It’s been a while since a movie felt reverse-engineered to make someone a superstar.
Once upon a time, roughly 30 years ago, they were standard. A film would come along at the right time, with the right director and script, that perfectly harnessed an actor’s talents to the point their stardom was inevitable. Think Tom Cruise in Top Gun, Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, or Denzel Washington in Malcolm X. Sure, they were decently well-known in Risky Business, Steel Magnolias, and Glory, but it was those films that solidified their place in the upper echelon of Hollywood. They remain in that place, partly because their presence is undeniable but mostly because studios prefer safe intellectual property over potentially risky movie stars. And so, the movie star vehicle, where the draw is the non-costumed face on the poster, has been left near-obsolete.
That is why Hit Man is such a surprise. The film is not an original story but an adaptation of Skip Hollandsworth’s 2001 Texas Monthly article about an undercover hitman. However, the film does rely almost exclusively on the talent of its star, Glen Powell. There is no ensemble, fandom, or well-trodden material to hide behind. Audiences will measure the film’s success against how Powell, who also produced and co-wrote it with director Richard Linklater, holds their attention and makes them smile, laugh, and even think. Hollywood has largely abandoned that kind of risk. The question is, does it pay off?
Hit Man follows the life of Gary Johnson (Powell), a homely philosophy professor who assists the police in undercover sting operations. After an incident leaves the police’s regular agent indisposed, Gary steps in to play a hitman for hire. To his surprise and that of his colleagues, Gary excels in playing the part and becomes their new agent. Gary gets to live vicariously through the different personas he could never be in his everyday life. His double life becomes messy when he meets Maddy (Adria Arjona), who tries to hire him to kill her husband. Gary doesn’t take the job but begins an affair with her. It isn’t all steamy bliss, though. His ill-advised romance loosens Gary’s grip over his dual identities and risks everything, including his freedom.
Assessing Hit Man begins and ends with its multi-hyphenate star, Glen Powell. As a producer and writer on the film, he’s in a unique position to craft, alongside Richard Linklater, the perfect package to sell his greatest strengths. Powell has a powerful command of what those are. To start, he is ruthlessly charismatic, with a glint in his eye and a knowing smile that plays exceptionally well on screen. (Considering his scene-stealing turn in Top Gun: Maverick, where he put genuine pressure on the charisma king Tom Cruise.) His flexible but focused presence best fits high-concept stories made accessible because of his affability and relaxed confidence. His smile will probably get you into trouble, but you’re at least guaranteed to have fun.
And Hit Man is near-endless fun, a rollicking thrill ride across the roads of action, comedy, and romance. Powell and Linklater get plenty of humor from the dissonance of a bumbling nerd cosplaying a brutally efficient killer. Powell happily swaps in and out of costumes and accents as Gary works through his marks with different expectations of their assassin. The energy he creates as he channels every archetype, from Toby Keith to Tilda Swinton, is infectious. More than relying on sight gags, Powell links Gary’s faux-criminal exploits to his intellectual interests, particularly around personae. The intelligent choice lends believability to an enjoyable but silly premise and creates a fascinating character journey into which Powell can sink his teeth. He carefully, thoughtfully blurs the defined lines of Gary and his contract killer creation until they’re nearly indistinguishable. Is the assassin the fake personality, or was Gary always the fiction?
The film gets a surprising mileage from its central question. Because Hit Man balances three genres simultaneously, Linklater can fully explore Gary’s shifting personality without being repetitive or overwrought. Just as experimentation enables the comedy, the action and romance are built upon who Gary thinks he can be. His ex-girlfriend’s insinuation that he isn’t a passionate partner encourages him to pursue Maddy. Wrapped in the persona of the relaxed, confident killer, Gary indulges in discovering and affirming his latent sexuality. Powell’s volcanic chemistry with Adria Arjona nearly sets the screen ablaze whenever they look at each other. They are easily one of the year’s most unabashedly sexy pairings. Gary’s emboldened confidence also makes him effective in action, with Powell’s stone-cold smirk sharpening how he handles a gun.
Hit Man finds resolution in a surprising convergence of its genres that also feels thrillingly inevitable. Gary’s choices are life-altering and wild, but their truth makes them, and him, easy to root for (within reason). Glen Powell’s ascent into movie stardom should also be thrillingly inevitable. Crafting a star vehicle for yourself is an audacious gamble when A-listers openly admit they no longer sell movie tickets. However, Powell pulls it off through the sheer force of his malleable talent and his astute assessment of collaborators that can maximize it. Hit Man is one of the year’s most brilliantly entertaining films, a dizzying high point for everyone involved. If movie stardom has any hopes of rebounding, it’ll be because of films like this. Hopefully, Hollywood’s next generation of actors and studios follow Powell’s sterling example.
Hit Man held its North American Premiere as part of the Special Presentations section at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. The film will be released on a date to be determined by Netflix.
Director: Richard Linklater
Writers: Richard Linklater, Glen Powell
Rated: NR
Runtime: 113m
Hit Man finds resolution in a surprising convergence of its genres that also feels thrillingly inevitable. Gary’s choices are life-altering and wild, but their truth makes them, and him, easy to root for (within reason). Glen Powell’s ascent into movie stardom should also be thrillingly inevitable.
-
GVN Rating 9
-
User Ratings (0 Votes)
0
A late-stage millennial lover of most things related to pop culture. Becomes irrationally irritated by Oscar predictions that don’t come true.