![Focusing on the Best Roles of Tom Hardy Hardy](https://sp-ao.shortpixel.ai/client/to_auto,q_lossless,ret_img,w_355,h_200/https://lights-camera-jackson.com/content2015/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Hardy.jpg)
Following a shift from 20th Century Studios to Focus Features, “The Bikeriders” (a new drama from director Jeff Nichols) finally opens in theaters on June 21st. It stars Jodie Comer, Austin Butler and Tom Hardy.
Hardy earned an Oscar nomination for his performance in 2015’s “The Revenant”, which is among some of his best work. Many would immediately point to “Mad Max: Fury Road” when looking at Hardy’s career, but the movie that instantly comes to my mind is “Locke”. He commands your attention the entire time in a mentally and emotionally challenging role as the title character, who must make a series of difficult phone calls on his drive from one location to another. Still the best A24 film I’ve ever seen.
Hardy has collaborated with Christopher Nolan multiple times — as Eames in “Inception”, Bane in “The Dark Knight Rises” and Farrier in Nolan’s finest film to date, “Dunkirk”. The underrated 2011 MMA drama “Warrior” has Hardy alongside Joel Edgerton and, in a powerful, Academy Award nominated performance, Nick Nolte.
Later this year, Hardy will reprise the role of Eddie Brock for, supposedly, the final time in Sony and Marvel’s “Venom: The Last Dance”. I have not been a fan of this franchise. Maybe it will go out on a high. But I am looking forward to “The Bikeriders”, especially with the intrigue of the studio switch surrounding it. Why would Disney’s 20th Century division want to let go of it, and what inspired Focus to pick it up — and give it a summer release?
The rest of 2024 for Focus includes Pharrell Williams’ life story told in LEGO form with “Piece by Piece”, star-studded “Conclave” from “All Quiet on the Western Front” director Edward Berger and Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu”. Focus distributed my Best Movie of the Year for 2022 (“TAR”) and 2023 (“The Holdovers”). We’ll see if it happens again.