Directed by Ben Wheatley

Written by Derek Kolstad

Starring Bob Odenkirk, Reena Jolly, Brendan Fletcher, Jess McLeod, Henry Winkler, Lena Headey, Ryan Allen, Billy MacLellan, and Peter Shinkoda

By throwing us into the snowy confines of its small-town setting and tossing in the ingredients that it needs for some stylized fun, this lands with a good amount of quirky charm that gets me seated for an hour and a half with Bob Odenkirk’s action-packed antics. I think that maybe I’d seen a teaser for this a while ago, but I’m pretty sure I never caught a full-on trailer, so I was basically hopping into this without a lot of info aside from the essential bits and pieces about Odenkirk’s Ulysses Richardson being the new sheriff (technically, an interim sheriff, which becomes an amusing running gag) who’s been assigned to deal with nuisance reports in Normal, Minnesota—a place that seems all quiet and cozy until Ulysses encounters a whole goddamn criminal conspiracy lurking underneath its pleasant surface. Because I already know that’s coming up, it leaves me aiming much more suspicion at this town and wondering, “Hmm, who’s a part of the criminal underworld here?” I can imagine that even if you dive into this movie without any knowledge of what’s going on, you’d still arch an eyebrow at the air of things seeming too mundane here, as if it’s specially designed that way to prop up an exterior of innocence. I haven’t seen Twin Peaks, but I get why the reviews have drawn comparisons between that show and Normal nonetheless. Once we reach the bank robbery that plays a pivotal role in helping Ulysses realize what’s truly transpiring, this is where the tension increases significantly. We’ve progressed past the smoothly paced setup of the first act, we’ve familiarized ourselves with this town and its denizens, and now we’re dashing off into the gunfire and the explosions. From this point onward, the neo-Western action escalates into a consistently upward climb, making it easy to get caught up in the tale—a tale that’s for sure reminiscent of Fargo and Hot Fuzz, so it’s not like this is doing a bunch of new stuff. But it continues to entertain me as I watch how Ben Wheatley takes his seat in the director’s chair and translates Derek Kolstad’s script to the screen, and oh yes, this is definitely some majorly Kolstad-core writing. To be clear, this is a compliment that’s coming from my appreciation for the John Wick and Nobody flicks. I’m all for these action and crime tropes when you package them up in a properly compelling fashion, and now we have Normal joining that group.

The action itself really does get some space to shine with a dynamic punch. No, it’s not treading into the type of wildness we’d see in the world of John Wick, and no, it’s not achieving the heights of something memorably intense and gritty like the bus fight in Nobody. But it’s still heading down its own engaging path that manages to find a sweet spot in some relatively grounded territory—well, as grounded as it can get in an action movie, including this one, which can get us arching a big eyebrow over the criminal conspiracy’s questionable plausibility. But even if it’s not unleashing full-blown ridiculousness the entire time, it still gets to display a snazziness that pulls some reactions out of me as I’m left oohing and aahing over it. The kills are a major part of what pull these reactions, because goddamn, they can get surprisingly grisly. There’s one particular moment where it’s not only a nasty way to go out, but it’s also inflicted against a nefarious character who I’d been sure would stick around for a much longer time so that they could become a primary antagonist for the final showdown. But the choice to dispose of this character so early on lands as an appropriately subversive aspect, earning my admiration. Armando Salas’s cinematography and Jonathan Amos’s editing receives their own praise for letting the fun grab up our attention even more strongly. This kind of action substance reminds me of aanother Wheatley action thriller, Free Fire, and I had a decent time with its own propulsive material. Its usage of “Annie’s Song” by John Denver is great, too. Speaking of the music, Normal includes its own enjoyable needle drops, with “When You’re In Love with a Beautiful Woman” by Dr. Hook being especially on-point as a way to pump up the vibes and get me bopping along with the scene while a bunch of people are slaughtering one another.

As much as I’ve had a good time with this film, it’s not flawless. No, no, and one of my issues is the lighting. This actually might be my biggest complaint, because goddamn, I want to see what’s going on in all of these dim and snowy visuals, and I don’t want to squint and excessively turn up the brightness of my screen. But we blanket so much of what we can see in these cool grays and blues that force me to rewind the movie at certain points just so that I can double-check what’s happening. Personally, I would have preferred throwing colorful lighting into the ordeal in order to jazz up the atmosphere. Maybe this could have gone for something on a neo-noir vein. But at the very least, if we’re not going for the vivid splashes of color, this has to fine-tune the lighting of those aforementioned grays and blues, because I don’t like having to deal with the sort of lighting that gives me flashbacks to Cocaine Bear. Putting that aside, we then have another criticism of mine, which focuses on Ulysses’s past and how the script could have fleshed that out more effectively. I’m interested in the foundation of what we get for that facet of his character, but it comes off like we don’t go far enough with it. There’s a specific beat where we’re learning something dark about his backstory in the third act, and when it’s revealed, I’m left thinking that it will have to build up into something more soon. But then it feels like we simply shove that aspect of his character off to the side, and it turns into an indicator that this script should have undergone another revision. Then another thing I’ll note is that I like what we’re doing with this criminal conspiracy, but I would have preferred adding a specific twist onto it. I’ll avoid getting spoilery here, but what I can say is that if we were to go down this path, it could have made for a smarter and more morally complex story. It almost feels like a cheat for the path against this corruption to be so straightforward. I understand that this wants to be the sort of ride where we can enthusiastically and comfortably cheer on all the action because these clean moral lines have been drawn, but still, I prefer adding another layer to the situation.

Overall, Normal is a worthwhile time that I wish I could rate 3.75 out of 5 stars, but you know what, I’ll be generous today and bump that up to 4 stars. I’d be curious to see how that holds up on rewatch. Will it remain 4 stars, or will I drop it down to 3.5 stars? Hmm, we shall see. But yes, this comes along with quite a few positive attributes, including the cast. Odenkirk, of course, easily fits into the role of Ulysses, and if you like what he did with Hutch Mansell, then you’ll like him here as well. A ton of the supporting players do good work, too, including Reena Jolly, Brendan Fletcher, Billy MacLellan (who I keep mixing up with Will Forte), Ryan Allen, and Jess McLeod (who’s a nonbinary actor playing a nonbinary character, so that’s a sincerely excellent way to casually squeeze in authentic queer rep). Even the ones who don’t get a ton of time onscreen manage to make the most of their roles, and it comes off like I’m watching a roster of character actors make their mark with the bits and pieces of material that have been plopped into their hands. It turns out to be an intriguing way to add just a little more nuance to the town of Normal and make it feel like a real community with living and breathing humans populating it.

My final rating: 4 out of 5 stars