Of the indie directors to come out of the 1990’s, Richard Linklater might be the hardest to attach a label to. He doesn’t have Steven Soderbergh’s visual style or Quentin Tarantino’s inventive storytelling skills or even Kevin Smith’s ability to write a great scene. But, if there was any director from this class I think I would like working with if I was an actor, it would be Linklater. Because the man is a true and selfless collaborator.
In his great movies, of which there are many, the Texas filmmaker works hand in hand with his onscreen talent to create the best possible product. In many of Linklater’s films, the actor has a screenwriting credit, which shows you exactly how much he wants the input of his talent. And then there is Boyhood, in which he worked with his three principal actors over the course of a dozen years to truly show the experience of growing up.
In Hit Man, his newest film now available on Netflix, Linklater teams up with Glen Powell, and it’s possible there isn’t a more in demand actor to be working with right now. Powell, himself a Texan who got an early break in Linklater’s Fast Food Nation and appears in his fourth film from the director, is in line to have a huge 2024, having starred in the box office success Anyone But You and preparing to be on every IMAX screen in America when Twisters comes out next month. But I bet this is the film he will most want to be remembered for this year. Because he seems to be having a ball in Hit Man, and he is really great in it.
Powell, who has a screenwriting credit on the film, plays Gary Johnson, a man stuck in a rut until he begins helping the New Orleans police department by pretending to be a hit man in order to catch people in their attempted murder plots. Johnson, loosely based a real person, realizes that the only thing people know about paid killers is what they have seen in television and movies, so he transforms himself into the trope of a hired gunman in order to make himself more believable. It’s a blast watching Powell don a series of wigs and costumes as he plays a man who is playing a series of other men. It’s a pretty deft touch of acting, because we watch Gary really enjoy becoming these other people all while still being convincing. Unfortunately, for Gary, it goes too far when he meets Maddie, a woman who he convinces to not have her husband killed. Gary not only falls deeply for Maddie but also for the hitman that she believes he is.
Maddie is played by Adria Arjona, and as good as Powell is in this movie, she might be even better. We watch her transform from a scared woman trying to get out of a bad relationship into a woman enjoying her newfound freedom to a person who gets sucked into the fantasy of sharing her bed with a man who could kill anyone she wants. The actress can go from femme fatale to wide-eyed doe in the matter of a few frames, and it never feels forced or false in any regard.
And throughout all of Hit Man, we have Linklater’s skilled craft as a filmmaker and storyteller. This is an outrageous story, but it never feels forced or too unbelievable. Linklater knows how to use his talent to tell an absolutely wild story, but that shouldn’t surprise us. He’s been doing that his whole career.
Hit Man– 9.1/10
I was surprised that I have seen all of Richard Linklater’s movies. I was not surprised by how many of them are absolutely stellar. Here are my official Linklater rankings:
- Before Sunset
- Boyhood
- A Scanner Darkly
- Before Midnight
- Dazed And Confused
- Before Sunrise
- Waking Life
- School Of Rock
- Hit Man
- Everybody Wants Some!!!
- Slacker
- Apollo 10 1/2
- Fast Food Nation
- Bernie
- The Newton Boys
- SubUrbia
- Last Flag Flying
- Tape
- Me & Orson Welles
- The Bad New Bears
- Where’d You Go, Bernadette?
Fancy Boys Club 