“Yea, and if some god shall wreck me in the wine-dark deep,
even so I will endure…
For already have I suffered full much,
and much have I toiled in perils of waves and war.
Let this be added to the tale of those.”― Homer, The Odyssey
Photosensitivity Warning: There is a brief sequence amid police cars and a stunt sequence (teased in the trailer) involving a flashing white light that may be triggering for photosensitive individuals. Prepare accordingly.
When comedian/dramatist Bob Odenkirk underwent the unexpected change into action thrillers by way of 2021’s Ilya Naishuller’s Nobody, John Wick Universe scribe Derek Kolstad was behind the script that gave way to the nondescript salary man’s reentry into the world of underground violence. Since then, Odenkirk and Kolstad worked together again on Nobody 2 (directed by Timi Tjahjanto) and, now, are co-writers on the Ben Wheatley-directed original tale Normal. Since its TIFF 2025 world premiere, Normal has played at SXSW 2026 and The Overlook Film Festival 2026, bringing its special brand of absolute mayhem ahead of its wider release. On its surface, Normal appears like the kind of setup we’ve seen between the actor/writer already; however, joy of joys, not only is this a fresh tale, it’s a hilarious joyride of pure bonkers chaos whose fuse, once lit, can’t be stopped until credits roll.
Bob Odenkirk as Ulysses Richardson in NORMAL. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Releasing.
Once a full-time sheriff in his own town, Ulysses Richardson (Odenkirk) works as an interim sheriff, taking jobs where leadership is needed in-brief. This enables him to stay on the move and observe without really getting involved anywhere. That’s his plan for his latest assignment in Normal, Minnesota, until a bank robbery gone wrong triggers a series of events that forces Ulysses to confront what he’s been running from all while trying to survive a bullet-ridden onslaught.
First things first, Ulysses is not Hutch, Odenkirk’s alter-ego in Nobody. He is a law enforcement officer who spent years working in such a position, but that’s about as far as the comparison goes. Kolstad and Odenkirk both have worked that particular backstory and, thankfully, don’t return to mine more. Instead, between small touches in the character work and Odenkirk’s generally soft performance, audiences decipher a man whose natural instincts are to pay attention and lead with kindness. This does two things incredibly well as a result. First, it reduces unnecessary exposition because conversations don’t feel forced for the purpose of getting the audience and protagonist up to speed, rather they feel honest in the moment as they relates to Ulysses’s own curiosity. Second, it reinforces the notion that something unexpected is going on with Ulysses because his choices imply a persistent fight against his impulses. As we learn what drove him to being a part-time sheriff, we meet someone who feels like a failure and can’t work out a way to recover from that feeling, the temporary jobs allowing him to be of use without actually forming connections of any value. Conversely, the way that Ulysses treats those around him — whether it’s leaving a note instead of a ticket, providing aid to someone merely trying to get a snack from a machine, or offering a warm bed to sleep off drinking — betrays his insular desire. A catalyst event always being tied to a protagonist’s choices and/or weaknesses, this is exactly what puts him in the middle of a fire fight that he can’t possibly understand. At least at first.
L-R: Lena Headey as Moira and Bob Odenkirk as Ulysses Richardson in NORMAL. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Releasing.
Second, the stunt work in this film is absolutely brilliant in the way that it almost always moves the story forward. This film is 90 minutes in length *with credits* so it has no time to really fuck around. Once the bullets fly, they don’t stop for much of a break. Designed by Dan Iabini (Nobody; Violent Night), Emmanuel Manzanares (Logan; The Mandalorian), and Vlad Rimburg (Gangs of London; The Accountant 2), what we witness in Normal is anything but as they merge natural environments and armed killers, infusing each sequence with hilarity — largely from a mix of expected and unexpected turns. With the script having set the stage in a similar manner to another beloved British action comedy from the 2000s (that I will not name directly due to comparative expectations), the set pieces that follow generally answers questions the peaceful scenes of the first act place before audiences. There’s the occasional tussle, like the one shown in the trailer that involves Ulysses battling someone as a white light flashes, that is fairly par-for-the-course action fodder. It’s thrilling and engaging, certainly more so if one is able to watch it in full (being photosensitive, I had to block my vision every few seconds); however, the bank robbery sequence is structured almost entirely like a comedy of errors so that the audience doesn’t know if they should laugh out of shock for the absurdity of it. To be clear, we’re talking Rube Goldberg’s machine sort of events that are absurd, not uses-a-pencil-to-kill-a-man absurd. Even within the ridiculousness, though, it serves the story, communicating who these characters are and what matters to them, while also being the spark that lights this particular blaze.
Gratefully, Wheatley has a great deal of experience as an action-oriented filmmaker with Free Fire being one of the most surprising and violently delightful films of 2016. In many ways Normal is a return to form for the filmmaker who has worked on Hitchcock-remake Rebecca (2020), thriller In the Earth (2021), and actioner Meg 2: The Trench (2023) in the interim. Normal is a special kind of actioner in that it doesn’t come off as heavily polished, the stunt work feeling organic to the enclosed spaces and the largely untrained force besieging Ulysses. Additionally, because Wheatley has experience with tight storytelling, as well as how to handle ensemble casts, there’s not a moment in Normal that feels wasted. Even the way he incorporates character narration doesn’t weigh down the film because of how it serves the story naturally. Everything is in service of momentum, which Normal maintains whether centering characters and their respective arcs or glorious havoc.
Front: Bob Odenkirk as Ulysses Richardson in NORMAL. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Releasing.
Because of what audiences have now come to expect from Kolstad as a world-builder and Odenkirk as an ass-kicker, there are going to be many expectations set before the film begins. Couple that with Wheatley as director and audiences are going to expect Normal to be anything but. Thankfully, it delivers on all fronts. Even when it backslides to a few action genre tropes regarding wounds, it largely takes the audience and itself seriously, maintaining the rules of reality with such deference that any break from them due to environmental factors just feels like an acceptable inevitability. While there’s still a lot that’s familiar with the Kolstad bag of tricks, there’s enough original mixed together with the familiar that the whole is a solid bit of entertainment that’ll play well on the first or several of watches.
Screened during The Overlook Film Festival 2026.
In theaters April 17th, 2026.
For more information, head either to the official Normal The Overlook Film Festival webpage or theatrical website.
Final Score: 4 out of 5.
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Categories: Films To Watch, In Theaters, Recommendation, Reviews
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