Bob Odenkirk Is Pretty Freakin' Far From A NOBODY

Last week, news made the rounds that Bob Odenkirk had collapsed on the set of Better Call Saul, the Breaking Bad spin-off that’s in production for its sixth and final season. A day later, while the actor/writer/director was ruled as being in stable condition at a hospital in New Mexico, the internet swarmed with well wishes from fans, friends, and co-workers. This touched and surprised me as I would’ve thought that most people wouldn’t know who he is. 

Turns out that that was really short-sighted of me. I should thought of the popularity of his Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul character, slimy lawyer Saul Goodman (aka Jimmy McGill aka Slipping Jimmy), or the following of his HBO program with his comic collaborator David Cross, Mr. Show, or the fact that his most recent movie, the action thriller NOBODY, was number one at the box office this summer.

Despite that rebranding of Odenkirk as an action star, he’ll always be a comic genius to me. Although he only appeared as an extra in a handful of sketches, his impact as a writer on Saturday Night Live from 1988-94 was undoubtedly his comedy breakthrough. Working with such names as Conan O’Brien, Robert Smigel, and Judd Apatow, Odenkirk had a hand in creating such crowd pleasers as “Matt Foley: Motivational Speaker,” a sweaty showcase for Chris Farley; “The Five Timer’s Club” (a premise that still pops up on the show), and, most importantly, the “Get a Life” sketch, a Star Trek convention satire in which guest host William Shatner tells a roomful of Trekkies to “move out of your parent’s basements, and get your own apartments and grow the Hell up?” 

It’s one of the funniest SNL sketches ever, and it inspired the Chris Elliot sitcom Get a Life, for which Odenkirk was Executive Story Editor, Shatner’s 1999 book of the same name, and a likewise titled 2012 documentary about Trekdom hosted by Shatner.

Odenkirk’s comedy credits in the ‘90s are numerous with the most crucial being his work on The Ben Stiller Show, The Dana Carvey Show, and Late Night with Conan O’Brien. But another breakthrough came in 1995 when he and Cross hosted duo the sometimes mind-blowingly brilliant, sometimes gloriously stupid HBO sketch showcase, Mr. Show with Bob and David. For four seasons, the zany Cross and the shouty Odenkirk wrung many laughs out of Pythonesque premises and silly segues while supporting cast members including Sarah Silverman, Brian Posehn, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Scott Aukerman, Paul F. Thompkins, and the acoustic metal duo Tenacious D (Jack Black, and Kyle Gass) all staked out their future careers.

After Mr. Show finished its original run, Cross and Odenkirk expanded one of their most popular characters into a movie entitled RUN RONNIE RUN in 2002. Unfortunately the project fell short for which Odenkirk blamed the director, Troy Miller. The largely unfunny film didn’t even get a chance at the big screen, and was released straight to video, but that may have been for the best.

Afterwards, Odenkirk toiled in the comedy trenches as a consultant on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, a writer on Derek and Simon: The Show, The Birthday Boys, and Tom Goes to the Mayor (I haven’t heard of those last two either). Alongside those gigs, were appearances as an actor in such better known shows as Roseanne, Seinfeld, Newsradio, The Larry Sanders Show, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Futurama, Just Shoot Me, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development, Entourage, How I Met Your Mother, and, uh, let’s just say every single comedy program from the ‘90s to now. I won’t go into his just as extensive filmwork except to say that of the three films he directed, 2003’s MELVIN GOES TO DINNER is highly recommended (the others – LET’S GO TO PRISON, and THE BROTHERS SOLOMAN – not so much).

The real sea change came in 2009, when Odenkirk joined the cast of Breaking Bad in the show’s second season. The aforementioned Saul Goodman (“s’all good, man.”) was originally intended to only be in three episodes, but the man hit the performance out of the park so he became a series regular. Goodman’s slick diction, and loud, garish suits helped make the character a fan favorite, and paved the way for his own show, which began airing two years after Breaking Bad’s final episode.

For fans, Better Call Saul was a pleasurable extension of the previous program. I actually prefer it to Breaking Bad, and I am a big fan of that show. One strong addition to the world created by Vince Gilligan is Michael McKean as Chuck McGill, the protagonist’s disapproving brother. I was surprised and disappointed that McKean didn’t get an Emmy nod for his intense portrayal of a disturbed yet gifted attorney.

Alongside Better Call Saul, Odenkirk re-united with Cross for a brief run of a Mr. Show sequel of sorts on Netflix. Entitled W/Bob & David, the project featured material that was equal in hilarity to the original, so it felt like a tease that it was only a four episode revival.

So this all brings us to Odenkirk’s most uncharacteristic role to date, Ilya Naishuller’s surprise hit NOBODY. In this movie which has brought about comparisons to the JOHN WICK series, Odenkirk plays Hutch Mansell, a normal, boring guy, with a wife, and kids living in a house in the suburbs outside some unidentified city. After a home invasion, the largely humorless Hutch sets out on a vengeful journey in which he leaves piles of bloody bodies, and retrieves his daughter’s kitty cat bracelet. We also learn that Hutch used to be a CIA trained assassin, which anybody can see coming as it’s a dark thriller trope that goes way back.

The role of Hutch’s Dad gives Christopher Lloyd an amusing chance to get in on the action-packed spectacle, and the film has a fine villain in Aleksei Serebryakov as a snarling Russian mob boss (again a well worn trope). But I got bogged down in all the machine gun fire, and scores of implausibly swift kills that led up to the typical shoot-out finale that’s set in a warehouse (tropey-trope).

Despite my fault-finding, I did enjoy a fair amount of NOBODY, of course, because of Odenkirk. For a guy who began his career as a comedy writer, it’s eye-opening to see him do things we’ve never seen before. An amped up fight scene aboard a parked bus at night is arguably the movie’s peak.

Sure we’ve all seen scenes in which an indestructible badass takes down a gang of attackers, and this doesn’t re-invent the wheel, but it’s a pretty thrilling series of bodily injuries in blindingly quick succession brought on by the least likely edgy vigilante. Odenkirk trained extensively for this movie and it really shows.

It’s great to hear that Odenkirk is on the mend. The online outpouring probably was the result of the list on Twitter of who or what’s trending. Seeing Odenkirk’s name made a lot of folks think the man had passed, and when they found out he was still among the living, they realized how much he meant to them. At least that’s what happened with me.

A couple of days ago, Odenkirk tweeted this:

A very sweet message from a guy whose contributions to the world of comedy are immeasurable. I’m looking forward to seeing him branch out into other genres, but for now, Bob, get plenty of rest, and take your time to recover. Well, maybe not too much time - I’m dying to see Better Call Saul Season 6.

More later...

OBVIOUS CHILD: A Plucky Abortion Rom Com

Opening today at the Carolina Theatre in Durham, the Chelsea Theatre in Chapel Hill, and the Rialto Theater in Raleigh:

OBVIOUS CHILD (Dir. Gillian Robespierre, 2014)

With its small comedy club scenes, and shabby New York apartment settings, it sometimes seems throughout this film like comedienne Jenny Slate has hi-jacked an episode of Louie.

Gilliam Robespierre’s writing/directing debut also has got a Girls thing going on too, with its navel gazing mindset, and that Slate and Gaby Hoffmann, who plays her roommate, have both appeared on the popular HBO program.

But the Sundance comedy OBVIOUS CHILD, aka “that rom com about abortion,” mixes its own affable, very amusing sensibility in with these familiar elements, largely due to Slate’s neurotically nerdy performance as a Brooklyn comic who gets knocked up.

The film begins with Slate getting dumped (“dumped up with” as she puts it) after delivering what could be considered a way too personal stand-up routine. Adding to her self-aware sad sack existence is that she will soon lose her day job as a clerk because the bookstore she works at is closing (the Greenwich Village store - Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Books, which actually exists and isn’t closing).

A drunken one-night stand with a nice guy stranger (Jake Lacy, from the last season of The Office U.S.) leaves our heroine with a bun in the oven, but being young, messed up, and way in over her head, Slate decides to have an abortion, scheduled for Valentine’s Day.

Going through the motions, and emotions of ending a pregnancy, the film never makes pro or anti-abortion statements. Nobody tries to talk her out of it, there aren’t sign wielding protesters at the clinic, nothing like that. Slate’s mother, Polly Draper of Thirtysomething fame, even makes a relieved joke when she’s told: “I thought you were going to tell me you were moving to California!”

I, like many, was first introduced to Slate on Saturday Night Live. She was a cast member for one year (2009-2010), and will go down in SNL history for dropping the “F-bomb” (in her debut sketch called “Biker Chick Chat” no less). After that she’s had memorable turns on the aforementioned Girls, Parks and Recreation (as Aziz Ansari’s crazy on again/off again girlfriend Mona-Lisa Saperstein), and the Showtime series House of Lies.

This movie most likely won’t make Slate a household name, but it’s a solid first starring vehicle for her. If you can get through all her fart jokes, you’ll find a winning funny personality especially in touching scenes with Richard Kind as her schlubby father.

Also standing out is a hilariously profane drunk dialing sequence in which Slate repeatedly leaves messages with her ex as she goes further and further off the deep end. Her convincingly over-the-top acting is combined with some deft editing (by Casey Brooks and Jacob Craycroft).

The up and coming actress also holds her own with David Cross as a somewhat sleazy fellow comedian, Gabe Liedman as a much nicer fellow comic, and certainly Lacy, who has a quick-witted sense of humor that appealingly fits with Slate’s. There’s undeniable chemistry between the couple when they come together on what Lacy calls “the best worst Valentine's Day I've ever had.”

Robespierre refashioned her 2009 short film of the same name, which also starred Slate, into this full length feature, but at just 83 minutes it feels like an extended short. I chuckled a lot and loved its crude, goofy energy, but it is a tad slight on the narrative side. Some characters and tangents could’ve stood a little more fleshing out.

So it’s a tad under-cooked, but OBVIOUS CHILD, named after the 1991 Paul Simon song, has heart and humor a plenty. It may be a hard sell to some folks because of its abortion theme and possible unfamiliarity with Slate, but I bet most art house film goers will come out of Robespierre’s plucky little comedy smiling.

More later...

A DVD Delight & A Few Disses for April 2004

And now for some new release DVD reviews. One which I found delightful, the other two I am dissing:

MELVIN GOES TO DINNER (Dir. Bob Odenkirk, 2003) 

I wish there were more movies like this these days! Thoughtful character-driven comedies are getting harder and harder to come by. It's like an updated MY DINNER WITH ANDRE times 2! Four people (Michael Blieden, Stephanie Courtney, Annabelle Gurwitch, and Matt Price) with loose and not-so-loose connections to one another by chance meet for dinner at a posh LA eatery, and discuss everything from the supernatural to relationship etiquette with funny insights aplenty.

Based on the stage play by Blieden (who plays Melvin) and gracefully directed by Bob Odenkirk (of Mr. Show fame) the core cast is enhanced by amusing cameos from David Cross, Fred Armisen, Jack Black, Melora Walters, and Odenkirk himself. Highly recommended.

The DVD has a few great extras: a hilarious short film about an ill-fated film festival appearance by the filmmakers and some of the cast and two different commentaries that are as funny and interesting as the film itself.

DVD DISSES:

MONA LISA SMILE (Dir. Mike Newell, 2003) 

A chick flick even a chick-flick lover would hate. It would be too convenient to label it as a female DEAD POET'S SOCIETY; it's more like a trumped-up Facts Of Life episode. Watch only if you want to see such new hopefuls as Maggie Gyllenhall, Kristen Dunst, Ginnifer Goodwin, and especially Marcia Gay Harden being wasted in a dreary one dimensional period piece. Julia Roberts fans should be used to this type of thing though.

SECONDHAND LIONS (Dir. Tim McCanlies, 2003)

In less than 3 minutes the premise is set: Haley Joel Osment is dropped off by his scamming Southern-Belle Mama (Krya Sedgewick) to spend the summer with his eccentric uncles Michael Caine and Robert Duvall who mysteriously have a treasure of millions of dollars hidden somewhere on their farm property. 

Incredibly hokey yarn that even tries to work in a PRINCESS BRIDE style back-story in the form of Caine's tensely told tales to Osment while Duvall overacts like a sleep-walking lovesick winner of the SNL game show sketch “Who's More Grizzled?” You could do worse than to sit through this pleasant pap but then you could do a lot better. A whole lot better.

More to come...