Nobody

Year of Release:  2021

Director:  Ilya Naishuller

Screenplay:  Derek Kolstad

Starring:  Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, Aleksei Serebryakov, RZA, Michael Ironside, Colin Salmon, Christopher Lloyd

Running Time:  92 minutes

Genre:  Action, thriller

Hutch Mansell (Odenkirk) is a seemingly average man living with his wife, Becca (Nielsen), and two children, and working a dull office job at his father-in-law's metal fabrication company.  One night two armed burglars break into his house, however Hutch does not intervene and allows them to leave.  This leads his family, neighbours and friends to see him as a loser.  However a late night confrontation on a bus with a gang of thugs, leads to Hutch being pitted against a powerful Russian crime syndicate, and it soon becomes apparent that Hutch is really very different from the placid, mild-mannered man that he appears.

At first this appears to be a gritty vigilante thriller in the mould of Death Wish (1974) and it's ilk, where a mild-mannered man is pushed too far by urban criminals, but it soon becomes a full on action movie.  The film is full of exciting well-staged action sequences and it does become a good, old-fashioned action film The anchor is Bob Odenkirk in the lead role who makes the switch from placid average guy to full on action hero very convincingly.  It all gets increasingly daft as it goes along, but there is some real grit in the earlier scenes, as Hutch gets punched and pummelled from all directions and the injuries look and feel real and do slow him down, of course this is soon abandoned as the film moves towards full action movie mode.  Connie Nielsen is underused as Becca, Hutch's wife, but Aleksei  Serebryakov is effective as the head villain, and Christopher Lloyd has a fun part as Hutch's elderly, but ruthlessly gun-toting father. While this does feel like a gritty urban thriller mashed up with an  action movie, this is always fun and when it kicks into gear it really doesn't let up.  It's no classic, but it will give you a good time at the movies.  

Bob Odenkirk is Nobody

The Post

Year of Release:  2017
Director:  Steven Spielberg
Screenplay:  Liz Hannah and Josh Singer
Starring:  Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, Tracy Letts, Bradley Whitford, Bruce Greenwood, Matthew Rhys
Running Time:  116 minutes
Genre:  Drama, thriller

In 1971, the struggling Washington Post newspaper is owned by heiress Katherine Graham (Streep) with editor-in-chief Ben Bradlee (Hanks).  Graham has inherited the paper following the suicide of her husband, and has severe doubts as to her ability to run a paper, while Bradlee constantly sees the paper being left behind by other, larger newspapers, and is determined to break a big story.  When they become aware of a leak of thousands of pages of Top Secret documents from the Pentagon relating to America's involvement in the Vietnam war (the so-called "Pentagon Papers"), they are forced to decide whether or not to publish, even if it means severe consequences.

Based on a true story, this is definitely part of the "newspaper drama" subgenre, full of serious looking people running around corridors with files and large boxes, chattering typewriters, bustling newsrooms and stirring speeches about the integrity of the press.  Apparently the film was made while Spielberg was waiting for the special effects to be completed for Ready Player One (2018).  The echoes with current events cannot be ignored, at a time when the press and the veracity of news seems to be constantly under fire, this is a film about why journalists and editors cannot allow themselves to be bullied by governments and politicians.  The villain of the piece is then-President Richard Nixon who appears very briefly seen from the back through the White House windows, ranting and growling threats.  It's an intriguing film, which tells an interesting and relevant story with a real sense of urgency.  The performances are excellent, especially from Meryl Streep, who plays someone who is kind of in both camps.  She is someone who is very much part of the Washington establishment, she is friends with many of the politicians, many of whose careers, as she well knows, will be ruined by the publication of the Pentagon Papers.  She is also someone who is perpetually patronised, overlooked and belittled by people who are technically her employees.  An early scene shows her at a board meeting where the all-male board talk over her, ignore her and sometimes repeat exactly what she's just said. 

Compulsive viewing at The Post