Nobody (2021)

Nobody is the kind of action movie that is extremely popular and beloved, for several reasons. It is incredibly stylish and cool, giving us a protagonist that seems underwhelming until he shows his other side. It’s clever in how it slowly hands out its surprises. It’s very entertaining, never boring for a second, continuously accumulating set piece after set piece.

The movie is so entertaining that it’s easy to miss some of the things it’s telling us. On the surface, it’s simple and well-worn: good guy who hides his talents for a normal life must use them to fight some really bad guys. Or, a bit broader: be yourself, don’t try to pretend otherwise. The thing is, as with many of these movies (especially the obvious comparison, John Wick), it’s all about men using violence to feel like real men again.

(spoilers, from here on)

After the opening montage that establishes Hutch (Bob Odenkirk) as a sad sack zombieing through his life, there’s a home invasion and when he doesn’t attack the invaders when he could have, everyone disapproves of him. It’s the one moment the movie could have use to say that violence is not always the solution, but it trades that for 60 minutes of violence extravaganza. But there is hope in these opening moments.

Then there is the bus scene that will become famous, a classic, cool cool cult. In the movie it serves as the money shot we were supposed to be waiting for, cheering Hutch as he expertedly takes out five bad guys at once. It’s shot brilliantly but its style also gives away its purpose: this is what Hutch NEEDS to do, this is the real him, this is good, this right, this is cool, give us more! I don’t even want to nitpick at the fact that the guys conveniently not attack him at the same time, so he can use more moves (nothing has changed since 70s kung fu films) or at the slick choreography that we now need in every action scene. It’s a fun, exhilarating sequence of man enjoying to commit dozens of acts of violence he was hoping for because he felt powerless. He’s good at hurting people, so godammit movie, thanks for giving us all that violence. Yes!

In times of Death Wish, we needed at least an exploitative rape to justify all the violence used against bad guys, but here it’s almost beside the point that these guys didn’t do much besides being assholes. It doesn’t really matter because we want to see Bob Odenkirk beat the shit out of them. We are almost made to believe that he is still a good guy because he saves one of the thugs’ life, but this is such an empty gesture compared to the hundreds of people he’ll later kill without blinking.

Let’s be honest: Hutch is a sociopath who needs to lead the most boring life imaginable so that he doesn’t kill anyone who cuts his way. Which would be actually an interesting concept, if the movie didn’t completely ignore the problematic aspects of this character and fully embrace him burning down everyone he considers bad.

The movie betrays itself once the second action scene in Hutch’s house comes because now it’s just more of the same: Hutch can take out anyone, no matter how many, which weapons. He’s the ultimate Ubermensch and because he looks so normal and average, we love him even more for it because this could be us. We love watching someone cool like Keanu take out bad guys in cool ways, but Better Call Bob? That’s amazing!

Men need to do this! And when they have the first serious talk with their wife after getting their mojo back, the very first thing they need to point out is that they’re missing sex. Violence and sex, men, violence and sex, men, yes, yes, yes.

I don’t want to be snide, I really don’t, because I really see that this is an entertaining movie. I enjoyed it. But our enjoyment makes it easier not to think too hard about what’s going on. The movie is great at sucking you into its world and time flies. But I’m not here to rush you through the highlights of the film, I’m here to stop you and at least make you wonder what you’re enjoying.

Let’s repeat to get to the end: Hutch is sad and weak, then he beats up some guys because he needs to beat someone, which leads to consequences for him, which he enjoys because now he can kill people and burn down his own sad identity. The last act doesn’t pretend anymore, it’s just shootouts and slo-mo gun throwing and men telling each other how much they’ve missed this (reminder: ‘this’ means killing lots of people). If it was a movie about people who retired from dancing because they fucked up during a tournament but now they hear this music and, dammit, they just have to dance, because it’s so much fun, then I’d go with it. But here it becomes only a pile-on of dead bodies as human life is disregarded exponentially.

Why exactly are the RUSSIANS (another old trope re-used here because it’s easier than actually developing multi-layered characters) worse than our heroes? Both groups seem to enjoy violence, the movie has just decided for us that one side, our side, can use violence against all rules while the other side is bad because its leader is a nasty old Russian guy.

I’m exhausted by this. I’m exhausted by cheer on moments of violence like the final showdown where the use of a shield and explosives, against all logic, is supposed to be the moment where the audience stands up and applauds and laughs because, ha ha, the bad guy was blown up, fuck yes! Maybe, just perhaps, you could argue that the movie knows what it’s doing and is commenting on it but then I missed the point or the comment or the part where extended sequences of violence were not used for entertainment.

All I want is a movie with all this inventiveness, all the music needle drops, all the stylishness, the amazing performance by Odenkirk to be used for something that doesn’t just celebrate violence. Please don’t let me be misunderstood.