★★★★★ | Richard Linklater | In theatres May 31st
What is the moment that an actor becomes a star? For Tom Cruise, it was when he donned the RayBan’s in Top Gun. Will Smith transformed from the Fresh Prince to a bonafide action hero in a single slow-motion shot in Bad Boys. For Glen Powell, that star-making turn is the entirety of Hit Man, a comedy so effortlessly sexy and cool it makes you wonder why we’ve settled for anything less.
Directed by Richard Linklater and co-written by Powell, Hit Man is what you’d call a scoundrel film. Meaning that it’s somewhat loosely inspired by real events, but has no qualms about playing it fast and loose with the facts. Most of this didn’t happen, or if it did, it didn’t happen this way. From the very beginning until the pitch-perfect conclusion, Hit Man knowingly winks at the audience to make sure they’re in on the joke. After all, why let something so boring as the truth get in the way of a good story?
Powell plays Gary, a mild-mannered, socially awkward philosophy teacher who supplements his income by working for the local police wiring undercover cops in sting operations. He’s affable, but unremarkable, and you get the sense that even Gary wouldn’t vouch for himself in most cases. But when Gary is forced to fill in for a sting operation, he discovers that his rich inner life gives him the tools to act out the wildest fantasies possible. Soon, Gary is the go-to fake assassin for all operations, each one more successful than the last. Until one day, when he meets Maddy (Adria Arjona), a young woman wanting to kill her abusive husband, and realises he can’t put her away.
What happens next is both familiar yet surprising. Linklater is a director who has made a career out of both. He’s a connoisseur of people, and understands their quirks and contradictions better than most. In Bernie, he made Jack Black a sympathetic murderer, someone we wanted to win despite our better instincts. He pulls off the same feat in Hit Man, only with even more bravado. By the time we realise how bad the situation has become, we’re so invested in Gary and Maddy that it doesn’t matter. It’s a sleight of hand so slick that if it were a street hustler, Linklater would have robbed us blind.
Yet no matter how great the directing, none of this would work without Powell and Arjona. Their chemistry is tangible from the very first moment, and the duo sells their mutual fascination perfectly. When they first meet, both are pretending to be someone they are not. Naturally, they’re also actors, which means it’s all a performance on top of another. In one of the best scenes of the film, the duo has to put on a show for people listening in, but who cannot see them. On tape, they’re a couple falling apart. In person, they’re lovers coming clean to one another. And one another level, it’s all dangerous foreplay that turns them on. It’s a spectacular showcase of writing, directing, and acting. A steamy, funny, and seductive dance that is reminiscent of Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight.
Hit Man is a marvellous film not just because it’s witty and well made. It’s the kind of picture that everyone says doesn’t get made anymore. This is a comedy that’s made for adults, yet isn’t dire, dark, or violent. It treats its audience like grownups, meaning that it allows us to enjoy the fun and intimacy of flirting and sex. Things we took for granted in the 80s and 90s. It is not a big movie, but it feels grand, because it allows us to get lost in a fully realised fantasy. We want Powell and Arjona to succeed, because somewhere deep down we want to be like them.
In the end, Hit Man‘s greatest strength is suggesting that we can. All we need to do is choose who we want to be. It’s a surprisingly empowering message. Fake it till you make it, or at least until it gets fun.
Toisto 