Hutch (Bob Odenkirk), a middle-aged accountant, sees his house broken into by a couple of young, trembling assailants. Nothing much is taken, but his role as the man of the house stands on wobbly ground as family and friends perceive his reaction as cowardly. The burglary, despite unsuccessful, opens a deeply complicated Pandora’s box that results in the hour-long badassery that follows, as Nobody unravels into a brilliantly crafted action film reminiscent of the golden era of the 90s. 

John Wick meets Falling Down, Nobody is an uncontained burst of fun perfectly designed for the big screen experience. Sitting tightly at just over ninety minutes, not a single moment is wasted as Odenkirk mutates from your friendly neighbour (who most certainly owns a barbecue apron with a dad joke printed on the bib) to a less jacked, slightly balding Arnold Schwarzenegger. The choice of having an unbulked 50-something lead actor nonchalantly kicking ass amplifies the divide between the unremarkable and the extraordinary, sustaining the tension and keeping the audience permanently on their toes. 

Here, there is no such thing as a morally ambiguous anti-hero. Instead, we get an archetypal family man fighting bad guys in the name of justice and honour, an all-round Great Fella. Throwing in the boisterous Russian mafia villain, the mysterious government agency background and the comic elderly side-kick, we have a tested-and-approved formula enhanced by a mix of sharp editing and an adrenaline-pumping score. 

In all honesty, very few things can beat the joy of watching Bob Odenkirk and Christopher Lloyd manoeuvring military-grade weaponry to the glorious tune of Gerry & The Pacemakers’ “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, but Nobody never relies on the greatness of the cast or the safety of the premise. Instead, it stands on its feet as an instant thrill-inducing classic that is sure to charm audiences all around. 

RATING: 5/5

INFORMATION

CAST: Bob Odenkirk, Aleksey Serebryakov, Connie Nielsen, Christopher Lloyd

DIRECTOR: Ilya Naishuller

WRITER: Derek Kolstad

SYNOPSIS: A bystander who intervenes to help a woman being harassed by a group of men becomes the target of a vengeful drug lord.