HIT MAN at New York Film Festival
by Jason Godbey
Gary Johnson (Glen Powell) is a professor who teaches the principles of Carl Jung to college students for his day job, but he moonlights as a tech guy for the police department listening in on their sting operations as they attempt to catch would-be murder-for-hire criminals. Everything changes for Johnson when the detective who usually plays the hitman is suspended due to conduct unbecoming. Gary then has to step into the role and does so with shocking results.
As Gary starts playing the hitman more and more, he really gets into it. He does research on the would-be criminals to create each hitman character to order. He wears costumes, speaks in different accents, and quickly starts racking up the arrests. All is going well until he meets Madison (Adria Arjona), a beautiful, young woman who wants Gary to kill her husband. Gary who meets her as Ron, (one of the hitman personas he’s created), feels for her, talks her out of her plan to assassinate her husband and tells her she should take the money she would have paid him and use it to start over.
From there all sorts of hijinks ensue. Gary and Madison become involved with Gary getting deeper and deeper into character. Ron is everything Gary isn’t, cool, well-dressed, confident, and Madison falls hard for the bad boy persona. Linklater paints a picture of many colors and tones and blends them together masterfully in this quirky, dark, sexy comedy with some clever twists and turns that will keep you guessing.
Powell and Arjona give star-making performances. Powell shows off his range through all the personas Gary creates, and Arjona is just magnetic, sexy, devious, charming, and funny. You won’t be able to take your eyes off her. The chemistry between her and Powell is electric from the moment they meet on screen.
Above all Hit Man is fun-filled with colorful characters, witty banter, and sexy situations. It’s a darkly funny romantic comedy that plays on all the right tropes of the hitman and rom-com genres. Hit Man made its US premiere at the New York Film Festival and will play again at the festival on October 7th, and is slated to stream on Netflix sometime next year.
Originally published at https://behindtherabbitproductions.wordpress.com on October 5, 2023.
