13
May
2021
Nobody

Nobody

In NobodyBob Odenkirk is Hutch Mansell. Husband to a career wife, butt to the disparaging glances of his son, it would seem that Hutch’s best years are firmly behind him. Even when thieves break into his house and he has the chance to step up, he doesn’t. As a result, everybody thinks Hutch is a washout. However, when his daughter laments that the thieves also made off with her kitty cat bracelet, Hutch is spurred into action. Visting his ageing dad (a terrific Christopher Lloyd), the old man gazes deep into Hutch’s eyes. He knows where Hutch is going and eventually you will too in director  Ilya Naishuller‘s Nobody

Nobody shouldn’t be anything fresh or new and yet, much like Hutch himself, there’s nothing overtly obvious about how it lays down its cards

So, with the awards season now firmly beyond us, I’d like to recommend a new category – Oscar for the most unexpected yet rewarding movie of the year and Nobody would be my head and shoulders top nomination. Treading in the footsteps of many other revenge dramas before it, Nobody shouldn’t be anything fresh or new and yet, much like Hutch himself, there’s nothing overtly obvious about how it lays down its cards.

Echoing much of Sam Mendes’s 1999 American Beauty, the setup of Bob Odenkirk as a brow-beaten hubby is darkly comic. Lurching forwards with the fast cutting vibes of an early Darren Aronofsky, all of the movie’s thematic gears gradually lead us to the style of David Leitch‘s (uncredited) masterpiece John Wick. However, it has unexpected aces up its sleeve. Actor Colin Salmon finally gets the screen time he’s long been needing and Michael Ironside (yes, Mr Scanners) is on hand too to make you chuckle as Hutch’s life starts to shatter around him. Yet, quickly elbowing his way to the front of this movie’s affections is Christoper Lloyd. Yes, Back To Future‘s Dr Emmett Brown has a shotgun and he knows exactly how to use it. 

Now at this point, I should admit I’ve never seen Better Call Saul or any of his appearances in Breaking Bad but Bob Odenkirk‘s Hutch is the performance you’ll never see coming. Stomping all over the Nobody‘s languid first half-hour he totally delivers in a role that (on-paper) he had no right to. Yet, jet fuelled with a weariness that gradually erupts into full passive aggressive bloom by its end, this is a guy who’s trying to do the right thing but whose past won’t let him go quietly.

So I’d say, keep an eye out for Nobody. He’s far more visible than you might think, popping up on iTunes, Xbox and a host of other service providers and if you want your faith entertainment restored – then he’s the nobody to do the job.

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