Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 20, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba Expedited Delivery on In-Stock Items dlanoDcM dlanoR House Charities ® Free In-Home Design Assistance 204-783-8500 1425 Ellice Avenue Monday to Friday 10AM – 6PM Saturday 10AM – 6PM Sunday 11AM – 5PM www.la-z-boy.com/winnipeg Super Weekend Sale LIMITED TIME ONLY! ENDS JUNE 24 TH SAVE 20 % OFF* STOREWIDE Come in and find your new favourite lazy spot. *Some exceptions apply, see store for details WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM ● C3 THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2024 ARTS ● LIFE I MOVIES Fictional story of The Bikeriders based on real motorcycle club Nostalgic cool of 1960s rebels set to roar J EFF Nichols had dreamed of making a film about a 1960s motorcycle club for over 20 years. The obsession started when he first cracked open Danny Lyon’s book The Bikeriders, a New Journalism-style account of the Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club in the mid- 1960s. He saw it as a story about rebels, romantics, frauds and the end of an era. But he didn’t quite realize just how terrifying it would be to film the motorcycles in motion. The bikes were vintage. The actors, including Austin Butler and Tom Hardy, would be riding at high speeds. And there would be no helmets. At some point, one of his stunt co-ordinators just came out with it: “There is no way to make this 100 per cent safe.” They went for it. The danger was kind of the point and everyone made it out unscathed. The Bikeriders (racing into theatres Friday) is a rare summer gem: an original film with stars (including Jodie Comer, Michael Shannon, Norman Reedus and Mike Faist), cool cred, pathos and a clear-eyed wistfulness for a brief moment and a type of guy. “This is a film that’s really about nostalgia,” Nichols said. “There is a sadness that comes with that, but there’s also a joy in remembering it.” Writer/director Nichols has always had luck with casting, getting movie stars in his films right as they’re about to break big (such as Jessica Chastain in Take Shelter). For The Bikeriders, it was Butler. Elvis had yet to come out, but when he met him, he was certain: this is a movie star. “I read a lot of scripts and this one just felt different,” Butler said. “It felt full of humanity and these cinematic moments. I felt like I was being invited into this other world. And he was one of the coolest characters I’ve ever read.” Butler’s Benny is also the most enigmatic of the bunch: a guy whose face is never shown in Lyon’s book and who is never interviewed — just talked about. “I love how Jeff talks about him as being this empty cup that everybody wants to fill with their own expectations and their own responsibilities. He doesn’t want any of that. That’s when he wants to cut loose and be free,” Butler said. Nichols wanted Benny to be bottled up until the end and remembered telling his star to “pull it back” a few times. “Like, stop smiling. When that kid smiles the whole world smiles,” Nichols laughed. One of Nichols’ biggest breakthroughs was when he re - alized the narrator should be Kathy, who falls for Benny at first sight and gets wrapped up in the club. “She just pops off the page,” Nichols said. “She’s witty, she’s introspective, she’s self-deprecating, she’s infuriating at times. She is a real person.” Comer saw in her a fascinating character, an “ordinary” but still extraordinary person that reminded her of women she knew growing up in Liverpool. She worked tirelessly to nail Kathy’s very specific working-class Chicago accent. But on another level, she was just a better voice for what he wanted to say. “The ultimate truth, and a subtext of the film, is that men are really bad at sharing their emotions. Observing this group in the hands of a male narrator I think would be really boring,” he said. The Bikeriders is a work of fiction. Nichols didn’t want to be the historian of the Outlaws, a group that still exists. He mostly wanted to capture this time and culture and evoke the feeling he got when he opened that book so many years ago. But he also draws heavily on Lyon’s images, some of which are recreated, and reporting. Much of Kathy’s dialogue are things the real Kathy, who was married to Benny, said. Hardy’s character Johnny was also apparently inspired by the Marlon Brando film The Wild One to start the club. He was the leader and also a bit of a fraud — a suburban dad with a real job on the side. Like Butler, Hardy came into the film with some motor- cycle know-how, but neither would describe it as a leg up — antique bikes are a different beast. “It just happens to be a convenience because I can ride as opposed to lying about skiing,” Hardy said. Comer said riding on the back of Benny’s bike, in the Cincinnati night with engines roaring and street lights twinkling, was “a really magical kind of movie moment.” And the danger was ever-present, but it also resulted in some real movie magic, such as the near-impossible recreation of one of Lyon’s most famous photographs with a single rider speeding across the Ohio Bridge. In the film, Butler is the rider. They had shut down a bridge. They couldn’t do it more than twice (both logistical- ly and because they couldn’t risk anything with their star). They had a 35mm film camera mounted on a car with a moving crane, attempting to speed alongside Butler. “All of a sudden we lock in the cameras in the right spot, the bridge is in the right spot, Austin looks back, then he drives off,” Nichols said. “And you’re like holy (expletive): ‘We got it.’” — The Associated Press LINDSEY BAHR FOCUS FEATURES Director Jeff Nichols hired Austin Butler (above) before his star-making turn in Elvis was in theatres. CIRQUE ICE SHOW COMES TO ARENA CIRQUE du Soleil’s first ever on-ice production will come to Canada Life Centre Feb. 20-23. Crystal brings the circus arts to the ice rink, with seven acts adapted to blend skating, acrobatics and aerial feats. Crystal is Cirque du Soleil’s 42nd creation, and uses visu- al projections on ice and a soundtrack that blends popular music with Cirque originals. Tickets for the six shows — Feb. 20 and 21, 7 p.m.; Feb. 22, 3:30 and 7:30 p.m.; Feb. 23, 1 and 5 p.m. — go on sale Tuesday at cirquedusoleil.com/crystal. THE CULT’S 8424 TOUR HITS THE BURT THE Cult’s 8424 Tour — commemorating 40 years as a band — stops at the Burton Cummings Theatre on Sept. 11, 2024. The on-again/off-again British hard rock band — known for such hits as She Sells Sanctuary and Fire Woman — is touring with original members Ian Astbury (vocals) and Billy Duffy (guitar), along with drummer John Tempesta, bassist Charlie Jones and keyboardist Mike Mangan. Tickets go on sale Friday at Ticketmaster. Prices have yet to be announced. — staff BRIEFS ;