'Nobody' Strikes Action Comedy Gold
#124: "Nobody," "Godzilla vs. Kong," "Dog Day Afternoon," Best Asian-American Movies
Edition 124:
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In this week’s newsletter: We’ve got a ton to talk about. I had a hell of a time watching Nobody in theaters, and a surprisingly fun time watching Godzilla vs. Kong at home. Plus I finally checked a 1970s classic off my watch list. I went all out on recommendations this week, with a whole list of movies featuring Asian and Asian-American stories. Then in this week’s “Trailer Watch,” Guy Ritchie is back in his groove with another cockney gangster movie.
Nobody
(Theaters !!)
The evolution of action heroes across the generations from macho-man to “guy you can have a beer with” has been well documented (including by me in the Washington Post!), but Bob Odenkirk’s turn as a super assassin in Nobody has to be the logical endpoint of the spectrum.
Odenkirk, a veteran improv comedian best known as wimpy lawyer Saul Goodman in “Breaking Bad,” plays a guy named Hutch who by all intents and purposes is, well, a loser. Until he isn’t. If you’ve seen the trailer, you know he’s a dormant hitman with yadda-yadda special set of skills you know the drill, who gets activated when robbers break into his home and take…a kitty cat bracelet.
So it’s basically John Wick, with a sense of humor (no surprise, the movie was written by the same guy who writes all the Wick movies). The difference here is that whereas Wick’s rampage(s) come from a place of righteous revenge, Hutch’s bloody murder feels more like finding an old board game in the back of your closet and then forcing your friends/family to play it against you because you remember you beat them every time at it.
Nobody claims no moral high ground, and begs its audience not to think about anything below the surface. It operates with video game logic, where killing a bunch of “bad guys” is fun and killing them in creative ways is even more fun. Between a fire extinguisher, a stapler, the stop-request cord on a commuter bus and a flammable vinyl record, he’s having LOTS of fun.
Odenkirk’s terrific comedic timing is expected, but his ability to pull off complex action sequences is impressive. The whole movie hinges on him being just as convincing as a Joe Schmo and a John Wick, and he absolutely nails it (ah yes, nails are also used as a kill method don’t worry).
A lot of the violence is so intentionally ridiculous that the viewer’s response to it is to laugh (a response familiar to fans of the Tarintino movies). As if Odenkirk isn’t an absurd enough action star, the movie gets RZA (of Wu Tang Clan) in on the action along with 82-year-old Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown from the Back to the Future movies) shotgunning people in half.
Between bursts of action is a brief and familiar plot. There’s a Russian mob, a giant pile of cash, and an endangered family. The usual stuff. But the movie is hyper literate in the entire catalog of action movies, and subverts the tropes just as often as it employs them. Hutch’s enemies keep dying in the middle of his big dramatic exposition speeches, for example, which produces a laugh each time.
If you’re into these sorts of movies, and I assume if you’ve read this far that you are, then this gleeful bloody romp is about as satisfying a 90-minute adventure as you can find anywhere.
Something New
Godzilla vs. Kong (HBO Max): Nothing has influenced blockbuster filmmaking more in the last 20 years than China. Considering the massive amount of investment capital flowing from there into Hollywood studios on the front end and the activation of its 1.4-billion citizens into a box office powerhouse on the back end, it’s no surprise shameless pandering to Chinese audiences has become a fixture of every recent franchise (or at least those large enough to penetrate the national limitation laws on imported films). Pre-pandemic, the Chinese box office was on the brink of overtaking the U.S. as the largest in the world.
That is important context when you consider that Godzilla vs. Kong may be responsible for resurrecting theatrical moviegoing globally. Its $121 million opening weekend was the best of the Covid era by a mile, sparking the first signs of optimism for studios like Warner Brothers. Oh, by the way, $70 million of that came from Chinese audiences. Coincidence that the climactic battle of this movie takes place in the streets of Hong Kong? I think not.
Most people in the U.S., including myself, are seeing this movie at home thanks to Warner Brothers’ same-day drops on HBO Max. Which is a shame, because this movie is epic and loud, made to be seen on a huge theater screen with a million speakers.
Despite my general allergy for big-loud-and-dumb movies, I actually really liked it. Most blockbusters these days have become buried entirely under the weight of their own mythologies, and require hours of investment in previous source material, but this movie expedites some backstory and doesn’t need to give the rest — it’s Godzilla, it’s King Kong, and they’re going to fight. That’s all I need. The first fight sequence when the two titans square off will send chills down your spine, because there are legitimate stakes and you don’t know who’s going to win — escaping the usual inevitability of the good guys triumphing in every blockbuster.
The last 20 minutes bail out into that usual cookie cutter crap (I can’t say more without spoiling), but I expected nothing different. I forgive it because the movie isn’t afraid to lean into the ridiculousness of the premise and never takes itself too seriously (take notes, Zack Snyder).
Nowhere is this more apparent than the completely unnecessary yet totally delightful side plot road trip featuring Brian Tyree Henry, Millie Bobby Brown and Julian Dennison (aka that kid from Hunt from the Wilderpeople!). Henry is consistently incredible, Dennison is always hilarious, and Brown…well you all know my thoughts. Calling this a big three would be like calling Lebron James, Anthony Davis and Alex Caruso the Lakers’ big three. One of them can’t hang.
Still, this movie is an unqualified success. If you miss giant spectacle movies, there’s nothing better to draw you back to theaters than this CGI slugfest.
Something Old
Dog Day Afternoon (1975, HBO Max): This Al Pacino-led heist movie is considered by many to be the quintessential 1970s movie, and it’s easy to see similarities to today’s culture of distrust towards authority, financial desperation and eagerness for celebrity. But cultural significance underplays just how entertaining this movie is, and way funnier than I was expecting. It’s a Godfather reunion for Pacino (Michael) and John Cazale (Fredo), who team to rob a bank in Brooklyn until everything goes wrong and it turns into a hostage standoff. The cool thing about exploring movie history is after you see this, the excellent 2006 Spike Lee movie Inside Man comes into much sharper focus as an obvious homage and advancement of the same story. I’d highly recommend both.
Something to Stream
Support Asian-Americans!: The senseless mass shootings in Atlanta a few weeks ago was the sad culmination of anti-Asian racism in this country that bubbled to the surface in a new way over the past year during the coronavirus pandemic. It’s shameful. I won’t act like watching movies can do anything to change the world, but I’ve noticed in recent years how many blind spots I have toward Asian cinema, and even the recent rise in Asian-American moviemaking. It’s no surprise to find an untapped gold mine there. He’s a very short list of a few of my favorites:
— Asian-American productions —
The Farewell (Amazon Prime): Simply the most under-appreciated movie of 2019, this autobiographical story from Lulu Wang about a young immigrant (played by Awkwafina) who returns to her family in China to celebrate the matriarch who hasn’t been told that she has a fatal disease is as beautiful as it is profound, and grapples with the differences between Eastern and Western cultures as well as anything I’ve seen.
Searching ($VOD): Aneesh Chaganty (son of Indian immigrants) made his directorial debut with this slick true crime-style thriller starring John Cho (born in South Korea), the best use to date of the gimmick where the whole movie takes place on a computer screen.
Tigertail (Netflix): I mentioned this one a few weeks ago, but briefly, director Alan Yang retells the story of his father’s immigration from Taiwan. It’s brutal and hard to watch in parts but it’s also told with deep love and gratitude for the immense sacrifice immigrants make to come to the United States.
— Asian-country productions —
Bong Joon-Ho: Nothing less than one of the greatest living filmmakers, and leader of the recent South Korean film revolution, every one of these is a must watch — Parasite (Hulu), Snowpiercer (Netflix), Okja (Netflix), Memories of Murder ($VOD).
Shoplifters (Hulu): This 2018 Japanese film has serious Parasite vibes, unraveling its plot through ever deepening layers, but it takes a much more subtle and nuanced approach at what it means to be family.
The Handmaiden (Amazon Prime): Park Chan-wook’s 2016 erotic thriller out of Japan is one of those movies that will never leave your mind, and not just because of its somewhat graphic sexual content (trigger warning). It’s expertly crafted, edge-of-your-seat tension from start to finish and features one of the best plot twists of all time.
Rashomon (HBO Max): You can’t call yourself a fan of classic film without exploring the work of Japanese master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. His most influential film (arguably) has become shorthand for one story told from different perspectives, a concept that has been copied dozens of times throughout the years.
Trailer Watch: Wrath of Man
Mark Twain is famous for saying, “find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Well I wish I loved anything as much as Guy Ritchie loves making cockney gangster movies. He hasn’t worked a day since exiting a few painful blockbuster efforts and returning to form with last year’s very underrated The Gentlemen, which was reminiscent of the movies where he made his name like Snatch, RocknRolla, and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
Ritchie’s latest installment re-teams him with Jason Statham, who is still rocking the cockney accent but this time is plopped down in Los Angeles and basically seems to be playing his “Shaw” character from the Fast and Furious movies. We know by now to expect something profane, hilarious, violent, and dripping with swagger. Count me in.