‘Normal’ – film review
As can be expected of a film entitled Normal, what unfolds over the course of its brisk runtime is anything but. The first clues to something shady going on under the surface occur in the opening scene, where a shadowy Japanese band of mobsters gets ready for a not-so-friendly interrogation session. Suddenly, just when things start to get hairy with regard to people’s fingertips, a sentence is passed: not death, but exile in Normal, Minnesota, population 1890.
[Warning: Spoilers from Normal are below!]
What is Normal anyways?
The film then shifts in tone and color from the shadowy warehouse to show Normal, on the face of it, a bright and snowy Midwestern town. With their sheriff dead in a recent outdoors mishap, the mythologically named Ulysses (Bob Odenkirk) has been drafted in as the interim sheriff. Ulysses is pretty happy with his assignment; surely this tiny slice of Americana will be a nice, almost idyllic break from his previous beats. As his name suggests, however, things are not so nice and easy.
Before Ulysses can settle into a routine and enjoy small-town life, he starts to notice that the reality of life in Normal does not line up with the line fed to him. The locals are cagey. The former sheriff’s death looks less and less like an accident. For a very rural, very small all-American town, there are no signs of shuttered businesses or better days behind it. When a bank robbery turns his deputies and a fair few townspeople against him, Ulysses realizes that what he has on his hands goes all the way to the Yakuza. And thus, a delirious orgy of violence begins.
A different side of Minnesota in this Magnolia Pictures production
Thanks to the Coen Brothers’ Fargo and Noah Hawley’s television spin-off of the same, Minnesota is a very familiar, almost friendly place for cinemagoers to see a tale of organized crime, shady conspiracies, and hardcore brutality. It is hard to imagine the recognizable factor and ensuing goodwill not being an influence on scriptwriter Derek Kolstad and Odenkirk, who developed the story together. Enlisted to direct is Ben Wheatley, the British cult auteur who is no stranger to picking up the gonzo action film alongside his more esoteric sci-fi projects and delivering all with panache.
But Fargo and its iterations put more emphasis on niceties and folksiness hiding the capacity for barbarism; Normal, on the other hand, is far more interested in delivering the maximum amount of violence with the minimum of exposition (indeed, much backstory comes out in dialogue as Ulysses formally and informally questions people, and the script’s one weakness is that it tries to squeeze too much importance into these exchanges when their relevance fades to the background in the wake of the bonkers action). It is less cerebral and certainly will not be a classic in the same way as the Coens’ 1996 film, but who can complain when the result is this much bloody fun?
Odenkirk is an innately appealing action man, as he previously proved in the Nobody films (also written by Kolstad). He has stated in interviews that he only recently began considering action cinema as a career path and the subsequent physical training, but he moves naturally and with ease. It is easy to believe he is an ordinary cop who has kept himself nimble in mind and body rather than a superhero-esque force of nature, and that gives Ulysses (despite his name) an everyman appeal. Compounding this is Ulysses’ ease and care with his younger colleagues, namely the late sheriff’s child Alex (played by nonbinary actor Jess McLeod with screen presence that suggests a promising career ahead). This on-screen rapport extends in a less collegiate manner to Henry Winkler’s Mayor Kibner and Lena Heady’s bartender Moira, both of whom prove key to the town’s darkest deals and secrets and bring their character actor best to chew the scenery.
As mentioned, the whys and wherefores are somewhat lost among the blindingly fast series of events. Even if some allegiances shift with seeming spontaneity, the mechanics of what happens – in all its gory glory – are marvelously tactile and creatively designed. Heads explode, body parts are severed, shotguns tear through sets, and people with reams of fake blood, machines, and humans interact in ways they really should never and (as promised at the start of another 2025 film, Weapons) a lot of people die in really weird ways. The violence tips through to extremity so fast that Normal becomes wonderfully silly rather than in any way a commentary on modern US culture or international gang warfare. People looking for a message in their cinema have come to the wrong place – but they should stay for the fun of it.
Final thoughts on Normal
Fans of the Nobody films will love Normal, which crams even more acts of incredible violence into its mere 87-minute runtime. The film might be somewhat slight on the whole, but a terrific time is had. A climactic moment even evokes the Final Destination franchise, with a Rube Goldberg machine set-up leading to an improbable death and an ensuing, gleefully over-the-top bloodbath. With a dreamy love song playing over unholy carnage and the ultimate absurd restoration of justice and order, the effect is ecstatic. For pure popcorn delight, few recent films do it better.
Normal opens in UK cinemas today! Have you seen this film yet? What did you think? Share your thoughts on social media and tag @bsb.insider to continue the conversation!
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