Jonah Naplan   June 1, 2024

Richard Linklater’s newest movie, “Hit Man,” is so many things. It’s a thriller that uses showman’s pacing and tension to ratchet up suspense through characters. It’s a comedy by way of the witty jokes and increasingly funny and awkward scenarios our protagonist finds himself in. It’s a romance that dives deep into the sexy camaraderie between two refugees of ethics and morality. And it’s a drama that explores how one man struggles to find his own identity amidst a job that requires him to assume so many. That it manages to be all of these things at once, balancing opposing genres while still being massively entertaining, is a miracle, despite a couple of plot contrivances and a lack of narrative credibility in the second half. Luckily, Linklater is the right man for the job, and star Glen Powell is a surefire hit (after back-to-back successes in “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Anyone But You,” this is certainly his best and most thoughtful work yet). “Hit Man” will be released for mass audiences on Netflix on June 7th, but is undergoing a limited theatrical run as we speak. If you can catch this delightful movie in a theater, don’t miss your shot.

The film follows Gary Johnson (Powell), a New Orleans college professor who tends to a side-job completing small tasks for the police department. When the NOPD’s regular hit man Jasper (Austin Amelio) gets suspended for 120 days on charges regarding his violence against a group of teenagers, Gary is forced to take his place. Surprisingly, he steps into the role of hit man with immediate poise, and pretty soon he’s got local goons handing over the cash by verbal persuasion alone. An opening scene convinces us of his prowess; in meeting with a potentially dangerous man (Mike Markoff), Gary details the entire process through which he’d typically dispose of a body as a “professional killer”—a completely BS anecdote about the discarding of a victim’s fingertips particularly impresses Gary’s vassals stowed away in the surveillance van, played by Retta and Sanjay Rao.

And Gary is completely committed to the bit. Realizing that everyone’s expectation and idea of what a hit man should be like is a little bit different, he researches each client in advance and then suits himself to each job according to his findings. One day he’s a bandanna-festooned, all-American southerner, and the next he’s a British gentleman with an accent and a bowl-cut. Everything’s going swimmingly until he has a diner consultation with a desperate but strong young woman named Madison (Adria Arjona), who has hired Ron (as Gary’s been named on this particular job) to kill her abusive ex-husband. But instead of doing business, the two fall for each other almost immediately, and Gary/Ron repurposes Madison’s hit man payments to help build a better life for herself. Without telling her who he really is, the two start to go out on dates, have sex, and become closer emotionally, breaking all the rules of Gary’s profession.

Powell and Arjona have lightning chemistry with one another, creating a dynamic that fizzes and bangs in directions you might not expect. The screenplay by Linklater and Powell, himself, trusts the audience enough to not reveal everything to them at first, allowing us to keep guessing throughout the entire movie. Where it all leads will be the real point of debate and discussion here, as will the symbolism of Gary and Madison’s characters. The former is struggling to figure out how to identify with himself, despite teaching his students how to navigate that very subject, while the latter can’t seem to settle on what she truly wants in life, and whenever she thinks she’s decided on something, she immediately regrets her pursuit. The two are a perfect match. Scenes in which these characters discuss their lives and passions are some of the most purely cinematic of the year. Linklater makes the smart decision to take this central relationship in directions you couldn’t foresee even if it was standing right in front of you.

People have already referred to “Hit Man” as a cinematic “reinvention” picture, and a film that belongs, in spirit, to a golden era of movies stuffed with other flicks that Hollywood “don’t make ‘em like anymore.” In the abstract, “Hit Man” could certainly be viewed in this regard, being that it presents one of the most original premises in years, and successfully combines so many genres into one charming package, all under the hood of a big movie star whose attractive features and strong build powers the whole darn machine (on top of starring in the movie physically, Powell also narrates the story like the shady protagonist of a noir). There’s a certain commitment to the craft of entertainment here that’s often been lacking in modern movies, and taking a painful look at how many great films as of recently have been thrown under the bus of poor box office performance begs the question of just how successful the iconic movies of the 90s and early 2000s would actually be if released today.

“Hit Man” has its issues, to be sure. Powell is a consistently endearing screen presence, but he can’t exactly convince us of the nerdy side of his personality, being that he soars so well with the intricacies of the suave womanizer he’s built for himself. And the narrative starts to crumble in the second half of the film as the movie shifts from a sort of compendium of situational comedy to a darker, more intense thriller with lots of twists and turns that are admirably daring for a filmmaker whose prior work has focused on the simple joys of life, serving up all kinds of plot holes and questions of how logical it would be for a certain character to make this choice or that.

And yet the movie never becomes too insufferably convoluted because we’re just so entertained by these characters and their plights. In the end, it all comes down to whether or not we’re still rooting for Gary and Madison by the film’s coda, and the answer turns out to be “yes.” That’s what really matters, and that’s what you’ll really take away from it. Gather some friends and sit back to enjoy the ride.

Now playing in select theaters. “Hit Man” will be available on Netflix on June 7th.