The Bikeriders - Jeff Nichols’ crime drama about the golden age of biking - is a wonderfully crafted period piece in which Austin Butler and Tom Hardy portray a new breed of American outlaw.

It’s been eight years since director Jeff Nichols released his last movie Loving, and The Bikeriders proves that the Arkansas filmmaker hasn’t missed a beat. Lean in structure and brimming with a strong sense of time and place, The Bikeriders is as fascinating as it is entertaining; an exploration into how a subculture evolved into a criminal enterprise as the world descended into chaos.

Interestingly, The Bikeriders is told through the perspective of Chicago housewife Kathy (Jodie Comer), the wife of (the fictional) Vanguard motorbike club member Benny (Austin Butler) whose undying loyalty to Vanguard leader Johnny (Tom Hardy) often causes friction in their marriage.

Set throughout the 1960s, The Bikeriders contains its perspective within the bubble of a tightknit brotherhood of chopper riding outsiders, whose once impenetrable walls are infiltrated by a post-Vietnam generation of psychological wounded men and the drug culture they helped build, as personified by The Kid (Toby Wallace) a young upstart rival who is as violent as he is ambitious.

In their personifications of James Dean and Marlon Brando, Austin Butler and Tom Hardy deliver strong lead turns that especially rely on body language, with Butler’s piercing gaze and Hardy’s imposing physicality communicating all that needs to be said with their delivery of dialogue rarely rising in volume. It is an interesting choice of performance for both actors, yet one that works well in presenting old school masculinity where action is louder than words.

It is Jodie Comer who delivers the films flashiest (yet never hammy) performance as the lower-middle class Kathy, the woman who dares to tame Benny’s wild heart and in doing so finds herself witness to the rise of a subculture that turns into a criminal enterprise. Comer’s expert handle on accents is given centre-stage, with the British actress delivering a knockout Chicago accent along with plenty of spunky attitude to make for a compelling and entertaining performance.

Terrific cinematography by Adam Stone (Mud) along with great costume design by Erin Benach (Drive) and production design from Chad Keith (Leave No Trace) provide the tools for Nichols to deliver a period piece of striking imagery. The Bikeriders is inspired by the photo-book of the same name by Danny Lyon (played in the film by Mike Faist) and Nicholas has very much created a living photo album, capped off with the excellent casting of stellar character actors with memorable faces, such as Damon Herron, Beau Knapp, and longtime collaborator Michael Shannon.

Above all, The Bikeriders captures the free spirit of these rebels without a cause and those who watched their flame extinguish by the winds of change.