Being from Minnesota and being a massive fan of neo-noirs and dark comedy, “Normal” directed by Ben Wheatley seemed to be made solely for me. Premiered at TIFF in 2025 being one of audience’s favorite. It’s not unusual that a film loaded with dark comedy takes place in a small minnesotan town. Minnesotans in general have never been shy about their appreciation of dark comedies and this one delivers in spades-black spades. Bob Odenkirk is solidifying his late stage of his career as an everyday man action hero in this. The film has such a strong link to Nobody, and Nobody 2, that it also seems like a third film in a trilogy. This time though his character is the person to which we see this new world that he is thrown into. Odenkirk is playing a  Sheriff named Ulysses.  A passive, don’t make waves, intern Sheriff after the other one died of mysterious circumstances. The film is a great mixture of comedy, action and peppering a little gross out bits of horror. A feature that  might please some audiences and sour others. It’s the nature of the beast when mixing genres. 

Directed by Ben Wheatley, (Free Fire) (High-Rise) and written by Derek Kolstad (John Wick) (Nobody) the film feels like a moody slow burn detective story will come about ,but after a bank robbery scene it turns into a b movie grindhouse. The entire film is a homage and recall to the classic tale of a lone outsider taking down the whole corrupted system, think “Hot Fuzz” and “Support Your Local Sheriff meets “Fargo” and “A Simple Plan”. The story tends to go too fast, and that’s the biggest struggle with it. It goes too fast to get that big payoff at the end. It would be great to spend more time with the status quo part so that the hard third act has a greater punch to it. Written by Derek Kolstad, and of course with Kolstad’s  writing strongly leaning toward blunt and brutal and healthy serving of a variety of guns, the subtlety is in the setting, not in the characters and Wheatley perfectly compliments it. B

“Normal” will probably not be in many people’s top ten after the end of the year, but it’s not built that way. It’s pure fun-and action driven and will make you laugh. It is for dark comedy and grindhouse fans and plays its hand marvelously with its set-up and then its knock down. The down slide is the waste of Lena Headey in this where she is limited to just three significant scenes, and too much dependence on Odenkirk to carry when in fact the supporting roles and characters are terrific and demand more screen time. The film would benefit greatly if it were a series then just a film. More could have been added and it still won’t feel crowded, there’s a lot of meat there. ‘Normal” hints at a possible sequel and from the looks of it, it will have it. 8/10