It was Richard Linklater who first saw what the whole human race is now seeing in Glen Powell . He capitalized on the actor ’s embryonic star power — his beach - body just flavor and ace comic timing — way back in 2016 with the shaggy-coated campus hangout movieEverybody Wants Some!!So it have sense that the cocksure Texas heartthrob fromAnyone but YouandTop Gun : Maverickwould reunite with the director to mastermind his ideal star vehicle , a display case for the absolute Cruisian personal appeal that Hollywood ask nearly a X to fully comprehend . That ’s the sly meta dimension of this idiosyncratic funniness : What we ’re watching , in more ways than one , is a self - actualization story — a portrait of a man read life by the horns and becoming who he really wants to be .
dispatch Man , which transports this “ somewhat true history ” from Texas to New Orleans , get some amusingly broad costume chest humor out of Johnson ’s habit of fit his alter egotism to the expectations of his marks . For Powell , this is a fortune to do his bestEddie Murphyor Mike Myers and show off his repertoire ofSNLcaricatures . With the assistance of wigs and fake tooth , Gary becomes all manner of decoy lunatic and degenerate : a loom Russian thug , an oily American psycho , a fey British killer with Tilda Swinton vibe . In truth , the “ real ” Gary — a easy - talk intellectual with two cats and no dirty money — comes across a bit like a costume , too . There ’s something ratherShe ’s All Thatabout expecting a textbook lump like Glen Powell to disappear under glasses and a bad haircut .
Powell is much more convincing as “ Ron , ” the smooth lady - slayer persona Gary invents to trammel Madison ( Adria Arjona ) , a escape accompaniment convinced that slaying might be the only agency to get out from under her opprobrious , genitive husband . The pair ’s rendezvous at a local diner has the flirtatious charge of a meet precious ; the two have such instant interpersonal chemistry that they forget , for a moment , the grave purpose of their clash . Gary will nudge her away from slaying - for - hire , then fall into a steamy relationship with his sucker — a torrid love affair build on his geek - to - smart blind . Powell and Arjona generate a supernova of heat between them , his fabricated swagger trigger with her sexy merriment . Their scenes are like a transmission from a hotter epoch of crowd - pleasers — a bygone old age when Hollywood moving-picture show still seek to turn the audience on .
There ’s a refreshing unpredictability toHit Man . Like its master character , the movie retain twist itself into surprising unexampled forms . Gary , a not - so - around the bend prof getting in spot with his interior Buddy Love , end up drag in a connection of compounding complicatedness involve Madison ’s bad hubby and a workfellow / fellow underground broker played by Powell’sEverybody Wants Some!!co - star Austin Amelio . ( The case thespian , who also had a important recurring role onThe Walking Dead , makes a splendid meal out of this stock dirtbag cop character . ) The built-in pleasure of any three-fold - life movie is watch the con artist attempt to maintain their con , andHit Mancertainly delivers on that promise as Gary and Ron ’s macrocosm come precariously close to collide .
As with Linklater ’s earlierBernie , starring Jack Black as the sweetest murderer you could ever come across , the inspiration here is aTexas Monthlyarticle by Skip Hollandsworth . Hit Manarguably make an even stronger case for accuracy being stranger than fiction . It ’s also , in some ways , an even darker comedy . Beneath the moving picture ’s cheery , slimly flat sitcom aesthetic ( this is far from Linklater ’s most vibrantly shot picture ) lie down a portraiture of an America all too uncoerced to entertain daydreams of crimson payback . That extends to Arjona ’s Madison , who ’s undeniably aroused by the thought of sleep with a killer . And to Gary himself : He may not really be a hit man , but there ’s something faintly sociopathic about the ease in which this keen observer of human psychology steps into each new identity . The wish - fulfillment fantasy of an egghead undergo a not - to - raging makeover has a deliberately sour aftertaste . What we ’re seeing is the triumphant story of someone transforming their life by embracing their black side .
There ’s one really great fit in the movie : an undercover operation that becomes a glorious threefold performance , as Gary ultimately gains a willing shot partner and an act of deception becomes a form of foreplay . It ’s at once tense and joyously playful — a kinky dance with the gamey of stake . Here , and maybe only here , does Linklater achieve the full promise of his assumption . Screwball noir is sometimes an fallible scene for an creative person of such position - back sensibility . Starting the flick with a lecturing on Nietzsche — one of a few classroom vista that provide this account with a running academic commentary — betrays the tangible concern of a bohemian cinematic philosopher more high on ideas than drama .
There are times whenHit Manfeels a bit dissever against itself , where it seems caught between the buzz of a spinning top mainstream capriole and something knottier and more serious-minded . Then again , possibly that ’s just in keeping with the nature of its chief character , a cast - gearstick who discovers that the “ real ” him is changeable , adjustable , not set in stone . One matter ’s for sure : This is the leading - homo political program that has evade Powell for too long — an opportunity to show off the smoldering , thoroughly - humor cowboy magnetism that should have made him a movie star years ago . WithHit Man , he ’s finally taken the topic into his own hands . And like Gary , he ’s put his best Ron forward .
