Nobody (2021)

April 20, 2021 7:21 PM

A bystander who intervenes to help a woman being harassed by a group of men becomes the target of a vengeful drug lord.
posted by DirtyOldTown (19 comments total)

I now hope we get a never ending stream of older, random actors getting their own John Wick movies with the one rule that only the creator of John Wick is allowed to write them.

The little moments where he tries to monologue were a nice touch.
posted by M Edward at 8:40 PM on April 20, 2021 [10 favorites]

not in one second was the movie convincing in demonstrating hutch as an ordinary family man. an unnecessary gimmick. the script, generally does a pretty bad job of convincing me that any of the plot is necessary - it seems to be justified solely by hutch's desire to finally kill people again. the action scenes were great though. and, nice to see bob odenkirk transform from saul to an "auditor".
posted by sapagan at 12:53 AM on April 21, 2021 [1 favorite]

This was pretty different from the "retired badass regretfully picks up the weapons" cliche. Hutch, and *spoilers* his father and brother *end spoilers* seemed like they were itching to get back to their old pastime.

There were bits that I appreciated: his wife was in the know from the get-go about his background, no pets or elderly get injured or killed, and home invasion didn't warrant instant death.

When thinking about comparable movies, The Equalizer (2014) has a lot of similarities: hero in hiding, Russian mob bad guys, big finale single location action set-piece. Nobody trims a lot: fewer side plots, leans hard into the silliness of the whole thing, and winds up 40 minutes shorter for it. It's an easy recommendation for an action movie.
posted by Anonymous Function at 2:16 AM on April 21, 2021 [7 favorites]

it was a GREAT mix of John Wick, RED, and The Equalizer! Loved it.
posted by alchemist at 5:02 AM on April 21, 2021 [3 favorites]

I really loved this movie. Super entertaining.

It felt markedly different than something like Falling Down or some other aggrieved white dude who lashes out because they are diminished.
*maybe spoilers?*
Hutch isn't angry at society. He gets mad because they threaten his family. His problems with his family are caused by his behavior, and he seems to (in a simple fashion) acknowledge that.

I was concerned it was going to be something death wishy. or veiled red pill shit. I didn't get that feeling (But understand that I'm a white dude, so I am super dense even though I am trying)

*End Maybe Spoilers*

I put it in the similar category as John Wick 2, but less violent. I mean it's super violent, but more stylized/abstract? Montage violence if that's a thing?

Well worth watching.
posted by Lord_Pall at 12:29 PM on April 21, 2021

Christopher Lloyd!

I liked this a whole lot.

There was a lot of levity here, but it held the line against being outright silly. Just barely.

The complexity and depth counterbalanced that, and also the refrain from being too super-hero gun-fu-ey or too focused on the minutiae of the body count.

Did enjoy the homage to the "few against many" castle defense trope. But yeah, the plot was tight and focused and alluded to a lot of background without getting mired in the weeds trying to show it.

Odenkirk is a great actor and he leveled up his repertoire while still bringing his dramatic and comedic timing chops.

I'm not saying that this is a brilliant piece of film, by any means, but it's entertaining and doesn't require turning one's brain off completely.

I've seen comparisons elsewhere to 'Falling Down' and totally don't get it - but more likely, the people making the comparison have no clue what 'Falling Down' is actually about. D-Fens is not a hero. (Nor is the new Joker.)

But, yeah, comparisons to 'RED' (2010) are apt, with the subtle difference of being seduced back into violence (the wish for another door to open, after internally forgiving the burglers [who inadvertently turned into home invaders]) rather than returning to violence out of boredom.

I did wish they spent an extra five minutes or so exploring how the family life that he chose ended up not meeting his expectations beyond admitting to the audience that the romance part of his marriage had been kaput for a while. His relationship with his son and daughter felt not terrible, beyond not praising his son enough which he amends, and his son thinking that he's "soft."
posted by porpoise at 3:38 PM on April 21, 2021 [3 favorites]

The relationship with the family wasn't great because that man wants to do violence.

There are 3 or 4 moments where he expresses actual glee that the bad guys do what he wants them to do so he can do violence.

It's very meta because they are the same moments when we, the audience, are thinking oh man, here we go, he's gonna mess them up.
posted by M Edward at 5:57 PM on April 21, 2021 [2 favorites]

Here's where the 'Falling Down' comparison comes in, and the main thing I really didn't like about the movie.
-he doesn't stop the home invasion, and lets them get away
-everyone demasculinizes him over this - cops, family, coworkers who are also family
-wife I think at some point here refuses to have sex with him
THEN he snaps and goes on the hunt and becomes a man's man.

I don't get the impression that his wife knew beforehand. I think she realizes after the basement scene.

Overall I think I liked it but the first half hour felt way too much like "you gotta step up and be a man's man" toxic nonsense to me.
posted by graventy at 12:15 PM on April 28, 2021 [2 favorites]

Kinda wished they had a scene with the kitten chilling at the office early on, maybe just in the background somewhere like Chekov’s cat.

Also, Pat Benetar makes everything better.
posted by iamkimiam at 3:12 PM on April 28, 2021 [4 favorites]

The more I hear about this, the more it sounds like A History of Violence with upgraded graphics.
posted by Naberius at 12:34 PM on April 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

... and a sense of humour. It's not nearly so grim.
posted by porpoise at 2:15 PM on April 29, 2021 [4 favorites]

Now I really want to see RZA and Christopher Lloyd’s Murder & Mayhem in the Mystery Machine Movie.
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 9:44 PM on June 26, 2021 [5 favorites]

I'm am saying that this is a brilliant piece of film: it is the best new film I have seen in a very long time, preferable to the John Wicks, and certainly to the Taken stuff.

I almost turned it off during the first 15 minutes when I could not understand why his family turned against him for his initial impulse to violence, but that was explained and more when I hung on. I was then treated to an incredibly tight script, which drove an absolutely beautiful film, which featured expressive use of blacks, comparatively slow edits, great use of sound and fantastic performances all around: it might be easy to forget Aleksey Serebryakov's performance in the context of so many other good ones but I found him convincingly scary.

All of this supporting effort made the humour in the film effective, even if the jokes would have been corny in less deft hands: the rhythm of the edits set up and knocked down these jokes perfectly (e.g. # of days since an employee accident).
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 9:39 AM on July 23, 2021 [6 favorites]

"Kinda wished they had a scene with the kitten chilling at the office early on, maybe just in the background somewhere like Chekov’s cat."

I mean, was that not literally the opening scene?
posted by komara at 7:45 PM on August 20, 2021 [2 favorites]

Finally got to see this and it was great. I'm kind of a sucker for these sort of Ordinary People with Extraordinary Hidden Badassery; that includes whether they're deliberately trying to live an ordinary life, or are somehow brainwashed or amnesiac about it and find out by accident. (The latter group includes The Long Kiss Goodnight and American Ultra; the second movie also has Connie Nielsen, albeit in a very different role.) Odenkirk displays a neat trick in this film, in that his expression when he's dealing with everyday bullshit and when he's dealing with extremely deadly mobsters isn't that different, but he modulates it very carefully and it's pretty chilling when he's getting his kill on.

A couple responses to comments above:

seems to be justified solely by hutch's desire to finally kill people again.

The relationship with the family wasn't great because that man wants to do violence.

I'm not so sure that he does, though. He could have very easily justified whacking the burglars over the head with the golf club--no one would have had to know that he'd already spotted the fact that the revolver wasn't loaded--but pulled back from it, even though it cost him a little with his family. I think that he enjoyed some of the wet work in the moment, as one does when one is doing something that one is very good at, but he was determined to make the Mr. Normal thing work. In the end, it looks like he still has to do the occasional job, and isn't super comfortable with it.

I don't get the impression that his wife knew beforehand. I think she realizes after the basement scene.

She knew; she helped patch him up after the bus scene, and wasn't the least little surprised at any of it (even did the superglue trick).
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:09 PM on March 18, 2022 [4 favorites]

I liked this even better on rewatch. The way the violence handled is... tactile. They really want it to be ugly, for you to feel it.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:04 AM on February 3

Also, if I can be blunt, down here, late in the game where it is mercifully unlikely to start an argument:

Holy shit, people did not read this film well. Amazing levels of not getting the point at all here.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:06 AM on February 3 [1 favorite]

There is a definite recurring thing on MeFi/FanFare where people say, "______-ism is very important to me. I have evaluated this film to see if it smoothly fits into a _______-ist perspective and it does not, therefore I have consumed it is antithetical to that ethos, because a crude binary is the only choice here."
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:51 PM on February 4

Nobody 2 has been greenlit. (Nobodier?)
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:46 AM on June 26