The “Dad Wick” team of Bob Odenkirk and Derek Kolstad are back with another chapter of Nobody. record scratch Sorry. No, it isn’t. Normal may have a lot of similar DNA to the duos past two outings, but it is a vehicle unto itself.
Ulysses (Odenkirk) is a temporary sheriff who travels from town to town when the sheriff of said town is incapable of performing their duties whether by incapacitation or, in the instance of Normal, Minnesota, is no longer alive to perform the job. Usually, it is a short stay until the town can elect the new sheriff and their little burgh can go back to normal, but Normal is anything but normal.
With minimal tweaks, Normal could be considered a satire of last year’s Eddington, but where Eddington continued to lean into the darker suspense, Normal responds like an old friend who made bad decisions before throwing their arm around you and takes the darkness for a joy ride. Derek Kolstad (Nobody & Wick scripts) continues to be delightfully insane by narrative. His typical witty dialogue blends into over-the-top comic book violence. It is as much a morbid homage to many predecessors as it is the perfect escape from reality.
The reality is completely grounded by a stellar cast who never quite fit into the insanity occurring around them, though the Nobody films does allow us to embrace Bob Odenkirk’s super dad aura once again. The “regular guy” causing ultra violence will never not be jarring, but Odenkirk’s ability to be sincere and caring despite his believability in action is a calling card I think any actor would aspire to have.
Joining the Nobody crew is British director Ben Wheatley. Based on his work on Free Fire, excellent recruiting! Wheatley was able to take his prior experience with humorous shoot em up filmmaking and merge Kolstad’s twisted story into a picture that never allows the audience to settle into one angle. Dipping into horror shots, action, comic, film noir, and about four other styles sprinkled through to make the visuals a character of Normal.
If Fargo, Smoking Aces, and Legion were put into a stew, Normal would be the gloriously nuts action comedy that would be that meal. It’s funny and nail-biting all in an enjoyably compact 90 minutes and everyone should go out of their way to experience it when it comes out on April 17th.