Richard Linklater, the esteemed director behind School of Rock, the blockbusting Jack Black movie of 2004, has reached another peak in his career. His latest movie, Hit Man, distributed by Netflix, has received glowing critical acclaim following its recent arrival.
Hit Man stars Glen Powell in a movie somewhat unrelated to School of Rock. Instead of children with guitars, this movie focuses on hired killers with guns. Powell portrays the titular pseudo-assassin, Gary Johnson, in a gritty and eternally gripping plot.
Johnson is a professor of psychology and philosophy at the University of New Orleans by day and a killer by night. According to the official synopsis, he is a morally virtuous hit man who assists the NOLA police. After a series of dicey events, he “descends into dangerous, dubious territory when he finds himself attracted to a woman who enlists his services.”
Linklater worked on the screenplay alongside Glen Powell, which was based on Skip Hollandsworth’s novel of the same name. Alongside the writing pair, Mike Blizzard, Jason Bateman, and Michael Costigan co-produced the picture. Meanwhile, Adria Arjona, Austin Amelio, and Retta head up the talented cast alongside Powell.
The movie premiered last September in Venice but only arrived on Netflix on June 7th. Since then, streamers have taken to social media and rating sites to express their approval. At present, the movie has an impressive audience score of 93 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Therefore, the movie is certified Fresh, with critics giving it an even healthier score of 97 per cent. Of course, the movie has yet to complete the rounds. The scores so far are combined from a relatively small contingent of reviews. As the reviews continue to pour in over the coming days and weeks, the percentages can be expected to change. However, these scores are a promising start.
Throughout Linklater’s career, he has demonstrated his directional skills in an eclectic array of movies. Following his breakout success with Dazed and Confused in 1993, he went on to direct a trilogy of romance movies: Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight. Concurrently, he worked on adult animations Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly and Apollo 10 ½ A Space Age Childhood.
