THE TRAILER
THE CAST
Colin Salmon, Bob Odenkirk, Gage Munroe, RZA, Michael Ironside, Christopher Lloyd, Billy MacLellan, Connie Nielsen, Alexey Serebryakov.
THE STORY
Nobody, a great action movie, repositioned Liam Neeson’s heroes as a star of “Better Call Saul.” While one may appear like an extended stretch of the creative intellect behind “Mr. Show,” Odenkirk is motivated by a violent protagonist with a unique skill set that other performers would have overlooked. The movies have shown us that it is easier to say than to do for years that he is a man trying to put his violent past behind him.
THE RUNDOWN
Nobody begins with a montage depicting the mundanity of the everyday life of Hutch Mansell. He scans the same transportation card each day, missing the garbage guy by only seconds every week. Life is several routines that he ate throughout his marriage with Becca (Connie Nielsen) while giving his children Blake (Gage Munroe) and Abby a reasonably happy household (Paisley Cadorath). Hutch works for the production business owned and controlled by its alpha-brother-in-law, Charlie, Eddie (Michael Ironside) (Billy MacLellan). Fortunately, author Derek Kolstad does not spend too much time on the everyday suburban life of Hutch, driving viewers very quickly into “Nobody” action.
Starting with a house invasion, two crooks at the bottom Rob Mansells of some money and a few drinks. Hutch’s one goal is to build a golf club, but he does not have an opportunity to elevate the violence, much in his son’s deception and his dude-bro male neighbor’s contempt. If it seems like the intruder might have stolen the kitty-kat bracelet of the wrong Abby, Hutch, to find it.
Naishuller is clever enough to use the bus scene’s momentum to get through the remainder of the narrative, more than a scene that makes Yulian a psychopathic, long-distance villain. “Nobody” is an unbelievable fast movie. It seems as if it runs for 92 minutes. There will be people who argue that the film makes Becca and her kids more characters than narrative elements, but “Nobody” maintains the tightness of the earlier “John Wick” movies, which was one of the best things about the trilogy.
Then Odenkirk is here. A second time I saw “Nobody,” the part which someone might easily have slept through for a salary became simpler to understand (this would be a much lesser movie with the current king of the Paycheck Performance, Bruce Willis, for example). Odenkirk effectively sells Hutch’s two sides, making his present family life as well as his violent past credible. It’s an intelligent performance that fans of his work on Breaking Bad and Saul shouldn’t be surprised by. Still, it’s also a very physical performance in which he makes choreography, stunt work, and choreography actual. The ensemble is vital—especially RZA and Lloyd, both of whom know precisely what this project might bring—but the film of Odenkirk is all through and clasps everything.
Naishuller has the habits of over runners of his hands every now and then with slomo montages paired to odd selections for music, unexpectedly from the filmmaker of the craziness that is “Hardcore Henry.” And the movie seems as though it is higher – nobody truly feels at risk (“John Wick” had the dog at least). But Naishuller understands what is important here, giving a great actor an unusual vehicle with just enough carnage to move very quickly and not much gore to the public. It is the uncommon contemporary action picture that gives me hope that it can create a succession. (I also believe that a crossover project “John Wick vs. Nobody” might earn about $1 billion globally.)
This movie “Nobody” works because it values creating a scene and the choreography of action above everything, leaving behind the hypocrisy and the overplotting of these last few years. It breaks no molds so much that it is an enjoyable time inside a familiar building. “Nobody” offers spectators a surge of adrenaline after a year with just a too small amount of action pictures due to the shelving of the blockbuster.