Does 'Hit Man' Make Glen Powell A Movie Star?

#275: "Hit Man," "Ultraman: Rising," "The Big Chill," "The Thomas Crown Affair"

Edition 275:

Hey movie lovers!

This week: Is Glen Powell a movie star? Yes…and no. We’ll talk about his new Netflix movie, and an animated movie coming to Netflix soon. Then a couple of really good movies from decades past! In this week’s “Trailer Watch,” why MaXXXine could contend for best movie of the year.

Hit Man

You might’ve heard…movie stars are back! Right?!?

At the very least, the world seems to be catching up to what I and anyone else who watched Everybody Wants Some! realized back in 2016, when Glen Powell first showed off all the traits that have made generations of square-jawed white men before him A LOT of money.

He cuts the figure of those familiar movie stars — handsome, fit, megawatt smile, easy whit and charm. So it’s no surprise he’s spent the last eight years breaking through as a matinee idol, in 2018 rom-com Set It Up, 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick and this year’s Anyone But You. In every movie, he basically plays the same character…a fast-talking pretty boy who gives the impression of a self-absorbed jerk only to expose a puppy dog vulnerability. It’s perhaps the cheapest movie archetype of all, but dammit if it isn’t effective.

In Hit Man, it’s more of the same, though by far the most complete showcase of Powell’s on-screen charisma. He co-wrote the screenplay with famous Texas kingmaker Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, Boyhood and Everybody Wants Some! with Powell), based on the true story of a loser college professor who takes a part time job impersonating a hit man in sting operations for the police. Independent of the movie’s merits (which we’ll return to in a second), one cannot see it and not believe in Powell’s star power.

Alongside relative newcomer Adria Arjona, the movie delivers everything Anyone But You promised to be but frankly wasn’t. It’s a snappy, fun romantic comedy with excellent chemistry between its two leads and an exciting story that provides plenty of tension all the way to the final minute. There’s surprising twists and turns, and unlike that other movie, this one is actually sexy (if he and Sweeney had these kinds of scenes together the rumor mill would’ve broken the internet), to the point that one could argue the movie’s worldview is borderline hedonistic.

Were one to take the material seriously there would probably be a lot to say about its relative morality in pursuit of pleasure. But that line of thinking is worthless here, since the movie takes every opportunity to remind you it’s a ridiculous comedy rather than some grand artistic statement. This is fun for fun’s sake, and thanks mostly to Powell at the center of every frame, it pays off on that promise in spades.

Having now gotten some name recognition, it’ll be interesting to see how he charts his career. He’s expressed a desire to be like Top Gun co-star Tom Cruise (an apparent mentor), but is that Cruise of the 1980s, who went from Risky Business and Top Gun to working with top directors on what I’d call B to B+ projects commercially (Scorcese, Barry Levinson, Oliver Stone, Tony Scott, De Palma, Sydney Pollack, Rob Reiner all in the next 10 years)? Or is that the Cruise of today, where he’s a glorified stuntman fronting $200M+ megablockbusters?

I think more likely is the career of fellow Texan Matthew McConaughey, who broke out with a Linklater movie (Dazed and Confused) achieved star status in rom-coms like The Wedding Planner and How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days and then basically wasn’t taken seriously until the so-called “McConaissance” 10 years later. It’s no stretch to imagine Powell as a football coach (We Are Marshall), a comedic talent agent (Tropic Thunder) or a sleazy lawyer (The Lincoln Lawyer) until he ages out of his ingenue status.

Here’s why this is important, aside from the fun thought exercise. Wanna know the only people who didn’t believe in Powell’s star power? How about every Hollywood studio. Linklater self-financed Hit Man and made it “on spec,” bringing the finished product to market. None of the studios bit for a theatrical release, so Netflix scooped it up. For Powell, it’s both a blessing — millions of people are going to watch this on Netflix and fall in love with him — and also a reminder that movie stardom in this era doesn’t mean what it used to.

The rubber meets the road in mid-July, when Powell stars again in the big budget blockbuster Twisters. Based on how things have gone so far this year, it’s likely to underperform. So are we going to say that’s his fault? Ryan Gosling, inarguably a way bigger movie star than Powell and also red-hot coming off of Barbie, couldn’t bring people out to see The Fall Guy, even with good reviews.

This sort of dissociation between the business side of movies and their quality is fast becoming THE story of the year. I’m as tired of talking about it as you all are of reading about it, probably, but its shadow is cast over every conversation. Are movie stars back? Glen Powell has now given us every reason to believe he should be one, and I’m not sure it makes one bit of difference.

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Something New

Ultraman: Rising (Netflix): I had a chance to go to the premiere for this movie (thanks Tyler!), which won’t be out on Netflix until June 14th. It’s an animated kid’s movie, so I realize I’m not the targeted audience, but it’s also going for that Pixar four-quadrant appeal thing. The story centers around a professional baseball phenom who leaves the Los Angeles Dodgers (it’s quite clearly Shoehei Ohtani, even we can’t say that) to return to Japan so that he can take up the family business from his aging father — which just so happens to be becoming a superhero named Ultraman who defends the city from monsters (a truly excessive amount of monsters…why would anyone live in this city?). Of course, he’s too “American” now, and needs to shed his cocky individualism in order to become the hero he was always meant to be. Cue the trumpet!

I’m not sure if it’s the open bar and killer food at the Netflix reception clouding my judgement, but I did really like this movie. It’s pretty easy to pick apart upon closer inspection, but the animation and production is beautiful and the storytelling, while simple and ramrod straight morally, is nonetheless effective at delivering on the premise. Clearly they were going for a sentimental gut punch, a la Pixer’s emotional manipulation mastery, and it didn’t fully land for me (I think if had children…as most of the adults in the intended audience will…I would feel differently). The worst thing that a children’s movie can be, in my opinion, is dumb or patronizing. And this definitely wasn’t that. So I can definitely endorse it to anyone looking for pre-teen entertainment.

Something Old

The Big Chill (1983, Amazon Prime): It’s hard to think of a single movie that feels more Richard Linklater-esque than this one, even though it was not from Linklater at all but rather Lawrence Kasdan, himself no slouch (the writer of little movies called Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Empire Strikes Back). The premise is simple and unoriginal — a group of old college friends reconvene after a sudden death and reckon with their interpersonal dynamics now that each has a decade of remove and perspective.

As with Linklater’s work (though he holds no special claim over the style), the focus is entirely on character development and interaction with plot a distant priority. When combined with unbelievable casting — Kevin Kline, William Hurt, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, and Tom Berenger all playing parts perfectly suited to their demeanor — a viewer quickly identifies the characters as real people and begins to empathize with each of their needs and desires.

Once you throw in an all-time great soundtrack of 1970s hits stitching the scenes together and giving the narrative a much-needed energy boost, you get one of the great ensemble movies of the 1980s.

Something to Stream

The Thomas Crown Affair (Max): This buttoned-up thriller is a James Bond movie in all but name, with Pierce Brosnan starring as a Wall Street shark who moonlights as an art thief (kind of). Remember, this is from the particular time in Hollywood history when nothing was hotter than a slick, slightly-past-middle-aged white dudes (Michael Douglas, Richard Gere and Kevin Costner played more than a few).

The story gets going when a $100 million Monet disappears from The MET (this is a quintessential pre-9/11 NYC movie, one of its great charms), and Rene Russo comes in to investigate. She (quite unrealistically) identifies Brosnan as the thief almost instantly, then plays the femme fatale who may or may not be falling for Brosnan’s considerable charms. By today’s standards for romance, especially on screen, the movie feels incredibly dated, but only in the gauzy capital “h” Hollywood sort of way (let us not forget, sleeping with the prime suspect of your investigation is also the plot of Hit Man).

Put this movie firmly into the category of “they just don’t make ‘em like they used to” movies, the kind of polished yet rollicking genre fare with no messaging or “point” other than being a good story and a good time.

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Trailer Watch: MaXXXine

People have accused me over the years of hating everything that’s a franchise or sequel (probably because I regularly say that franchises and sequels are ruining movies…), but in much the same way that I hate Marvel movies but loved Across The Spider-Verse, it’s not the structure itself that I’m rebelling against. When something is good, nobody celebrates harder than me.

Ti West did what a lot of emerging directors did and made a small budget horror movie in 2022 called X. Rather than move on, he expanded, making a prequel, Pearl, in 2023 that was even more warmly received. Now completing the trilogy, MaXXXine has transcended the nice little indie category and could legitimately be a movie of the year contender. It’s got style, star-power, and a tinge of electricity that is just missing from 90% of this year’s releases. I’m as surprised as anyone that this shlocky B-movie premise has become what it has become, but here we are!