#MovieReview: Meet Houston’s most successful assassin who has never fired a gun
A perfect companion movie to 'Hit Man' is Linklater's black comedy 'Bernie,' both tackling dark subject matter with a slyly humorous approach.
Hit Man is the most light-hearted movie about contract killing you are likely to see this year.
Directed by Richard Linklater, the film is based on the incredible true story of Gary Johnson, a Texas ‘hitman for hire’ who was actually working with the police.
In order to convict people who were planning an assassination, someone had to pose as the cold-blooded killer, get the solicitation on tape and collect the money.
Up stepped Johnson, who was hired for dozens of ‘hits’ in Houston throughout the 90s and early 2000s.
While his situation was not unique, Johnson became known for his ability to become the person the client expected him to be, fitting in with thugs and high society alike.
You can read the full story on which the film is based in an excellent 2001 Texas Monthly article by Skip Hollandsworth which can be easily found online.
That is the jumping off point for HitMan, which stars Glen Powell as Johnson in a career-best performance that has solidified his A-list status.
He is hilarious in the role and, of course, in the many roles he inhabits during the hitman hiring process, from growling gangster to soft-spoken sniper.
It is a role Powell has been building towards for years, since his first big part with Linklater in Everybody Wants Some.
He has been equally good in rom-coms like Set it Up and action blockbusters like Top Gun: Maverick, and now has the chance to lead his own movies.
And who better to do it with than Linklater – the king of writing real-feeling characters whose laid back nature never falters in heightened circumstances.
Hit Man is the perfect example of that, particularly when the film spirals into fiction and leaves the true story of Johnson far behind.
Things go awry, sure, but there is never a sense that something dreadful is going to happen.
These are people making the best of the situations they have fallen backwards into.
A perfect companion movie to Hit Man is Linklater’s excellent but underseen black comedy Bernie from 2011.
Both tackle slyly dark subject matter but never fail to make you laugh.
Watch Hit Man in cinemas for the next few weeks or wait for it to hit Netflix on June 7.
Rated 16 for Violence, Language and Sex.
4/5.
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