Movie #3612 ........................."Normal" (Phoenix Film Festival)

 Movie #3612 "Normal" (Phoenix Film Festival)  This was the last film we saw art the Phoenix Film Festival last night, and boy is it a doozy.  I do not have the stomach to watch a lot of violence , and this one put me to the test.  I think someone should have said something in the packet about the extreme body count and amount of blood this film used in the last 45 minutes.  Up until then, there was a mystery about this town that just experienced the death of their sheriff, and Odenkirk now comes in as the interim sheriff to this place called Normal, but is anything but "normal."  Example: the restaurant owner has loaded guns displaying on all of his walls --- the town just finished collecting millions of dollars to revamp a building --- in this small town?  And then the movie started with a very bloody scene....how is it connected to this town?  Seriously, I would have walked out of the film about 45 minutes into it when I started to watch things (and people) blow up.  But I felt I would have disrupted the movie, and Dave wasn't sitting next to me, so I just sat there, sometimes with my head down.   I got that the violence is so overblown that it is supposed to be laughable, but ....not for me.  I loved the humor (that was about anything not violent or death-related) --- I got the humor --- I applaud the guts this film has --- it probably will do well at the box-office (which will almost do anything these days to get people to come into the theaters) but I am so tired of fighting and guns and blood and the push for revenge and violence without peaceful ways to solve problems that i don't need to see it in films any more.  I don't need to see what a head looks up blown up --- I just don't have the stomach for it, and I'm searching for a different direction to get people into the seats.  But that's just me.  I think a lot of people will "enjoy" this movie, and for all i've said about wanting to walk out, I give this movie a 4 for being out there, different, and trying so hard to entertain.  Just not my type of entertainment.

"NORMAL"      2025       strong R      1 hour and 30 mins

Centers on a temporary small-town sheriff who uncovers dark mysteries after a local bank robbery.

Director;  Ben Wheatley

Writers:  Derek Kolstad, Bob Odenkirk

Actors:  Bob Odenkirk, Ryan Allen, Bill MacLellan, Henry Winkler