Richard Linklater is a director who has been making movies for decades now. He’s done animated movies, comedies, trilogies, movies based on true stories, a film that took twelve years to make, and everything in between. His latest film, Hit Man,  is a mix of action, romance, and comedy. It’s like nothing he’s done before, but it’s a lot of fun that I’m glad to see him get back to in his filmmaking career.

Gary Johnson (Glen Powell) is a philosophy professor by day and a tech analyst for the local New Orleans Police Department by night. When the lead detective in the special undercover unit falls ill, he is tasked with being his replacement.  The problem is that he’s only ever been the man in the van on the other side of the comms system. He’s not excited about the decision his chief has made, but he goes along with the plan anyway. He realizes he is very good at the job and uses it as a way to be a different man than he has always been in his personal life.

Linklater and Powell co-wrote the script based on a Texas Weekly Article by Skip Hollandsworth.  This story is like nothing I’ve seen before. Sure, I’ve watched plenty of undercover cop films, but nothing like this. There is a genuine comedic nature to this story, which when you add the romantic stuff to is a rom-com, but it doesn’t always seem like that. I guess it’s Linklater and Powell’s version of that. It’s a damn good one at that.

When Powell’s character veers off from his job protocol by convincing a woman Madison (Adria Arjona) not to kill her husband he unknowingly sets off a set of events where an alias of his Ron gets into a romantic relationship with Arjona’s character. They hit it off the first time they met and found they both were attracted to one another. This leads to an illegal relationship between a police officer and a suspected criminal to be in. It becomes hot and heavy, though. The duo doesn’t care about the consequences. 

Linklater has assembled a fantastic supporting cast for this rom-com. The undercover Sting crew is plated by Retta, Austin Amelio, and Sanjay Rao. This group has a good resource with one another and enjoys working together. Until one of them gets butt hurt. Which I won’t discuss because it’s a spoiler. The group jokes with each other and keeps things lighthearted in nature, considering their doing serious police work. 

With a character that uses disguises and different aliases, you’re bound to get some interesting character development.  Powell’s character uses disguises and aliases to capture his suspected criminals. He disguises himself as various Hit Men some more straightforward and others more comedic in nature. Most of them are straight out of films that have come out over the years. These sequences were very funny, more often than not. Until the script gets to the main storyline.

There is a juxtaposition within the script that adds a nice layer to the story of the professor trying to be an undercover Hit Man and teach his students about ID & Ego. The layers here are very well written by Linklater and Powell. They balance these two sides of the main character quite nicely. As a philosophy teacher, he has to teach his students about the right and wrong of these two things, but then he is actually doing what he’s trying to teach. It’s a hard place to be in for him, but it makes for a deeper, more layered story to follow along with.

Hit Man is a breath of air compared to a lot of the other films that are being made and produced these days. It has a lighthearted nature to it with a tinge of good old comedy. The romantic stuff is good, but it’s not the crux of the story for me. It’s the dichotomy of this man trying to be two different people and trying to decide which is better or are both equally important to who he truly is as a man. Linklater and Powell do a great job with the script, which is the bedrock that this movie sits on. That foundation is why this is such a good film. Those two are a great team, as evidenced by Everybody Wants Some and this film, and I hope to see them work together again very soon. This was a bright spot in a year that has been on the slower side for quality films thus far. 

4 stars

Dan Skip Allen