HIT MAN (2023) Hits theaters May 24 before going to Netflix

This is a repost of my New York FIlm Festival review from last year

HIT MAN is the (kind of true) story of Gary Johnson who was a college professor who was doing electronic work for the New Orleans police. He ended up stepping in and pretending to be a hit man in sting operations.

In this fictionalized version of the story Glenn Powell plays Johnson.  When he goes under cover on one case he talks a confused woman out of not killing her husband. This sets in motion an unexpected series of events.

This is one of my favorite films at NYFF. It was a delightful change of pace from the dark and serious films that seemed to fill this year’s slate. It was the on one to fill the theater with repeated burst of laughter and leave everyone walking out of the screening with wide smiles. Indeed one of the women working in the theater was kind of confused because it was the first time she could hear people reacting to a festival film.

I had a great time with the film. There was just a certain point where I just put my notebooks down and watched the film. Is it high art? Hell, no, but it is entertaining as all hell and one of the best film that Richard Linklater has made

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