Glen Powell finds a star-making turn as Gary Johnson/"Ron" in Hit Man . Matt Lankes/Netflix hide caption It seems the film industry's reputation is in a perpetual state of lament. They don’t make them like they used to can be and often is applied to movie stars, special effects, non-franchise screenplays, erotic thrillers, rom-coms.
There's validity to these concerns, though every now and then a new movie comes along with a strong whiff of throwback energy – deliberate yet breezy pacing, crackling banter that’s at once contemporary and timeless, and a performance that convinces you a star's been born right here in this moment on screen. And with it comes the warm reminder that they still can make them like they used to, and sometimes still do. Richard Linklater's sexy, nihilistic comedy Hit Man is one of those movies.
Glen Powell is Gary Johnson, a conventionally attractive yet aggressively plain psych and philosophy professor at the University of New Orleans. He's the type of unassuming jean shorts-wearing guy who blends easily into the background and is perfectly content being boring; he lives alone in the suburbs with two cats named Ego and Id, drives a Honda Civic, and appears to have no social life to speak of. His sole quirk, if we’re going to call it that, is that he moonlights with the New Orleans Police Department, and as the movie begins, that part-time gig suddenly kicks into overdrive.
When dirtbag undercover detective Jasper (Austin Amelio) is suspended f.
