Normal takes the classic High Noon and subverts the Western with a quirky mix of Fargo and other films, delivering a darkly funny, wildly entertaining ride.

Following the death of the Normal, Minnesota’s previous sheriff, Ulysses (Bob Odenkirk) has taken the job of substitute sheriff in the small, forgotten town. What begins as a routine response to a local bank heist quickly spirals into something much larger, as Ulysses stumbles onto a conspiracy with far higher stakes than he could ever possibly imagined. That’s the gist of the film in a nutshell—not taking the Yakuza intio account. There is a Hitchcockian element to the film, too.

I am trying to stay light on spoilers and for that reason, I am going to write the rest of my review underneath the photo.

It’s one thing for a town sheriff to go it alone, but quite another when the entire community turns against him—bartender Moira (Lena Headey), the postman, shopkeepers, even colleagues inside the sheriff’s office. Surprisingly, Ulysses ends up siding with the very bank robbers he was supposed to stop—yes, you read that right—against everyone else. Imagine Gary Cooper striding into High Noon only to discover the whole town had turned on him. That’s Ulysses’s reality, only set in snowy Minnesota rather than the Old West. It’s also the element that drew Ben Wheatley to direct the film. After all, who wouldn’t want the chance to put a fresh, subversive spin on one of cinema’s most iconic Westerns?

When it comes to action, Wheatley commits to keeping as many effects in-camera as possible. Of course, there are moments where CGI is unavoidable, but the film largely feels refreshingly old-school in its execution. Leaning into the Western influences, Wheatley uses a single-camera approach that highlights each fight. And no two battles are alike: some are gritty hand-to-hand brawls, while others explode into wild, unpredictable set pieces. The result is a series of action beats that will have audiences laughing, gasping, and breaking into applause.

Derek Kolstad and Bob Odenkirk clearly have a good thing going. The John Wick creator previously wrote or co-wrote Nobody and its sequel, and during the first film’s production, he and Odenkirk took the original treatment and fleshed it out into what would become Normal. The script is sharp, and the Fargo influences are impossible to miss. Personally, I appreciated the way the film leans into those tonal echoes while still carving out its own identity. I can’t say what the future holds, but I’m curious to see how this collaboration develops. Odenkirk may have started in improv and sketch comedy, but I absolutely love watching him reinvent himself as an unlikely, yet thoroughly convincing, action star.

Still, I’d be remiss not to mention the context in which I saw the film. Watching a bloody action comedy on the very same day as yet another school shooting and a political assassination attempt felt unsettling. A part of me couldn’t ignore the discomfort of rooting for stylized violence on screen while real-world violence loomed large in the headlines. Maybe my reaction would have been different had I watched Normal earlier in the week. Violent films don’t cause these tragedies, but they do raise questions about how we process violence in our culture. And while Hollywood shows no sign of pulling back, it’s worth wondering whether audiences will eventually reach a saturation point. But I digress.

Given the pedigree behind Normal, it’s no surprise the film secured strong pre-sales before TIFF, even if it arrived without a U.S. distributor. A streamer might pick it up, but this is the kind of movie that deserves to be seen with an audience. Shared laughter, gasps, and bursts of applause add to the experience in ways that home viewing can’t replicate. Bloody, funny, and gleefully subversive, Normal proves there’s still plenty of life in the Western when filtered through modern eyes—and that Bob Odenkirk has cemented himself as an unlikely, but entirely welcome, action star.

DIRECTOR: Ben Wheatley
SCREENWRITER: Derek Kolstad
CAST: Bob Odenkirk, Henry Winkler, Lena Headey, Ryan Allen, Billy MacLellan, Brendan Fletcher, Reena Jolly, Peter Shinkoda, Jess McLeod, Derek Barnes, David Lawrence Brown, Chad Bruce, Lauren Cochrane, Dan De Jaege, Takahiro Inoue, Brian Kawakami, John C. MacDonald, Alex MacMillan, Megan McArton, Aaron Merke, Carson Nattrass, Harry Nelken, Yosuke Nishi, Bradley Sawatzky

Normal holds its world premiere during the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival in the Midnight Madness program. Grade: 4/5

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