Record box office: the film of the Russian director topped the American distribution

Russian director Ilya Naishuller’s film “Nobody” was released in the United States and immediately topped the list of the most popular premieres. In its first three days in Los Angeles theaters, it grossed $6,7 million. Writes about this Air force.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Universal Pictures Russia

According to critics, one of the main reasons for the success of the film was the unexpected participation of actor Bob Odenkirk, who starred in the title role. Odenkirk, who became famous for his roles in the cult series Breaking Bad and the prequel Better Call Saul, is known as a comedic actor, and his participation in hard-hitting action initially raised a lot of questions among film connoisseurs.

But this did not stop Naishuller. This is the first Hollywood project of the music video director and author of the innovative action film “Hardcore”, which shows that the dream of Russian directors to work in Hollywood is quite feasible.

“Nobody” was released in Russian theaters on March 18, a week earlier than America.

Beware, contains spoilers.

Do not fool around, America

“Ours in Hollywood” is one of the eternal themes in the history of Russian cinema, a fairy tale about a distant promised land, which almost all Russian filmmakers without exception secretly yearn for. “Oscars” of Menshov and Mikhalkov, nominations for the American Film Academy Award of Zvyagintsev, two films of Konchalovsky and Bekmambetov’s breakthrough that never took place, “Trotsky” on Netflix are milestones on a path whose end always seems so far and so close.

From a somewhat retro perspective, it seems that both the successes and failures here are related to the same thing. For some reason, a poet in Russia is still more than a poet; art has a sacred status, and cinema is the most important of them. Hollywood is, after all, a dream factory - and for a change, the emphasis in this hackneyed formula should be on the first word.

Six years ago, Ilya Naishuller, under the direction of the same Bekmambetov, shot “Hardcore” - a spectacular and, whatever you say, innovative first-person action film. The film was another chance for the long-awaited expansion, and the young director easily talked about the wave of offers that hit him after the premiere in Toronto.

It soon began to seem that this was the end of the matter. Naishuller returned to Russia to shoot videos for Leningrad and his own indie band Biting Elbows. In addition, he produced two films - “I’m Losing Weight” by Alexei Nazhny and “Marathon of Desires” by his own wife Daria Charusha. In general, there was a feeling that American soil did not accept another Russian.

When it became known that Naishuller was working on the action film Nobody with John Wick screenwriter Derek Kolstad and actor Bob Odenkirk (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul), this also seemed like a bit of a loss of ground. Instead of an author's project (Ilya, even after Hardcore, talked about a big spy film) - a not too expensive production film.

However, in interviews leading up to the film's release, the director talked about how he turned down "Tyler Rake" (the Netflix action film starring Chris Hemsworth), and the trailer for "Nobody" was shown during the Super Bowl. According to some estimates, an advertising slot of the appropriate length cost Universal studio about $5 million. At this point, talk about a “passing film” could be stopped - the studio, obviously, was making a serious bet on the film.

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Be a man

However, the creators’ stakes were even more serious. If for Naishuller “Nobody” was the long-awaited next step to a full-fledged Hollywood career, then for Odenkirk it was a long-awaited break from the familiar role of the puffy scoundrel. Just from the posters it is obvious that the actor is almost unrecognizable. Preparation for “Nobody” took him a year and a half, which included not only getting himself into proper physical shape, but also active training with weapons (“Bob reloads a machine gun like a real commando,” Naishuller boasts in an interview).

The idea for the film also arose from Odenkirk, when a fucked-up stranger broke into his Los Angeles home. The actor called the police and, at parting, heard from the cops that he had done everything right, but the arriving officer in his place would have reacted somewhat harsher to the threat to the family.

The blow to male pride eventually transformed into the plot of the film. A modest hard worker and exemplary family man, “Hutch” Munsell, is approached by two robbers. He is ready to break the violent heads with a golf club, but for some reason he stops, waits for the police and receives a toxic rebuke from his neighbor.

Gradually, we learn that Hutch has truly deadly skills, and his skills have been itching for a long time and thoroughly. Soon there is an opportunity to use them, standing up to protect the girl, to whom drunken bastards have stuck on the night bus.

Having crushed his teeth and Adam's apple with it, Hutch returns home with a sense of accomplishment to lick his wounds (“Like the good old days,” wife Connie Nielsen sarcastically remarks). However, the skirmish will continue: one of the victims of Hutch’s fists (Alexander Pal) turns out to be the brother of the Russian mafioso Yulian (Alexey Serebryakov). Revenge is inevitable, but our compatriots do not yet know who they are dealing with, because Hutch has been missing a bloodbath for so long.

It’s interesting that at the level of concept, “Nobody” has something in common not only with “John Wick,” but also with Bekmabetov’s Hollywood debut, “Wanted.” Only there it was about a man who wanted to become a hero, but here it was about an adrenaline maniac who refused to fight his nature. This difference is the engine that allows the viewer to rush through Naishuller's film in one breath. There is fundamentally no first-person filming here, but, of course, there are some attractions. And we're not even talking about the inventively filmed action, but rather about the acting. The hero's father is played by 84-year-old Christopher Lloyd (Dr. Emmett Brown from the Back to the Future trilogy) - and he hasn't had such a fun role in a very long time (or maybe never).

Serebryakov deserves special compliments, who has finally freed himself from the alcoholic role of the hero of “Leviathan” and seems to be experiencing a new renaissance as a character actor. His first performance to “The Accountant” by the group “Combination” is pure delight for the viewer, which distinguishes conscious kitsch from the notorious “cranberry”.

Naishuller says that initially the Koreans were supposed to be Hutch's opponents, but he insisted on the Russians, because, firstly, he knows them better, and secondly, he wants to play with the clichés of the Russian mafia from Hollywood films. The prank, of course, was a success: the confrontation between the two heroes, although it sometimes has a somewhat cartoonish shade (due to the graphic physiognomy of Odenkerk and Serebryakov), is held on an equal footing.

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At a non-Soviet speed

“Nobody”, of course, can be reproached for its uninventive soundtrack - a shootout to “What a Wonderful World” in 2021, seriously? One could also argue that Naishuller lacks either the shamelessness or the sincere faith in the mayhem happening on screen, which is found in the best action films of the 1980s and 90s like Die Hard.

On the other hand, it’s not that anyone in the last twenty years has been able to repeat that magic, or, in any case, put it on stream. And such a task was not posed here. More importantly, “Nobody” is not a “Russian in Hollywood” film, but a movie made with an absolute understanding of what action should be like today and seasoned with a fair amount of charming irony.

Naishuller, fortunately, has no desire at all for the sweeping grand style or imperial kitsch (like Bekmambetov). His film is lean and ergonomic, and the vignettes (such as Sergei Shnurov’s cameo) do not harm aerodynamics in any way.

Instead of “traditional Russian values” - honor, conscience, or a mysterious soul, which in themselves are poorly converted into box office revenue, Naishuller offered a lively and sharp mind and some kind of completely unearthly self-confidence.

As it turned out, these qualities are in great demand overseas. And what is more important, they provided the opportunity not to waste time on compromises and take the right second step towards a confident dialogue with a global audience.

Making any further forecasts or issuing advances is, of course, empty, but it seems that Ilya’s next American film will have to wait less than six years. And what’s nice is that you can wait for it without fear, but on the contrary, with unconditional curiosity.

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