If you can give yourself the gift of seeing “Nobody” without seeing the trailer or reading any reviews, you should. Seriously, stop reading right now, watch the film, then come back.
OK, here’s the deal: This comedically over-the-top action movie starts out as one kind of masculinity-in-crisis movie (nebbish fails to adequately defend hearth and home) and becomes a far more entertaining one, a grandly cartoonish revenge saga that simultaneously mocks and milks tropes involving Russian mobsters, suburban ennui, men with mysterious pasts, and guns, guns and more guns as the solution to manly anxiety.
“Nobody” is more violent lark than probing satire, but between Bob Odenkirk’s smartly underplayed performance, the surprises in the screenplay by Derek Kolstad (the “John Wick” series) and the puckishly brutal direction of Ilya Naishuller (“Hardcore Henry”), it’s a wonderfully paced and consistently clever action movie that ups the ante of a genre that’s been dominated by Liam Neeson clones.