Hit Man
All silly Glen Powell personas are good Glen Powell personas.
Hit Man, directed by Richard Linklater, was acquired by Netflix all the way back in September of 2023 after the film's debut at the Toronto International Film Festival. Now after almost a full year, the film saw a limited release on May 24, 2024, which was shortly followed by its release on Netflix on June 7, 2024.
Richard Linklater’s films bleed cool. They operate under one tonal stipulation, chill attitudes and hearty performances (which I realize is technically two, I didn't graduate with a math degree), by which Hit Man certainly abides. Co-written by Linklater and lead actor Glen Powell (his first writing credit on a feature film, fyi), this rom-com with a tinge of murder mystery follows the (somewhat) true story of Gary Johnson, a part time philosophy professor who moonlights as a fake hit man for the New Orleans Police Department. The performances are cool, the music is suave, and the cinematography is chilled, culminating in a fun-if-not-simple movie that is well worth a watch.
Let’s cut straight to it, Glen Powell is a bona-fide star. Even his performance as “birder” philosophy nerd Gary Johnson carries a certain amount of aura on screen. His unbelievably chiseled face just screams superstar, if not a typical, clean cut version of one. This effect is only compounded as the film places Powell into the most outrageous caricatures imaginable, including some especially memorable renditions of Christian Bale’s Patrick Bateman, Tilda Swinton, and a wonderfully over the top country bumpkin redneck.
The movie is roughly two parts comedy to one part romance. The romance between Powell and co-star Adria Arjona is palpable, don’t get me wrong, but the comedy just oozes from every scene. The screenplay is filled with great punchlines (including some especially good jorts related humor) but a lot of the comedy comes from Powell’s use of facial expression. I mean it when I say there are a handful of facial expressions in this movie that convey more humor than a lot of studio comedies over the last few years.
The two leads are obviously fantastic, Arjona is great as the complicated Madison Masters, but instead of the film only resting on these performances, we are provided with a well rounded supporting cast of characters as well. Retta’s and Sanjay Rao’s characters Claude and Phil provide an immensely entertaining comedic one two punch to complement the stars, while Austin Amelio’s snivelling turn as Lester provides a scummy enough foil that we are not lost on who we should be rooting against.
Despite the film's narrative being relatively fundamental — “Guy-finds-himself-in-an-increasingly-dangerous-web-of-lies-that-revolves-around-a-love-interest-which-explodes-in-his-face” kind of fundamental — I found it to be a satisfying story that unfurls and tightens its own web to force characters into interesting and tense situations. And when the performances are as charismatic as they are in this film, simply placing characters in interesting situations works to great effect.
Linklater fascinates me as he seems to be the epitome of a meat-and-potatoes mentality of filmmaking. Outside of his more temporally innovative films such as Boyhood and his upcoming film Merrily we Roll Along (both being filmed over many years), there are no dazzling set pieces, insane visual effects, complicated camera movements, yet every decision made is the right one. The color pallets, pacing, music, brief instances of visual storytelling by using street signs of all things, are exactly what the film needs, and nothing else. It's Linklater’s simple creativity, his almost gentle command of knowing exactly what will contribute to the best version of his film that makes him a fantastic director. Not everyone will understand this allegory, but I believe he might be the Tim Duncan of cinema.
However, If I could lodge a complaint, it would be not at the film itself, but at its distributor, Netflix. How does a film made by Richard Linklater — an established director with multiple classics under his belt — and starring Glen Powell — one of if not THE biggest rising stars in Hollywood — get shelved for almost an entire year, only to get a limited release two weeks before it hits streaming? If you want to take notes on how to kill all of the buzz surrounding your movie, take notes on how Netflix handled this film's release.
A film like this deserves a long and healthy life cycle in a theater, where it can provide a comedic respite from the heat of the summer, or a warm romance to help through the cold of winter. Instead, Netflix played it safe and sent it virtually straight to streaming because they seemingly refuse to put their movies in theaters (shades of the Glass Onion release) in order to pigeonhole audiences into buying a subscription. Even though they continue to make it more difficult to obtain said subscription with hiked prices and limited account sharing. For a movie that starts with a message about living life dangerously, it is overwhelmingly ironic that Netflix is one of the tamest and least risky entities in the film industry right now. Ultimately, it remains obvious that Netflix is not interested in theatrical exhibition even if it's to the great detriment of mass audiences, and that will certainly not change as long as the money is right.
I apologize for getting on my soapbox, but I had to get that off my chest. Ultimately, this film works well because the charisma on screen is coupled with a witty and tight screenplay, unsurprisingly producing a movie that hits all the right buttons. It's a hot, clever, fun black comedy that will be sure to tickle you while enveloping you in a contagious romance.
Overall Grade:
