My boy Rick did it again! Everybody Wants Some!! jump started the new phase of Richard Linklater’s career. That movie gave him a host of young hot new talent to put into his movies…including the meteoric movie star on the rise, Glen Powell. Powell and Linklater prove a potent Texas Dynamo with Hit Man, a swing for both of them that works because of their collective talents hopefully the two continue to bring out in each other for years to come.
Powell plays Gary Johnson. On the surface, Johnson is a forgettable philosophy professor in New Orleans, going home to bird watch and take care of his cats. His tech skills hobby gets him out of the house helping the police execute sting operations on desperate people trying to kills someone they hate. After undercover cop Jasper (Austin Amelio) gets put on desk duty, Claudette (Retta) has Gary step in to be the “hitman,” and finds his calling. Everything goes swimmingly until Maddy Masters (Adria Arjona, also on the rise) walks in, and becomes infatuated with “Ron,” the latest hitman Gary is playing.
I’ve heard others say Hit Man is Richard Linklater’s Out of Sight, not a bad comparison. But when someone as special as Linklater gets his hands around a compelling story like this, he rises above comparison into his own thing. Linklater somehow fuses a screwball comedy, a romcom, and a crime thriller/film noir into something completely different and exciting. All of those genres work in harmony thanks to Linklater’s able direction, keeping the tone consistent, sexy and fun the whole way through. And, because this is a Linklater movie, we also go a step deeper into human analysis through a college philosophy course subplot: can a person change? And if they can, how long does it take? Is there an objective reality/truth? Only in a Rick Linklater movie would our hitman and his paramour be paralleled with a Nietzsche college course, but character development like that is what makes a movie like Hit Man so much more interesting than any other crime thriller or romcom could offer the audience.
But Hit Man is co-written by Glen Powell, the other half of Hit Man’s successful equation. While Rick was focusing on staging and tonal consistency, Powell focused on the depth of the human condition…and a bit on how to Rocky himself. Of all the starmaking work he’s done, I would wager Powell is most satisfied with his portrayal of Gary Johnson. Or, should I say, all the Gary Johnsons. We get to see all the little character work Powell can do inhabiting each different hitman needed for the various sting operations Gary finds himself in. And in the rest of the movie, he’s really dual roleing as a nerdy philosophy professor and “Ron”, the sexy confident hitman of Maddy’s dreams…who slowly start to fuse together as the movie goes along. Powell’s helped by Adria Arjona, who proves the perfect foil for him: a blank slate seemingly innocent woman, completely turned on by this new man in her life instilling confidence back into herself. The pair are electric together, dancing around each other dangerously so both feel alive as ever in each other’s orbit. And it was nice to see Powell/Linklater throw fellow baseball bro Austin Amelio a really juicy fun part to sink his teeth into to help supercharge the third act plot.
I hope Hit Man means we’re on the precipice of years of Glen Powell/Richard Linklater collaborations. In addition, I hope the Linklater orbit continues to grow: the next one Hawke plays Powell’s crazy uncle. After that, Adria Arjona and Zoey Deutch could play in a fun love triangle romcom with Powell. What I’m trying to say is let Richard Linklater tell more stories. All he does is make bangers!