TIFF 2025: Normal Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

Bob Odenkirk’s recent prominence in leading action films is consequently a surreal follow-up to his early sketch comedy success and his critically acclaimed performance as Saul Goodman in the Breaking Bad universe. Between portraying normals and nobodies, Odenkirk effectively shapes this modern niche mold as the ordinary man turned skilled fighter that Derek Kolstad creates through his writing on Normal, Nobody, and Nobody 2. Comfortably dynamic in exploring various genres, director Ben Wheatley provides a relentless action experience to the literal town of Normal. Odenkirk stars as Ulysses, a man who arrives in town to assume the position of temporary sheriff following the original sheriff’s death, quickly discovering a criminal underground embedded throughout the town.

Wheatley’s rapid-fire mix of unrestrained action set pieces and unabating comic relief, provides a refreshingly self-aware cinematic adventure without taking itself too seriously. The film’s immediate reveal of the involvement of the Yakuza in the small Minnesota town unravels just as quickly as their secret crumbles to Ulysses’ impromptu daringness to diplomatically halt a bank robbery, challenging the town’s perception of his propensity to turn the other cheek. Odenkirk’s signature earnest demeanor of the common man compliments the film’s Fargo-esque setting, an isolated winter wonderland scooped up by the Yakuza to hide their wealth.

Over the course of the film, Wheatley showcases a diverse range of weaponry – from relentless gunfire, excessive knife-fighting, constant dynamite explosions, and a flurry of household items utilized for extreme measures – all of which exemplify the distinctive and quaint shopkeepers that Ulysses meets in passing. Rounding out this charming American town is its corrupt but surprisingly reasonable mayor (Winkler), who swiftly gives Ulysses an ultimatum before the carnage ensues. While he seemingly becomes physically and emotionally invincible, this allows Odenkirk to unleash all the built-up frustration without hesitation upon the corrupt town of Normal, making up for lost time in the now Liam Neeson phase of his career.

At the end of the day, with Normal, Ben Wheatley returns to the festival offering up the same kind of crowd-pleasing, relentless action that earned him a People’s Choice Award for 2016’s Free Fire. Significantly amping up the carnage and carried by an unexpectedly reliable action star in Odenkirk, Normal is an outrageous blast that breezes through its tight 90-minute runtime.

still courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

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Costa Christoulas

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