In a career that now spans 22 feature films, director Richard Linklater has tackled countless themes and worlds: high school, Orson Welles, weirdos, lovers, baseball players, childhood. But until he made “Hit Man,” he had never dabbled in the dark arts of murder-for-hire, even if his meek main character is only pretending to be an elite assassin.
But what's very real about this story of comedy, suspense and love, which arrives on Netflix on Friday, is that it represents the director's continued willingness to keep trying new things, to never settle for a fixed idea of the type of films he makes. does. Never before had Linklater made a film so suffused with the pleasures of acting and sensual sex.
“For this story to work, it has to be sexy,” he says over Zoom from Austin, Texas. “Is got being hot sex: that's what makes people do crazy and dangerous things. You can stay home alone in your room with your cats and none of this will ever happen to you, but if you go out and enter that world, you will have to deal with those consequences. But is it worth it the risk. That's the goal of the movie: to keep doing that, to err on that side, even if there will be a small body count at the end.”
Linklater, who will turn 64 this summer, is a filmmaker who lives in the real world. His work accentuates the informal poetry of everyday life and his films are praised for their casual naturalness. That's why it's such a welcome surprise when he operates in a more fanciful vein. “Hit Man” is based on the unlikely true story of Gary Johnson, a mild-mannered college professor who assisted Houston authorities by posing as a hitman, arresting potential clients seeking his lethal services. In the film, now set in New Orleans, Gary (played by Glen Powell of “Top Gun: Maverick” and December's hit romantic comedy “Anyone but You”) discovers that his alter ego is a useful way to reinvent yourself. especially once he meets Maddy (Adria Arjona), who hires him to take down her ex-husband. Instantly smitten with her, Gary (who calls himself Ron) convinces Maddy not to commit her reckless act so she won't get arrested, but a combustible love affair soon ignites.
Glen Powell and Adria Arjona in the movie “Hit Man”.
(Brian Roedel/Netflix)
Based on a 2001 Texas Monthly profile by Skip Hollandsworth, the same journalist who reported the story behind Linklater's 2011 small-town murder comedy “Bernie,” “Hit Man” takes great liberties with its performance by Johnson, who died in 2022. The central romance and its twisted complications were dreamed up by the director and his co-writer Powell, an official Internet boyfriend who makes a meal of his character's nerdy/handsome dichotomy. For Linklater, our fascination with hitmen was key to telling this story.
“The idea that you can buy the death of another human being so easily without repercussions is crazy,” he says. As for the fact that Gary suddenly becomes a suave, confident stud once he puts on his hitman costume, Linklater attributes the appeal to deep-seated ideas about masculinity: “It's really just the Western myth of male: the lone and fast killer. . It's a male fantasy.
In the years since his Oscar-winning film “Boyhood,” none of Linklater's films have resonated as strongly in the culture. But “Hit Man” has earned some of his most enthusiastic recent reviews, particularly from those who crave witty, adult romantic comedies in the age of franchise fatigue. Linklater is pleased with the positive reaction that began last year at the Venice Film Festival, but as someone who says he doesn't read commercials or visit social media, the filmmaker isn't focused on whether his films are a success.
“With 'Dazed and Confused,' my first experience at the studio, I made what I thought was a tremendously entertaining and crowd-pleasing movie,” he says, “only to see the studio think it wasn't and release it in a form really in an independent way. That set a tone for my way of thinking: they usually handle things badly. 'Everyone wants something!' It's another example: it's an entertaining comedy. But they never know what to do with these things.”
There is no hard feelings in Linklater's comment. Spend some time with the unassuming author and you'll notice how egoless he is. (At the end of our interview, he announces, “I'm making it up like everyone else and everything I say is subject to change.”) His industry complaints come across more as a shrug than a tirade. “By far the biggest part of me is grateful to have made the movie and happy to have that experience,” he says. “You're always releasing a movie in who knows what culture, who knows what era, with uncertain distribution. I know as a former athlete: just do what you can control, do it well and keep doing it.”
Linklater is given to sports metaphors. He played football and baseball in high school and earned a baseball scholarship to Sam Houston State. (His underrated 2016 college baseball comedy “Everybody Wants Some!!,” the film that helped raise Powell's profile on the big screen, is inspired by his time on the diamond.) But there is an aspect of sports that doesn't translate to film. for him. “There's a winner, there's a loser,” he says. “What I love about art is that it's not like that. It's about self-perfection. I love trying to make the best movie possible. Get everyone together and do your best. “If you can update that, that’s the magic.”
That unpretentious attitude has made Linklater the most accessible American storyteller. He also embodies what feels like a long-gone 1990s American indie scene, when there was a functional film economy that could support left-of-center projects like his hit film, “Slacker.”
But Linklater is quick to debunk that myth. “I remember the reality and it was hard,” he insists. “It's always difficult. I don't think there has ever been an easy time in cinema. There is always insecurity everywhere, there are always people trying to do things that are not done. It's a fight”.
Director Richard Linklater, center, on the set of “Hit Man,” with Adria Arjona and Glen Powell.
(Brian Roedel/Netflix)
Because of Linklater's independent bona fides, some lamented that “Hit Man” was sold to Netflix, a company that often only offers perfunctory theatrical releases for its films. In fact, this is the director's second consecutive project for Netflix, following his 2022 animated childhood reminiscence “Apollo 10 ½.” But while he avoids online discourse, Linklater is aware that “Hit Man”'s most ardent supporters have been loudly criticizing that Netflix's streaming-centric release strategy sabotages the film's most appealing quality, which is which works very well with the public.
As with almost everything, Linklater is unfazed.
“That just means they're as passionate about the movie as we are and they want people to see it and have a great experience in the theater,” he says of the love for the movie on social media. “But the request is not for Netflix, it is for the studios. You have to look at the industry and say, 'Why did you watch this movie and not think it deserved a bigger theatrical release?' Because someone could have fought for that.”
Asked if there were any other potential buyers for “Hit Man” during the last festival season, Linklater says, “There was some interest.” [from studios] – didn't reach Netflix's level of passion. “I don’t know, I’m not going to make the deal.”
As far as he is concerned, he continues to work in the independent framework in which he normally works. “We were in a total free agent situation,” Linklater says. “Glen and I wrote this to spec. We did it ourselves: we got international funding. We were as independent as possible. We're in theaters right now and we're doing great. Many independent films leave theaters within two weeks anyway. We're getting a standalone release. Let's look at it like this.”
When Linklater first read Hollandsworth's article in 2001, Johnson's double life instantly captured his imagination. But he already had many things to do. That fall, he went to Venice to screen both his animated philosophical reflection “Waking Life” and his brave adaptation of Stephen Belber’s play “Tape.” “At the time he was on sort of an involuntary sabbatical from the larger industry,” he recalls, laughing, “but he was doing these lower-budget things.” While attending the Italian festival, she met with him to pitch an ambitious idea she had recently dreamed up: a 12-year-old saga about a boy growing up in Texas, filmed over 12 years. “'Boyhood' was, curiously, the one I had the least [trouble getting off the ground]”, he tells me, “less than a year from idea to filming.”
“Boyhood” was also a film that was shot in secret, which stands in stark contrast to Linklater's current, years-long effort, the big-screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's 1981 musical “Merrily We Roll Along,” spanning two decades of real-life filming time and starring Paul Mescal, Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein.
Linklater doesn't have the element of surprise this time, but he doesn't worry. “I'm not one to encrypt my scripts,” he says. “I'm not superstitious; people ask me what I'm working on and I'll probably tell them.”
Meanwhile, he's also just finished filming “Nouvelle Vague,” his portrait of a young Jean-Luc Godard (Guillaume Marbeck) making his seminal debut, “Breathless,” which reunites Linklater with “Everybody Wants Some!!” star Zoey Deutch, who plays the iconic pixie-haired Jean Seberg. What has always driven him is an idea that he cannot let go of, sometimes at the expense of what might be the “smarter” career move. He remembers the industry doors that opened to him because “Dazed and Confused” was a hit.
“I could have made deals with everyone,” he recalls. Instead, she launched herself into “Before Sunrise” and the beginning of an improbable and richly rewarding series of increasingly nuanced and moving films with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. “I had a lot of opportunities to make it big, if I wanted to. I turned down all that money with no money or budget. I went to Vienna and made this film that I felt I had to make next. You define yourself a lot by what No do. In my case, career and money have never been more valued.”
His unpredictable artistic journey continues; but don't expect Linklater to offer grandiose explanations for how it's held up.
“I guess I was patient,” he says. “I didn't need immediate gratification. I worked very diligently and was patient, because I knew it was a lifelong commitment. You don't have to get everything right away. Perhaps at first he feels volatile, as if everything could disappear. But once you adapt, you're like, 'Okay, I'm in this for the long haul.' Even though you may lose every battle, maybe you will win your personal little war along the way.”
He has had some defeats, but “Hit Man” finds him victorious once again. Not that he stops to savor it. There are other films to make, other stories to tell. Cheerfully, move forward.
