It should perhaps not come as such a surprise that Bob Odenkirk is actually pretty good as the lead of an action movie. It’s been a long time since his surrealist comedy days on Mr. Show, his work with Tim and Eric and Tenacious D. Shows like Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, movies like Nebraska, The Post, and Little Women prove he has a lot more versatility than you’d expect from the guy who created Matt Foley, Motivational Speaker for Saturday Night Live. There have also been plenty of action stars before him that have come from comedy. And yet this latest attempt at rewiring his image seemed like a step too far. Shabby, midwestern, fifty-eight year old Odenkirk just cannot be an action star.
Nobody however, makes him work. The blandly titled film from John Wick writer Derek Kolstad and director Ilya Naishuller casts him in the role of a dishevelled suburbanite whose long-suppressed rage and hidden skills bubble to the surface after a humiliating home invasion. It ultimately escalates to a ludicrous degree, and through it all Odenkirk pulls off both the physical demands of the role and the charisma. He and Naishuller are firmly in the know that mild-mannered warehouse manager Hutch Mansell is the last person you’d expect to be a highly capable and resourceful combatant, and they have some fun with that, going out of their way to show how listless and pathetic he is in his ordinary life. And Odenkirk is perfectly cast as an unsuspecting worn-down nobody. In his first fight scene, even after a suggestion he is much more dangerous than he lets on, he takes a brutal beating for a bit before he gains the upper hand.
That fight, which takes place on a bus, is the culmination of a search for vengeance Hutch embarks on in light of the break-in and the pressure from all those around him to take action; and is itself a second inciting incident of the movie as it determines the plot from that point onward. And it’s a plot that is extremely familiar, involving a Russian gangster (Aleksei Serebryakov), his family pride, and the hero engaging in a campaign of sabotage and warfare against his empire. It’s a common action movie formula, but it feels especially repetitive from Kolstad, given it’s much the same premise as the first installment of the John Wick series -which due to Kolstad and the involvement of John Wick co-director David Leitch as a producer, Nobody is already poised to be unfairly judged against. That plot and the somewhat messy structure that brings it about is certainly the movies’ biggest weakness, and it obstructs potential leftover from what appeared to be the movies’ initial design. A lot of early emphasis is placed on the men in Hutch’s life rudely insinuating or else outright chastising him for not taking out the intruders whom he let go -seemingly setting up a greater commentary on brute male culture and toxic masculinity. Instead though it just seems to be another backdrop to his rather miserable life and an illustration of how everyone short of his wife and daughter is an utter dick to him. There was also perhaps more to his discovery that the couple who robbed him did so out of desperation than the movie lets slide, and a legitimate argument could be made his story would be more compelling were he an actual "nobody".
Nevertheless, the movie is still very exciting in spite of its’ narrative deficiencies in part due to a number of fun choices by Naishuller. As a director, he’s a bit of a stylist: his last movie was the failed first-person shooter film, Hardcore Henry. He dials it back for this one though, incorporating more the quick cut pacing and strong visual expressionism of something like an Edgar Wright or Joe Cornish film -as well as a modicum of the humour of those. The comic sensibility of the film is absolutely necessary, and it’s illustrated smartly through the filmmaking as much as Odenkirk’s dialogue and attitude. There’s a running gag where he starts to explain his backstory to guys he just subdued through extremely violent encounters only for them to die before he can finish. But also there’s a rhythmically edited together sardonic montage showing the tedium of his daily routine over a couple weeks.
There’s even a playfulness to the action scenes. That one on the bus goes from intense to silly right back to intense again, and as much as the slow-motion shoot-em-up of another segment is thrilling, it’s also conveyed with a decent chunk of irony. But these elements supplement the fight scenes to their benefit much the same way those in John Wick do –a comparison far more flattering to make. That being said, the fight choreography isn’t a fraction as slick; by design it’s much more visceral and rough, though still a treat to watch. Naishuller knows how to maintain the energy, the pace, and geography of an action scene, which really plays well alongside Kolstad’s creativity and Odenkirk’s impressive dedication. Also, the choices of needle drops are very interesting: I never would have thought of “Heartbreaker” as a song for a car chase, but it kind of rocks.
Nobody doesn’t do anything new for the action genre, but it is a smarter, more skillfully made movie than it is going to get credit for. It deserves noting that Hutch has a sharper development, a more curious motivation than is readily apparent. And there’s a pretty solid supporting cast assembled around him too. While some like Connie Nielsen, Michael Ironside, and especially Araya Mengesha are a touch poorly utilized given their presence and build-up, others like RZA, Colin Salmon, and an impeccable Christopher Lloyd are permitted to make the most of their screen-time -there’s a sequence in the last act featuring two of them that had me grinning from ear to ear. Instances like it make up for the films’ other weaknesses -it’s overall pretty solid! And Odenkirk, though not on his way to becoming the next Liam Neeson (thankfully), proves himself once again to be a more dynamic actor than anyone would have imagined a few decades ago. I wonder if David Cross will ever attempt something similar.
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