a former barrister and founder of the Schools Consent Project, has used the play as part of her work to educate young people about the nuances of consent.
“As far as the Schools Consent Project is concerned, Prima Facie has been transformative,” she says. “Since the play’s first run in London in 2022, we have seen a 52% yearly rise in workshops, which means 245 additional consent workshop were delivered to approximately 8,500 young people. This brings our total number to 55,000 students educated about consent.”
Parker also launched a New York branch of the charity when the play travelled to Broadway. “We’ve now taught consent to over 5000 students in NYC, including in Spanish. We’ve fundraised over £150,000 globally as a direct result of the play.”
Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy” premieres its final season and a Boston heist movie starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: a new “Dance Moms” series, a “Yo Gabba Gabba” reboot for younger audiences and J Balvin promises an album that hits like a house party.
NEW MOVIES TO STREAM
— A poorly planned heist goes terribly wrong in “The Instigators” (Friday, Aug. 9, on Apple TV+), a loosely amiable Boston-set caper starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck. The movie, directed by Doug Liman (“Go,” “The Bourne Identity”), returns Damon and Affleck to familiar hometown terrain. They play a despondent pair who try to steal money from a corrupt mayor (Ron Perlman) but end up on the run, with a therapist (Hong Chau) in tow. In my review, I called it “a rudderless but winningly shaggy action comedy.”
— Jeff Nichols (“Mud,” “Take Shelter,” “Loving”) extends his survey of classically American dramas with “The Bikeriders,” a chronicle of a Chicago motorcycle club in the 1960s. In the film (Friday, Aug. 9, on Peacock), Austin Butler and Tom Hardy star as riders with an antiauthoritarian streak who help found the Vandals, but watch as their club grows beyond their control. In a male-populated film, though, Jodie Comer, as the heavily accented narrator, is closer to the main character. In my review, I called it “a vivid dramatization of the birth of an American subculture.”
— This month, the Criterion Channel is running two overlapping series: one of movies directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, one of films starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman was a mainstay in Anderson’s films from the start (he steals “Hard Eight” with one scene) and a central presence in films like “Magnolia,” “Punch-Drunk Love” and “The Master.” The Hoffman series includes plenty other highlights, too; look especially for the exquisitely tender 2010 drama “Jack Goes Boating.” The Anderson series also includes an exclusive streaming of the director’s radiant 2021 coming-of-age tale “Licorice Pizza,” which poignantly starred Hoffman’s son, Cooper.
— Ryuichi Sakamoto’s “Opus” — the posthumous album and documentary of the same name — was captured while the Japanese film composer was dying of cancer. Across 20 songs, Sakamoto performs a collection of his biggest songs on piano, like the memorable themes for Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor” and “The Sheltering Sky.” The album also includes the first ever recorded version of “Tong Poo,” from his early days with techno-pop trio Yellow Magic Orchestra.
— On Friday, Aug. 9, Colombian reggaetónero J Balvin will release a new full-length project, “Rayo.” Across 15 tracks, he’s promised an album that hits like a house party — just in time for the hottest summer month of the year. “Rayo” is stacked with good time collaborations — reggaetón superstar Fied, regional Mexican musician Carín León, Bad Gyal, Zion, Dei V, Ryan Castro, Blessd and Luar La L among them. The previously released singles, “Gaga” with SAIKO, “Polvo de tu Vida” with Chencho Corleono, and “En Alta” with Quevedo, Omar Courtz and YOVNGCHIMI, embody that spirit. At his party, everyone is invited.
— Also on Friday, Aug. 9, “Not Not Jazz,” a documentary following the avant-garde, acid jazz-fusion band Medeski, Martin & Wood, becomes available to stream via video on demand. The film follows the improvisational trio as they endeavor to record a new album at the Allaire Studio in Woodstock, New York. It is a peek behind the curtain of their processes, and a celebration of music that is far too often underserved.
— The dramatic world of “Dance Moms” returns with a new coach, dancers and, of course, invested moms. In “Dance Moms: A New Era,” mothers hover as eight girls are trained by instructor Glo Hampton, a.k.a. Miss Glo, to compete nationally. The original “Dance Moms” ran for eight seasons and featured breakout stars Jojo Siwa and Maddie Ziegler. It also introduced the world to coach Abby Lee Miller, who was often criticized for being too harsh on her students. Miller was sentenced to a year in prison in 2017 for bankruptcy fraud. “Dance Moms: A New Era” debuts Wednesday, Aug. 7.
— Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy” premieres its final season on Thursday, Aug. 8. The show follows a family of adopted superheroes — who were stripped of their powers in season three — who must work together to stop the apocalypse. Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman and David Cross are new faces in season four alongside regulars that include David Castañeda, Tom Hopper and Elliot Page.
— The musical cartoon for preschoolers called “Yo Gabba Gabba!” is also getting a reboot called “Yo Gabba GabbaLand!” on Apple TV+. The 10-episode series premieres Friday, Aug. 9. It’s hosted by Kamryn Smith as Kammy Kam and brings back other characters from the original.
— Michael Imperioli, who played Tony Soprano’s protégé Christopher on “The Sopranos,” can’t shake the mob. He’s the executive producer and narrator of a three-part docuseries on five Italian American families who were selected by Charles “Lucky” Luciano in 1931 to rule the organized crime world. “American Godfathers: The Five Families” debuts Sunday, Aug. 11 on The History Channel. It will also stream on The History Channel app, history.com and major TV video on demand platforms.
— A four-part docuseries adapts historian Donald Bogle’s 2019 book called “Hollywood Black” for MGM+. Executive produced by Forest Whitaker, the series examines the history of cinema through the Black perspective. Creatives including Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, Issa Rae, LaKeith Stanfield, Gabrielle Union, Lena Waithe are interviewed. “Hollywood Black” premieres Sunday, Aug. 11.
— People who love collecting cute monsters and making them fight have long been drawn to Pokémon. This year’s Palworld upped the ante by adding guns to the mix. But what if you just want to cuddle? That’s where 11 Bit Studios’ Creatures of Ava comes in. You’re an explorer on a planet bustling with wildlife — but the creatures are being threatened by an infection called “the withering.” It’s your mission to tame the beasts with your magic flute and help them heal. It’s a cozier take on the old “gotta catch ’em all” formula, and it comes to Xbox X/S and PC on Wednesday.
Because The Bikeriders is filled with so much death and tragedy, it’s to be expected that writer-director Jeff Nichols might want to throw the audience “a bone.” Even if it’s a bone coated in a subtly bitter taste for audiences who know how to gauge the real meaning behind Benny (Austin Butler) and Kathy’s (Jodie Comer) so-called happy ending. One that, throughout the course of the film, doesn’t seem like it will actually happen (and, in a way, it doesn’t). This thanks to the storytelling method Nichols uses by way of Danny Lyon (Mike Faist) interviewing Kathy from a “present-day” perspective in 1973, after the numerous power struggles and shifts that took place within the Vandals Motorcycle Club since 1965 (on a side note: the photography book itself documents a period between 1963 and 1967).
In the beginning, the motorcycle club was “governed” by Johnny Davis (Tom Hardy), who also founded it. The inspiration for doing so stemming from catching The Wild One starring Marlon Brando on TV. And yes, Hardy is very clearly mimicking the “Brando vibe” in this role, while Austin Butler as Benny, his protégé, of sorts, embodies the James Dean spirit instead. Which, one supposes, would make Kathy the Natalie Wood in the equation, with Benny and Kathy mirroring a certain Jim and Judy dynamic in Rebel Without A Cause. Except the fact that Judy was ultimately much more game to live a life of rebellion and uncertainty than Kathy, making a pact with Jim to never go home again (like the Shangri-Las said, “I can never go home anymore”). As for Johnny, he serves as the John “Plato” Crawford (Sal Mineo) of the situation in terms of feeling Benny pull away from him once he becomes romantically involved. Indeed, the running motif of The Bikeriders is the “competition” between Johnny and Kathy to maintain a hold over Benny and influence which direction he’ll be pulled toward in terms of a life path.
While Johnny wants him to agree to take over the Vandals and lead the next generation of increasingly volatile men, Kathy wants him to “quit the gang” altogether and stop risking his life every single day. A risk that exists, more than anything, because of his stubborn nature. This stubbornness, of course, extends to an unwillingness to remove his “colors” whenever he walks into an out-of-town bar that doesn’t take kindly to “gang pride.” Which is precisely how The Bikeriders commences, with Johnny refusing to take off his jacket when a pair of regulars at the bar he’s drinking in ominously demand that he does just that. Johnny replies, “You’d have to kill me to get this jacket off.” They very nearly do, beating the shit out of him and almost taking his foot clean off with a shovel. And yes, if Johnny’s foot had been amputated, he might as well have died anyway, for his life means nothing to him without the ability to just ride. Which is exactly why he begs Kathy, while she visits him in the hospital, not to let them remove it. Fortunately for his sense of “manhood,” they don’t and Benny is instructed to avoid putting stress on his foot for at least six months while it starts to heal.
Advice that seems to go way over Johnny’s head as he decides to show up to the hotel where Benny and Kathy are staying to invite him to attend the Vandals’ biggest motorcycle rally yet. Kathy is appalled by both Johnny’s suggestion and Benny’s eager willingness to accept despite his current physical state. Constantly fearful that he’s going to end up hurt because of how reckless he is with his body and in his actions, Kathy reaches a breaking point when her own life is put in jeopardy as a result of hanging around the Vandals for too long. Continuing to keep the company of these club members even as the club mutates into what someone from the sixties would call a “bad scene.” The infiltration of more cutthroat, sociopathic youths like “The Kid” (Toby Wallace), as well as new members fresh back from Vietnam, riddled with PTSD and correlating hard drug addictions, means that the Vandals is no longer the same entity that Johnny had envisioned when he initially founded it.
The last straw for Kathy happens at another gathering of the members during which Benny ends up leaving in a rush to take one of the OG members, Cockroach (Emory Cohen), to the hospital after a group of new members beats the shit out of him for expressing the simple desire to leave the club and pursue a career as a motorcycle cop. With Benny gone, there’s no one around to protect Kathy from being attacked by another group that tries to force her into a room and gang rape her (this being, in part, a result of mistaken identity because she’s tried on the red dress of another girl at the party). Johnny manages to step in just in time to keep the man from harming her, but the emotional damage is done. Kathy can no longer live a life spent in constant fear and anxiety like this. Thus, she gives Benny an ultimatum: her or the club. In the end, Benny sort of chooses neither, running out on both Kathy and Johnny when each of them tries to strong-arm him into bending to their will.
It is only after hearing news of Johnny’s murder (at the hands of The Kid, who pulls a dirty trick on Johnny that finds the latter bringing a knife to a gunfight) that Benny decides to go back to Chicago and seek out Kathy for something like comfort. For she’s the only one who will truly be able to understand this loss. In the final scene of the movie, Danny asks what happened with Benny after all that. She informs him that the two are now living happily together (having relocated to Florida, as Kathy had originally suggested), with Benny working as a mechanic at his cousin’s body shop. Even more happily, for her, is the fact that he’s given up riding motorcycles altogether. In short, “he don’t hang around with the gang no more.” This being one of many key lines from the Shangri-Las’ “Out in the Streets,” which is played frequently as a musical refrain throughout the film.
That it also plays again at the end of the movie—an ending that, on the surface, seems “happy”—is telling of the larger truth: Benny has lost an essential piece of himself in choosing to give up riding. So, even though Kathy smiles at him through the window and he (sort of) smiles back, the playing of the song, paired with the distant sound of motorcycles in the distance as he stares wistfully into the abyss, makes it seem as though, like the rider of “Out in the Streets,” “His heart is [still] out in the streets.” However, in contrast to the woeful narrator of the song, Kathy isn’t one to acknowledge, “They’re waiting out there/I know I gotta set him free/(Send him back)/He’s gotta be/(Out in the street)/His heart is out in the streets.” Like most women, she would prefer to keep Benny inside their domestic cage, safe from harm. Safe, in effect, from truly living. For there is no purer freedom Benny feels than what he experiences on the open road.
All of this isn’t to say that the ending isn’t “generally” happy. Though that perspective also depends on one’s values. And yes, The Bikeriders makes a grand statement about the sacrifices that are frequently necessary for a relationship to work (and also just to secure a little more lifespan longevity). In Benny’s case, it was giving up the essential core of his identity. Which begs the question: if that’s what it takes to make a relationship work, then can one really be all that happy? Judging from the “sunken place” look on Benny’s face, the answer is looking like a no. As Mary Weiss puts it, “I know that something’s missing inside/(Something’s gone)/Something’s died.” And in place of that is what society refers to as an “upright citizen.”
Although Jeff Nichols’ latest film, The Bikeriders, is absolutely correct in wielding The Shangri-Las’ “Out in the Streets” as the constant musical refrain throughout the narrative, one song that feels as though it’s “missing” in many ways is Lana Del Rey’s “Ride.” However, since Sofia Coppola is typically the only director to condone using anachronistic music in a period piece, it makes sense that “Ride,” originally released in 2012, couldn’t be “accurately” used in The Bikeriders. And yet, even placing it in the credits would have been a compromising consolation to those who can’t unsee or unhear “Ride” within the context of a story like this.
It’s possible that Del Rey herself, like Nichols, came across Danny Lyon’s seminal photography book (also called The Bikeriders) at some point before she hit the big time. After all, the book was released in 1968, a prime year within the decade that Del Rey is famously “inspired” by (complete with the Manson Family, Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan and Woodstock). So it’s not unfathomable that Lyon’s work would have crossed her path. And since she describes “reading Slim Aarons” as though he were a writer instead of a photographer, it’s apparent that Del Rey does know how to “read” imagery and repurpose it. One of the key gifts of any postmodern artist. And oh, how Del Rey put her postmodern skills to use in the video (or “short film,” if you prefer) for “Ride.”
Directed by Anthony Mandler, who had spent the better part of the 00s directing Rihanna videos, “Ride” opens with the now iconic image of Del Rey on a tire swing (that looks as though its rope extends all the way to the heavens), swaying back and forth (à la Mariah Carey in the “Always Be My Baby” video) with her dark curled hair billowing in the wind. As though to presage the idea that she would “go country” with Lasso, Del Rey also sports cowboy boots and a fringed denim jacket—emblems of her love for “the country America used to be.” Which, in her mind, was a country where a girl could be “fragile” and “delicate” without condemnation. Where rugged men like John Wayne still existed, and were idolized by other men, as well as sought after by women.
This rugged archetype is present throughout “Ride” in the form of the rough-hewn, usually much older bikers that Del Rey rides with. Whether “playing” (a.k.a. languidly leaning over the machine) pinball while one of the bikers lecherously hovers behind her or letting another man brush her ribbon-bedecked hair, it’s clear that Del Rey yearns for a time when “men were still men,” as it is said. The kind of men that Lyon documented in those years from 1963 to 1967. Men that didn’t fit into mainstream society—whether because of the way they looked, dressed, thought or acted. The kind of men that find community only through “just riding,” as Del Rey would say.
These are the bikeriders that Nichols brings to life onscreen, with Johnny (Tom Hardy) and Benny (Austin Butler) positioned as the embodiment of camaraderie (and yes, even a father-son sort of dynamic) within the outlaw motorcycle club niche. But it is Kathy Bauer (Jodie Comer) that acts as the true anchor of the story, with her character serving as the important feminine/outsider perspective needed. In some ways, Del Rey does mirror Kathy’s role, not merely aesthetically, but in terms of being “taken in” and glamored by this lifestyle she never knew before. At the same time, Del Rey asserts that she’s just as much a rider—therefore a true part of the gang as opposed to just a wifey—as any of the other boys. This is her tribe in ways beyond the romantic or sexual, something that separates her from Kathy, who ultimately finds that she just wants to settle down and lead a normal, quiet life. A task that’s impossible to achieve with a man like Benny. He who refuses to ever surrender to that oh so hideous word and concept: responsibility.
An aversion that Del Rey, in this nomadic “persona,” can certainly identify with. And, in turn, identify with the type of men who pursue this life as the only thing they can really “commit” to. This much is evidenced by the opening of her monologue: “I was in the winter of my life, and the men I met along the road were my only summer.” Here, too, it’s interesting to note she says “winter of my life” rather than “winter of my youth,” as though she knows that those who embrace the transient, rebellious biker lifestyle are doomed to “live fast, die young.” A small tradeoff, in their eyes, for being able to experience pure freedom.
That feeling is displayed in the “Ride” video as Del Rey sits on the back of a motorcycle with the wind whipping in her face (“I hear the birds on the summer breeze”). This kind of unbridled, undiluted liberty is also shown in a scene from The Bikeriders where Benny guns his bike down the streets and highways in a high-speed police chase. By cutting them off at a red light, he gains ground and takes to the open road, letting out a loud cry of joy as he passes by a signature silo of the Midwest. Of course, that sense of victory and liberation is soon counteracted by the realization that he’s out of gas, and will now have to surrender to the police when they catch up.
For those who can’t fathom taking such risks for the “mere” sake of feeling free—from the pressures of society, family and even so-called friends—Del Rey addresses it best when she also mentions in her monologue, “When the people I used to know found out what I had been doing, how I had been living, they asked me why. But there’s no use in talking to people who have a home. They have no idea what it’s like to seek safety in other people. For home to be wherever you lie your head.” Further explaining that she has “an obsession for freedom that terrified me to the point that I couldn’t even talk about. And pushed me to a nomadic point of madness that both dazzled and dizzied me.”
The same goes for Benny in The Bikeriders (and, to a lesser extent, Johnny and Kathy). He has to be free, no matter the cost. No matter if it means alienating others or alienating himself from anything resembling a “future.” Nothing else matters but the ability to cut and run, to take to the open road whenever he feels the call. Something Kathy can never quite grasp, which is exactly why “Out in the Streets” is so perfect for describing their relationship, for its lyrics speak directly to how stifled and repressed Benny feels now that “he don’t hang around with the gang no more.” As our woeful narrator, Mary Weiss, also describes in the song, “He don’t comb his hair like he did before/He don’t wear those dirty old black boots no more/But he’s not the same/There’s something ‘bout his kissing/That tells me he’s changed/I know that something’s missing inside/Something’s gone/Something’s died/It’s still in the streets/His heart is out in the streets.” A characterization that fits Benny to a tee by the end of the film.
And yet, for as tailor-made as “Out in the Streets” is for The Bikeriders, so, too, is “Ride.” For Del Rey even speaks from a Kathy-esque perspective when she pleads, “Don’t leave me now/Don’t say goodbye/Don’t turn around/Leave me high and dry.” At the same time, she knows that, when you live this life, it’s filled with perpetual goodbyes and moving ons. From her own Benny-centric view of things, that’s exactly why she likes it, can’t get enough of it.
As she says in the closing monologue of the “Ride” video, “Every night, I used to pray that I’d find my people. And I finally did, on the open road. We had nothing to lose, nothing to gain, nothing we desired anymore. Except to make our lives into a work of art. Live fast, die young, be wild and have fun.” This might as well be the Vandals’ mantra, too.
At another moment, she declares, “I believe in the country America used to be.” This line unwittingly speaks to an overarching theme of The Bikeriders, which is an acknowledgement of an America in increasing decay, and one that is, accordingly, evermore morally bankrupt. Even so, Del Rey still insists, “I believe in the person I want to become. I believe in the freedom of the open road. And my motto is the same as ever. I believe in the kindness of strangers [as does Blanche DuBois]. And when I’m at war with myself, I ride. I just ride.” Much the same way Benny does. For, even though Kathy and many others outside/on the periphery of the motorcycle club might not understand it, it can best be summed up with the Del Reyism: “I am fucking crazy. But I am free.”
Thus, while the baleful, sustained “ooooh” at the beginning of “Out in the Streets” is a perfect fit as a musical refrain for the film, it has to be said that Del Rey’s almost equally baleful “mmmm-mmmm-mmmm-mmmm-mmmm-mmmm-mmmm” (though some will say it’s an “ooooh” not an “mmmm” sound) opening to “Ride” is as well. Not to mention the fact that the plot of her “Ride” video is très The Bikeriders oriented (well, minus the part where she’s vibing out in a war bonnet a.k.a. “Native American headdress”). And so, it’s hard to say, within this ouroboros of being inspired by Danny Lyon’s photography, if maybe Nichols wasn’t in some way also inspired by “Ride.” Either way, the song’s absence in the film is partially what makes it simultaneously feel as though it’s there, out in the streets like a sonic specter.
One wonders, sometimes, if there was ever truly a period in U.S. history that was “golden,” so much as the nation being in an ever-increasing state of decline from the moment it was roguely founded. For while the present set of circumstances befalling the United States has rightfully convinced many Americans that things can’t possibly get more dystopian/reach a new nadir, to some extent, that has been the story of America for most of its relatively brief existence. And yet, starting in the early sixties (circa 1962), it was apparent that the United States was already beginning to experience the symptoms of some major “growing pains” unlike any they had ever known. A seismic cultural shift was afoot, and perhaps one of the most notable signs was the increase in “outlaw” motorcycle clubs across the country.
Such as the one created by Johnny Davis (Tom Hardy), leader of the Vandals Motorcycle Club. An “MC” based on the real-life Outlaws Motorcycle Club that Danny Lyon was a member of from 1963 to 1967 (two years before Easy Rider would enshrine “the culture”), becoming one for the purpose of being able to authentically photograph and generally document the life and times of this “fringe” society. It is Lyon’s book that serves as the basis for Jeff Nichols’ fifth film, The Bikeriders (the same name as Lyon’s photographic tome). And, although Johnny is the founder of the Vandals MC, it is Benny Cross (Austin Butler) who serves as the “true” representation of what it means to live the biker lifestyle: being aloof, mysterious (through muteness) and not at all concerned with or interested in settling down in any one place, with any one person. That is, until the anchor of the story and its telling, Kathy Bauer (Jodie Comer, wielding her best impression of a Midwest accent), shows up one night in the bar where the Vandals hang out. As she retells it to the film version of Lyon, played by Challengers’ Mike Faist, a friend of hers called her up and told her to come by and meet her there.
From the moment Kathy walked in, she said she had never felt more out of place in her entire life. This being further compounded by all the ogling aimed in her direction. Creeped out to the max, Kathy tells her friend she’s going to leave, but is stopped in her tracks by the sight of the muscular Benny standing in front of the pool table. She decides to go back to her chair, waiting for the inevitable moment when he’ll come over and talk to her. But before that happens, Johnny approaches her first, assuring that he’s not going to let anything happen to her. Kathy’s response is of an eye-rolling nature and, when she and Benny finally get to talking, she still tells him she has to go. And she does…but not without being pawed on the way out. So pawed, in fact, that when she makes it back onto the street, her white pants are covered with handprints. Alas, the pursuit isn’t over, with Benny casually walking outside, going over to his motorcycle and mounting it as Kathy watches, realizing that the hordes from the MC are coming out to essentially force her to take a ride with him so as to avoid their wolf-like, unsettling nature.
From that night onward, Benny waits outside her house once he drops her off, sitting on his motorcycle with stoic determination. Which, yes, comes across as even more stalker-y than Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) showing up to Diane Court’s (Ione Skye) house in Say Anything… to hold a boombox over his head and play Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes.” Even though Kathy already has a live-in boyfriend, Benny just keeps waiting. Irritating the shit out of the boyfriend with his presence until he finally splits in a huff, leaving the door open, so to speak, for Benny to make his move without Kathy being able to have any excuse to “resist” him. Although she starts out by telling Danny that her life has been nothing but trouble ever since she met Benny, with him constantly getting in brawls, being thrown in jail, etc. (indeed, it smacks of the sentiment behind Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please”), she admits that they got married just five months after meeting. Thus, her house effectively becomes another home away from home for many of the boys in the club. A hangout where motorcycles parked on the sidewalk vex Kathy to no end as she warns them that the neighbors will start to complain of a “bad element” in the vicinity.
Ironically, of course, the main reason many of these boys chose to join up was because they were deemed a “bad element” based on their appearance alone. As Johnny’s right-hand man, Brucie (Damon Herriman), tells Danny, “You don’t belong nowhere else, so you belong together.” Basically, the misfits create their own “utopian” society where they can at last find acceptance in a world that has otherwise rejected them. As Johnny Stabler (Marlon Brando) puts it to Mildred (Peggy Maley) in 1954’s (or 1953, depending on who you ask) The Wild One, when she asks, “What are you rebelling against, Johnny?”: “Whaddaya got?” In short, these are the men rebelling against everything, including their own effective banishment from “polite” society. (And, needless to say, Johnny is inspired to form the club in the first place as a result of watching this movie.)
While Lyon’s original book documents years going up to 1967, the film version of The Bikeriders goes up to the early seventies, with things taking a shift toward the decidedly sinister as the end of the sixties arrived, and more and more of the types of men joining up were drug users and/or recently returned from Vietnam with the PTSD to go with it. As Lyon himself remarked while still part of the club, “I was kind of horrified by the end. I remember I had a big disagreement with this guy who rolled out a huge Nazi flag as a picnic rug to put our beers on. By then I had realized that some of these guys were not so romantic after all.”
To that point, many who had tried to remain in the “lavender haze” of America’s postwar “prosperity” in the 1950s were starting to realize that maybe capitalism and communist-centered witch hunts weren’t so romantic after all, either. The sixties, indeed, was a decade that shattered all illusions Americans had about “sense,” “morality” and “meaning.” This perhaps most famously immortalized by Joan Didion writing, “The center was not holding. It was a country of bankruptcy notices and public-auction announcements and commonplace reports of casual killings and misplaced children and abandoned homes and vandals who misplaced even the four-letter words they scrawled. It was a country in which families routinely disappeared, trailing bad checks and repossession papers. Adolescents drifted from city to torn city, sloughing off both the past and the future as snakes shed their skins, children who were never taught and would never now learn the games that had held the society together. People were missing. Children were missing. Parents were missing. Those left behind filed desultory missing persons reports, then moved on themselves.”
Like Didion, Lyon was also part of the New Journalism “movement” in news reporting. He, too, inserted himself into the situation, into the “narrative.” One ultimately shaped and experienced by his own outsider views (like Didion documenting the “dark side” of Haight-Ashbury hippies in 1967’s “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” quoted above). And what his photos and their accompanying interview transcriptions told the “squares” of America was this: their precious way of life was an illusion built on a house of cards. By a simple twist of fate, they, too, might find themselves as one of these “lost boys” or as one of the women who loved them. And oh, how Kathy loves Benny, even though it’s to her emotional detriment.
With that in mind, it’s no wonder that the musical refrain of The Shangri-Las opening “oooh” in “Out in the Streets” keeps playing throughout the film (because who knows more about biker boys than the Shangri-Las?). A constant callback to remind viewers of the track’s resonant lyrics, including, “He don’t hang around with the gang no more/He don’t do the wild things that he did before/He used to act bad/Used to, but he quit it/It makes me so sad/‘Cause I know that he did it for me (can’t you see?)/And I can see (he’s still in the street)/His heart is out in the street.” This song foreshadowing what Benny will end up sacrificing for Kathy by the end of the film.
Though, ultimately, the sacrifice is a result of knowing that the motorcycle club will never be what it was during its pure, carefree early years. Years that were untainted by vicious, violent power struggles—this most keenly represented in The Bikeriders by a young aspiring (and ruthless) rider billed as The Kid (Toby Wallace). It is his way of life, his lack of regard for anything resembling “tradition,” “integrity” or “honor among men” that most heartbreakingly speaks to how each subsequent generation of youth becomes more and more sociopathic. Whether in their bid to prove themselves as being “better” than the previous generation or merely exhibiting the results of being a product of their own numbed-out time. Either way, in The Bikeriders, the generational divide will prove to be the undoing of both sides, “old” and young.
Incidentally, this might be most poetically exemplified by a scene of Kathy and Benny watching an episode of Bewitched where Dick York is still the one playing Darrin, not Dick Sargent. Obviously, York was the superior Darrin. Not just because he was the original, but because he exuded a sleek, effortless sort of class that Sargent didn’t (though, funnily enough, York ended up leaving the show because of his painkiller addiction, related to the health issues he had sustained from a back injury while filming a movie five years before Bewitched—a meta detail as Benny is also laid up in bed due to his own “work-associated” injuries). The same goes for the old versus new guard motorcycle club members in The Bikeriders.
Jodie Comer is no stranger to rave reviews, but The End We Start From is the first time she’s received them for the unfamiliar role of a mother. The Emmy winner has briefly played mothers in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and The Last Duel, but Comer considers Mahalia Belo’s survival drama to be her first proper exploration of motherhood and all its nuances. Based on Megan Hunter’s book and Alice Birch’s adapted screenplay, Comer plays a character simply credited as “Woman,” and at the start of the film, her water breaks around the same time that London is hit by a devastating environmental crisis, resulting in mass flooding.
With a new baby in tow, Comer’s character and Joel Fry’s husband/father character retreat to the countryside like the rest of the city, but food shortages and civil unrest soon cause their young family to separate, amplifying the challenges of being a new mother. So Comer’s character and her baby known as Zeb, the only named character in the film, have to find sanctuary and food on their own. Comer ultimately worked with 15 different babies in the role of Zeb, and it presented a new challenge for her as babies are basically improvising all the time.
“They don’t really take direction or notes, and you are at the mercy of that. You have to be present, and it can create really beautiful and spontaneous moments,” Comer tells The Hollywood Reporter. “You just have to roll with it and work with it, and there can be a real freedom in that once you get over your brain initially going, ‘This isn’t what it’s supposed to be.’”
The month of December was originally going to be quite memorable for Comer, as her acclaimed work in Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriderswas also supposed to be released on Dec. 1. However, due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, New Regency and 20th Century Studios balked at releasing the pic without actor promotion, and once the strike was resolved on Nov. 8, New Regency instead found itself looking for a new distributor. Focus Features then stepped up for a June 2024 release. Naturally, Comer is disappointed by this course of events, but less so for herself and more so for Nichols, who’d been doing months of press to support his sixth feature film and first film since 2016.
“I’m a big believer in things happening when they should. I think it’s a shame, obviously, but especially for Jeff. But I think the film is going to be really supported and really celebrated at Focus [Features],” Comer says. “And I am really excited that we are all going to be able to support it and speak about it in a way that we couldn’t this year. So it’s a shame, but I think it’ll all work out for the best.”
There was once a time where Comer would’ve played Josephine in Ridley Scott’s recently released Napoleon, but due to Covid’s impact on schedules across the industry, her other commitment to Suzie Miller’s one-woman play, Prime Facie, led her to exit what would’ve been her second film with Scott, following 2021’s The Last Duel. Comer’s decision worked out quite well as she now boasts a Laurence Olivier award and a Tony Award for the role of Tessa Ensler.
“That was a choice I had to make and I didn’t look back in a sense,” Comer admits. “I knew I really wanted to do the film, but now, Josephine is Vanessa’s [Kirby] role. I’m so happy for her and I wish her all the success with that movie. A lot of this industry is sliding doors, and I do feel like I was always supposed to do that play. So I was happy with my decision.”
Whenever a high-profile role is up for grabs, Comer, being a young, award-winning actor, ends up on most casting shortlists, and she certainly finds her name being thrown around in online casting rumors, namely Fantastic Four’s Sue Storm. And while such rumors get fans’ hopes up for better or worse, Comer finds the whole situation to be slightly amusing.
“It’s so funny because people come up to me — even friends and family — and they’re like, ‘Are you doing X, Y and Z?’ And I’m like, ‘No,’” Comer says. “I’ve always felt very clear on where I want to go, and some rumors that come up may not necessarily be something I’d be interested in right now. But I’d never shoot them down because who knows where I’m going to be or what I might want to do in years to come. People change, their interests change. So it’s always just fascinating, and sometimes, I’m like, ‘Where did they come from?’”
Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Comer also discusses The End We Start From’s dance party with Benedict Cumberbatch and Katherine Waterston, as well as the elaborate prosthetic that covered her middle and upper body.
So where did The End We Start From fall on your timeline of conquests?
(Laughs.) On my timeline of conquests, this script came to me when I was in the rehearsal process of the London run of PrimaFacie. It’s quite hard to remember, but I remember the script coming through with our director Mahalia Belo’s name attached. I wasn’t familiar with Megan Hunter’s book, so I read the book and the script before I met May [Belo], and I was really struck by the story. I’d always wanted to work with Mahalia after seeing one of her films on Channel 4 many moons ago. So I was really delighted when I saw her name, and I was really excited about her vision. I could see what she wanted to explore on camera and how stripped back and bare she wanted to go and how much she wanted to portray a truthful representation of motherhood, the good and the bad. And then we started shooting it four weeks after I’d finished the [Prima Facie] run in London, so it was all pretty quick.
Did Benedict Cumberbatch’s company first approach you with it?
Yeah, SunnyMarch.
Jodie Comer in The End We Start From
Republic Pictures
What’s most frightening about this story is that it doesn’t feel too out of reach. I’m sure new parents felt a version of this during the pandemic, but it doesn’t seem like a distant future.
I completely agree with you, and hopefully, that’s why it will potentially have a greater impact or move people in a particular way. I feel like we can see ourselves mirrored within this story, and I connect with something more if it feels like it’s more based in reality and is less extravagant. Don’t get me wrong, the CGI and visual effects in this film are incredible, particularly when you look at independent film. But this was more about an exploration of how we behave on a human level. How would we potentially cope with this? Especially when you look at Woman’s situation of being a very, very new mother.
I recently spoke to Daisy Ridley about playing a mother for the first time, and outside of briefly portraying her Star Wars character’s mother, plus another short stretch in TheLast Duel, I’m pretty sure this was your first substantial turn playing a mother, as well.
Yeah!
Normally, you’re focused on your character’s wants and needs, but with a child in the equation, did you lead with their wants and needs?
Absolutely. There was a lot of prep, and there was a lot of time spent with the babies. The first babies I met were eight weeks old and they were tiny. I was terrified [to hold them], and my hands were shaking. But I was very fortunate as well that one of my best friends had just had a baby before I started filming. So I was able to ask her the very personal questions that I couldn’t necessarily ask one of the new mothers or midwives I’d just met, and that was invaluable.
The wonderful thing about working with babies is that they do what they want to do. They don’t really take direction or notes, and you are at the mercy of that. You have to be present, and it can create really beautiful and spontaneous moments. You just have to roll with it and work with it, and there can be a real freedom in that once you get over your brain initially going, “This isn’t what it’s supposed to be.” Some of my favorite moments within the film are when we’ve been able to capture the baby and you see things from Zeb’s perspective.
Jodie Comer in The End We Start From
Republic Pictures
When she’s tending to her foot in the forest, there’s an exchange between her and Zeb that felt like it could’ve been impromptu. Was that the case?
We were in Scotland in the teeming rain, and we always liked this idea of [Woman] being like, “Can you carry me now?” She was just so exhausted. So there was always a moment of something in the script, but I don’t think it was necessarily on paper.
I definitely had some impromptu moments with Katherine [Waterston], who plays O. The moment where she finds the eyelash on my face and blows it, that was improv. And then we were shooting the moment on the beach, and I said to May, “I feel like she would give her a kiss.” And May said, “Well, don’t tell Katherine. Just try it.” So that’s also in the film, and I think that came from our shorthand and relationship that we developed with each other. So there were a few moments, and there’s probably a lot with the baby doing something that we didn’t expect. The baby was probably the best at the improv. (Laughs.) An Improv star, I have to say.
Katherine Waterston and Jodie Comer in The End We Start From
Republic Pictures
You worked with 15 different baby Zebs. In the States, there’s a 20-minute rule, so did you also have to swap babies every 20 minutes in the U.K.?
Yeah, and I was like, “I think these babies are onto something.” (Laughs.) But they do get swapped out every 20 minutes. There were a couple of babies for each age bracket. So you could be in the middle of a really emotional scene when the baby has to go, and you then have to manufacture what you just felt when the baby was there. So there are things like that that you just have to accept, and it felt a little strange at first. When you’re on a tight schedule, you’ve got so much to get in such a short space of time, but you learn to deal with it.
Zeb is the only properly named character in the film. Your character is credited as “Woman,” while the rest are just initials. What was the rationale there?
Well, in the book, Zeb was the only one who had a name. For script purposes, it would’ve been an absolute nightmare if nobody had any sort of name, so everybody was given letters. But I loved Megan’s choice, and I’m really curious about viewers’ experiences and whether they will be very aware and think, “Oh wait, we don’t know what these people are called.” But what it enables us to do is attach ourselves in a different way. Like you said, this could be any of us, and there’s something about that choice that almost intensifies that a little bit.
Yeah, I suppose it’s also meant to symbolize that their identities in the old world are no more.
Yeah, what is your identity within this new space?
Benedict Cumberbatch and Jodie Comer in The End We Start From
Republic Pictures
You, Katherine, and Benedict have a dance party at a certain point, and the characters desperately need that release. Did you also need that catharsis after performing such heavy material for however long?
(Laughs.) I was laughing the other day with May at a Q&A because I remember that Friday night so vividly. There was a full moon and the moon was so big, and Benedict had come in for a day’s filming. We danced so much, and I remember so vividly that we only got two takes of that. [DP] Suzie Lavelle was on handheld camera, and we again had limited time. So we did the first take, and I remember May coming over to me and saying, “Just take it down a bit.” (Laughs.) I suddenly realized I was dancing because I hadn’t had that release myself. I hadn’t been out dancing myself, and it’d all been very, very full on. So, yeah, that really made me laugh because I was definitely going for it.
Every department was on their game, especially makeup and prosthetics. When her water breaks and her home starts flooding at the same time, did the belly prosthetic do half the work for you during that harrowing sequence?
Yeah, I was honestly just so excited to have the opportunity to wear a prosthetic like that and see myself as I potentially would be if I was pregnant. When do you get that luxury or that insight? But the prosthetic was incredible. In the opening sequence, I had a prosthetic on from my neck to my waist. It took over three hours to get on, but it was so beautiful.
There’s quite a little bit of nudity within the film. Before we started to film, Mahalia and I went to a little cafe in North London to have a full English breakfast, and we sat with the script and went through all of these moments. We spoke about the significance of them and what it is that they’re actually saying. So those moments always felt very important to me and it was very important not to shy away from them. But as soon as you have something like that on you, it almost feels like armor. So it was beautiful to be able to see a mother’s body in that way, and for me, it was so transformative. It makes you walk differently. It makes you hold yourself differently. So it was good to experience that, and I tried to remember it for the moments that I didn’t have the real prosthetic on.
The end of a day on a film set, TV set and stage, which one leaves you most exhausted?
Theater, definitely. Theater is very physical, and that can’t be underestimated. It was something that I didn’t appreciate before. There’s also something about the energy that’s present and shared within a theater. More oftentimes than not, you could be completely exhausted, but you go home and your body is vibrating. So it can take a little while to come down off of that.
Jodie Comer in The End We Start From
Republic Pictures
Once you arrived on the End We Start From set, did you feel pretty sharp after all the mental exercise of a one-woman show?
I think so, yeah. When I went on to The End We Start From, I was suddenly like, “Whoa, what do you mean we’re not shooting in order? What do you mean we have ten minutes to do this scene?” And I suddenly realized, “Oh wow, I’ve actually been living through an entire story every night, sometimes twice a day, for the past three months.” So it’s a very, very different process, and I had to readjust again. I had to be on the ball and remember where it is that you’ve come from, even though you might not have shot that scene yet, and also be aware of where you may go. So that took me a minute.
Whenever there’s a coveted role in town, your name comes up in rumors and whatnot. And while I’m sure it’s flattering and validating on one level, is it somewhat stressful since expectations are being formed that are beyond your control?
I definitely don’t get stressed about it, but it’s always interesting. And it’s so funny because people come up to me — even friends and family — and they’re like, “Are you doing X, Y and Z?” And I’m like, “No.” And they’re like, “Oh, well, it says online that you’re doing it.” And I’m like, “I’m not doing it.” But I don’t think I’d ever get stressed out about that kind of stuff. I am so clear in what it is that I want and in a sense of my gut feelings. I’ve always felt very clear on where I want to go, and some rumors that come up may not necessarily be something I’d be interested in right now. But I’d never shoot them down because who knows where I’m going to be or what I might want to do in years to come. People change, their interests change. So it’s always just fascinating, and sometimes, I’m like, “Where did they come from?”
Your Last Duel producer Kevin Walsh and I talked about you recently, and he mentioned how they went to Prima Facie’s opening night on Broadway. Did your Olivier and Tony awards ultimately make up for the sting of your schedule no longer aligning with Walsh and Scott’s Napoleon?
(Laughs.) Yeah, it was all fine. That was a choice I had to make and I didn’t look back in a sense. I knew I really wanted to do the film, but now, Josephine is Vanessa’s [Kirby] role. I’m so happy for her and I wish her all the success with that movie. A lot of this industry is sliding doors, and I do feel like I was always supposed to do that play. There was something almost cosmic about it, when I think of it in its entirety and the people who I met and just how profound that experience was. So, yeah, I was happy with my decision.
Selfishly, I wanted to see you do press with Ridley again. It’s always riveting material.
(Laughs.) Yeah, you never know what you’re going to get.
Austin Butler and Jodie Comer in The Bikeriders
20th Century Studios / Courtesy Everett Collection
Lastly, I’m a huge Jeff Nichols fan …
Me too.
And I’ve been impatiently waiting for his next feature since 2016. We thought it was happening this month with The Bikeriders, but then the rug was pulled out from underneath us. Was that a tough pill to swallow, especially since your performance was getting rave reviews?
I’m a big believer in things happening when they should. I think it’s a shame, obviously, but especially for Jeff. Due to the strike, we couldn’t do any press, so Jeff had been holding the fort and doing press for three months, only for the film to then be put on hold. But I think the film is going to be really supported and really celebrated at Focus [Features]. And I am really excited that we are all going to be able to support it and speak about it in a way that we couldn’t this year. So it’s a shame, but I think it’ll all work out for the best.
*** The End We Start From is now playing in L.A. and New York, before going wide on Jan. 19.
The new trailer for “The Bikeriders” just dropped, and with it came the question: will we hear Austin Butler’s own voice ever again? Having just shaken his infamous Elvis Presley drawl, the Sept. 6 teaser proved that old habits die hard for certain Oscar nominees. In his new role as Benny — the daring bad-boy of the fictional Vandals motorcycle club in Chicago — Butler tries his hand at a Midwestern accent. Abandoning any friendly “you betchas,” he rarely speaks above a low growl, leaving costars Tom Hardy and Jodie Comer to cover most of the lingual bases.
Butler previously forgot to stop speaking like the King of Rock n’ Roll long after filming on “Elvis” wrapped in 2021. He told Graham Norton that all the discourse on social media initially made him feel “self-conscious,” attributing the change in his voice to the singing he did for the movie. Later, at the 2023 Golden Globes, he admitted it was hard for him to distinguish between his own voice and Elvis’s. “I can’t really reflect on it too much. It’s just this process — I don’t know the difference,” he said. “I don’t think I sound like him still, but I guess [it must be] because I hear it a lot.”
To be perfectly honest, we’re not all that mad at this new Midwestern Butler. Although we have yet to hear more than a few words from his unpredictable character (including, “you’d have to kill me to get this jacket off”), assuming the same “process” is at play, we’re prepared to hear this accent well after “The Bikeriders” drops on Dec. 1. Read on to find out everything else we know about Butler’s upcoming appearance.
Nichols cast Comer in the role before he’d seen her Emmy-winning work on Killing Eve, and long before her one-woman Broadway show Prima Facie won her a Tony. Her Bikeriders performance as the outspoken Kathy has been the talk of Telluride. “Jodie’s a worker,” says Nichols who recalls that one day on set, she left her notes behind and he took a peek. “I realized that she had taken every word in the scene that she spoke and phonetically broken it down, and it just went on for pages, for pages, for pages. A lot of people can do hard work, but then she makes it invisible.”
Comer had the rest of the cast in awe too. Nichols recalls how in one of her first scenes with Hardy, she has to his character Johnny, who is president of the club, that she wants her husband Benny (played by Austin Butler) to belong to her. Nichols asked who wanted to shoot their part of the scene first, and Comer said she would. “She came in and it was like a double barrel shotgun to the chest,” says Nichols. “I think Tom at one point missed a line because we were all just kind of watching her do this thing.”
Nichols also cast Butler before the release of his breakout film Elvis, though Nichols had gotten an early look at the trailer. Benny is a brooding man of few words, but a dedicated member of the motorcycle club. “At this point in my career, I’ve been around a lot of famous people, and they all have an energy to them, they all have a charisma, and he definitely has it,” says Nichols. “It goes beyond just being a movie star. You just wanted to be with him.”
Benny is in a lot of ways desired by both Kathy and Danny, who want so much for him and put their desires on him. “He’s a bit of an empty vessel,” says Nichols, who says he can’t wait to work with Butler again. “I know there’s more gears there.”
The biggest challenge for Nichols was stepping into a world that was so far from his own. He wasn’t even alive when these photos were taken, and he was not familiar with motorcycle culture. He and his actors studied the photos, audio files and did other research to get to know this subculture. And the actors went to motorcycle camp so they could ride with the confidence of a member of the club. “These bikes are 50, 60 years old. They’re not precision instruments at this point. They are very difficult bikes to ride,” he says.
The Bikeriders, which 20th Century Studios will release in theaters on Dec. 1, feels like a step back into time, and into a society created by and for outsiders. For Nichols, who hasn’t released a film since 2016, Bikeriders feels a bit like new territory for him too. “I’m really proud of this film and I think it does what I’ve set out to do, which is just dip you in this world and this feeling, the same feeling I got from these photos,” he says. Now he’s just got to learn to sit with the feeling of it being out in the real world, too.
Listen to Vanity Fair’s Little Gold Men podcast now.
Jodie Comer had to abruptly stop a Wednesday performance of Suzie Miller’s play “Prima Facie” after New York City skies were filled with smoke spreading south from Canadian wildfires.
According to eyewitnesses who spoke to Variety, the “Killing Eve” actor, who stars in the one-woman Broadway show, told audiences she was unable to breathe. A stage manager then helped Comer into the wings, just 10 minutes into the matinee performance.
Comer’s understudy Dani Arlington stepped in to start the play over from the top, according to a spokesperson for the production.
The Big Apple has been dealing with unhealthy air quality for the past two days, as Canadian wildfires have sent smoke and haze drifting over the northeastern U.S. Many New Yorkers are finding it difficult to breathe under the orange, campfire-scented sky.
Jodie Comer poses at the 2023 Outer Critics Circle Awards on May 25 in New York City.
Bruce Glikas via Getty Images
Comer has been receiving rave reviews for “Prima Facie,” which follows a young lawyer who is raped by a colleague.
She was nominated for a Tony Award in May, after already earning an Olivier Award and an Evening Standard Theatre Award for the role.
The English performer was beside herself while talking to The New York Times about her nomination last month.
“We’ve been on such a journey with this play,” Comer told the paper. “I never dreamed that this would be a point that we would be at. So it just feels incredible.”
“The response has been beautiful, and I just feel very, very grateful that so many on the team have been recognized as well,” she went on. “I can’t stress enough how much of a team effort this piece truly is.”
:quality(85):upscale()/2023/09/06/930/n/1922283/59a8aac464f8ed1b6bbc39.96710363_.png)
