I’m not doing the “it’s a hit…man” joke.

There’s a certain kind of soul death in cinephiles that occurs when Netflix acquires a major summer movie from a beloved auteur filmmaker and seems all but set on burying it instead of giving it a proper theatrical release; in the now seemingly eternal release war between streaming and theatrical movie exhibition (and don’t get me started on the “windowing” problem), the worst thing a service can do is not allow a film deserving of buzz to generate that word-of-mouth by playing on a bunch of silver screens nationwide, especially after the service itself failed to properly market that film to a wider audience, leaving it to the filmmakers, stars, and critics who saw the movie to generate interest seemingly on their own. After all, wouldn’t it be better for a film that was greenlit to get eyes on a service to debut theatrically – the way it was meant to be seen – and then for the service to later offer people a chance to watch that film again, exclusively on their platform? Sure, this wouldn’t need to be the case for all streaming projects, but it should have been for Richard Linklater’s new movie, Hit Man, which stars Glen Powell and Adria Arjona (among others), and is based on the true crime Texas Monthly Article of the same name by Skip Hollandsworth. (It is at this point I must tell you that, deservedly, the film seems to be a hit for Netflix, but I still contend it was not Netflix that made it so.)
 
The plot herein focuses on Gary (Powell), a college English professor whose unique skill set in all things electronic ultimately leads to him working undercover with the New Orleans Police Department, who just had their number one undercover operative in stings suspended for overuse of force. Given his interest in human behavior, they ask Gary to take the lead on one sting operation involving solicitation for murder; after discovering he has a natural talent for these encounters, he becomes the department’s go-to guy, a fake hit man who tailors his personas to the specific individuals he meets, and always gets the confession. But things change when he meets Madison (Arjona) on the job, and she threatens to alter not only his perception of objective reality, but of himself. To say too much else would be venturing into spoiler territory, but the kind of fun this movie has isn’t what I’d call spoil-able.
 
Richard Linklater operates in a few different modes: there are the contemplative, existential time-piece modes of the Before Trilogy and Boyhood, there are the “hangout” modes of films like Dazed and Confused and Everybody Wants Some, and there are the more commercially-oriented modes, most famously the 2003 film School of Rock. I’m not entirely sure where Hit Man falls amongst these modes, but I do know that it feels every bit like the Linklater mode of those latter three, a breezy time with snappy dialogue and characters we want to keep hanging out with because they’re just so much fun to be around. Sure, it moves more, it has more of a plot and story than those others, but it still feels very much like a quasi-“hangout” film; it’s just that instead of hanging out with a bunch of different people, or a specific group, we’re chilling with a specific individual – Glen Powell – and he’s a lot of fun to be around. A lot of that feeling is aided by the film’s zippy editing, which is paired with a very fun, dialogue-heavy script by Powell and Linklater, in a perfect matrimony of pacing and character that allows the viewer to jump right in at any point and exit at any time they have to; crucially, however, you never want to. And that is not simply because of a few fantastic set-pieces (a notes app scene comes to mind) or some genuinely tension-filled moments, but in all truth, because of one entirely too charismatic performer.
 
Yes, the key sell of Hit Man is not the snappy Linklater-Powell dialogue, the direction, or even the characters themselves, but the spectacle of watching Glen Powell simply be a true blue movie star for two hours, which is not an easy thing to do. Powell has always been a great actor, but after taking the Tom Cruise crash course in how to be a movie star, his version of that is out in full force; you can see it in Top Gun: Maverick, for all the film’s issues you could still see it in Anyone But You, and you can definitely see it here. This kind of part is perfect for an actor like him; he gets to show off a little range with every persona he adopts, culminating in Ron, the coolest guy on Earth. This is also in perfect lock-step with Adria Arjona’s Madison, the only one who can match Ron’s freak, who starts off a little shy but soon transforms into the hottest woman on Earth for the same two hours. All of this may seem like an oversimplification of what the movie has to offer its audience, but in all truth, the movie really is that simple. There’s nothing exceptionally deep or complex about it in the way that something like Before Sunset or Boyhood offer; it’s really just about Glen Powell and Adria Arjona being movie stars, Powell in particular. His sheer charisma carries the film on its back all the way to the finish line. My only complaint in this regard is that because the film moves so fast, we don’t really get to spend enough time with his initial persona of Gary, which to my mind, is when Powell gets to be funniest (apart from a great montage in the first half hour).
 
If the film has flaws, the side characters do leave a bit to be desired. Powell and Arjona are great, ditto to the singular excellent supporting character played by Austin Amelio, but the others don’t so much feel like characters in and of themselves as they do like set-up fodder for our main stars to do their thing. The performances are good, but the performers themselves don’t have much of an opportunity to embody something more fully realized. To be fair, one doesn’t need every side character in a movie like this to be a memorable piece of a pretty light puzzle, but it doesn’t hurt either.
 
In the end, there’s not a lot to say about Hit Man beyond that it’s just a damn good time and a lot of fun to watch. The script is clever, the dialogue and editing are pretty close to perfect, and most importantly, it gives Glen Powell the movie star part he deserves and Adria Arjona a massive career boost. This one really should be seen in a theater with an audience, but since Netflix is just gonna keep dropping the ball on that, at least checking it out would be worth your time.
 
I’m giving “Hit Man” an 8.6/10
 
- The Friendly Film Fan

What is the overriding philosophy of The Gray Man? Even almost a week after seeing the film for the first time, I can’t discern what the movie is trying to say – if anything – or what the point of it all is supposed to be. In Top Gun: Maverick, it’s to celebrate how cool aviation is. In Pacific Rim, it’s to showcase how cool robot vs. monster fights can look. In The Gray Man…see what I mean? Yes, The Gray Man is an action movie directed by the Russo Brothers (of MCU fame), so its action sequences largely stand out as its greatest asset, but beyond those set pieces, it doesn’t ultimately seem to have an identity or goal beyond “showcase the Russo Brothers outside of the MCU.” The simple spy thriller framework would work on its own, sure, but the ensemble cast is largely taking things too seriously for there not to be something more to the convoluted narrative, which features so many twists and turns, it’s a wonder the whole thing doesn’t ultimately end up being some sort of bad-movie-within-a-movie plot device. Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans are clearly having fun with what the movie actually is, but everyone else seems to be more or less in line with what the movie thinks it is. Even the incomparable Ana de Armas seems far more misdirected here than she was in No Time to Die, another a spy thriller in which she has significantly less screen-time.
 
You’ve heard the phrase a million times before: “turn your brain off.” Oft used in contexts wherein people shut down the analysis segment of their thoughts during a film or show in order to enjoy something purely as entertainment, the phrase has been uttered by many a moviegoer when someone within earshot complains that a certain kind of tentpole film (typically in the action genre) lacks the substance necessary for them to truly consider it good or even worth revisiting at all somewhere down the line. The Jurassic World franchise, Legendary’s Monsterverse – even some sects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe – have fallen into this purview a few times, as has much of Netflix’s general slate of action cinema. And, to be sure, there are plenty of films that exist that don’t require deeper thought or further analysis beyond what’s literally happening on screen at a given time and still work quite a lot on those terms. Pacific Rim doesn’t bother to explore how the multi-national cooperation of an entire Jaeger strike force affects the overall economic state of the world, or whether the monsters coming from the Pacific floor are really just looking for a new home; it’s simply about enormous robots punching giant monsters in the face, and occasionally hitting them with a cargo ship acting as a makeshift baseball bat. Hell, even the excellent Top Gun: Maverick doesn’t exactly stand up to scrutiny when one considers the international geopolitical world in which it operates, something that it’s not-so-subtle about not addressing; then again, Top Gun has never really been about that, just skilled pilots dogfighting in fast planes. These two aforementioned films could both fit into a “turn your brain off” categorization because their very natures don’t require the viewer to think about more intricate subtexts beyond the story being told. However, what these films do have are clear stakes, a set of goals for their characters to accomplish, and motivations that allow the audience to get on board with the mission hoping to be accomplished. The Gray Man doesn’t have these – not really.
 
This has been an ongoing problem for Netflix with their action filmography. The action is good, often great, and easily the best part of the film, but nothing else is given as much attention due to the way that many of Netflix’s hits are algorithmically-generated to get maximum possible engagement with as little possible effort. It’s one of the reasons why they’ve decided to stop producing “vanity projects” like The Irishman or Roma in favor of quicker, slightly more expensive but ultimately higher viewer-count projects. If Netflix can keep a viewer on its service who thinks seeing a decent-if-not-great action film from a couple Avengers directors is better than going out to the theater for a movie they’re not guaranteed to like, that’s the route they’ll take. To that end, The Gray Man will likely do very well on Netflix when it hits on July 22. But beyond boosting subscriber numbers and getting Ryan Gosling back into the movie fold, it doesn’t really seem to have an end goal in mind.
 
The film also suffers from what seems to be the Achilles heel of the Russo Brothers outside of the MCU, if 2 for 2 can be counted as a pattern – rather than “less is more,” more is more. The Russo Bros directed the biggest movie of all time – Avengers: Endgame – to unprecedented success, and anyone who’s seen that film is more than aware of how huge an event it was. Three hours long and containing almost every callback, easter egg, reference, and tease that could fit, it is very much fits the idea of throwing everything at the screen, a “more is more” philosophy. The difference between that and The Gray Man is that Avengers is big by necessity; if you’re wrapping up a 22-film saga you’ve been building since 2008 and hoping to craft a truly proper sendoff, you don’t want to leave anything on the table. But with The Gray Man, it’s as if they can’t seem to help themselves by just taking the table with them. So much is happening all the time that any characters outside the big three (Gosling, Evans, Armas) can only operate as mouthpieces and plot drivers based on the needs of the script. Even poor Julia Butters and Billy Bob Thornton – both excellent performers with solid resumes and presumably added greatness to come – are wasted here as simple exposition dumpers and plot devices. They’re hardly characters at all.
 
In the end, The Gray Man may satisfy those hoping for a simple action flick with some dynamic performances and a decent sense of pace, but I grow increasingly weary of Netflix’s “more is more” style overriding what might otherwise be something fun if only as much effort were put into their scripts as was put into their bottom line. Gosling and Evans are clearly here for what the film is, but it continues to get in its own way, trying its hardest to be generic when it doesn’t have to be. If Netflix truly wants to reclaim its title as the leading subscription service for quality content of all varieties, it’s going to have to start making better content (and giving auteurs like Scorsese and Noah Baumbach their funding back).
 
I’m giving “The Gray Man” a 6.5/10
 
- The Friendly Film Fan