Richard Linklater on Directing Hit Man, a Screwball Comedy Meets Film Noir | NYFF61

Director Richard Linklater discusses Hit Man, a Spotlight selection of NYFF61, now streaming on Netflix. Learn more: In a wily and charismatic star turn, Glen Powell plays straight-laced philosophy professor Gary Johnson, who moonlights as an undercover hit man for the New Orleans Police Department. Preternaturally gifted at inhabiting different guises and personalities to catch hapless people hoping to bump off their enemies, Gary begins to descend into morally dubious territory when he finds himself attracted to one of those potential criminals, a young woman named Madison (Adria Arjona)—setting off a chain reaction of play-acting and false selves. Richard Linklater’s peppy sunlit neo-noir—based on an improbable true story, with a few wild embellishments—is a continually surprising delight: co-written by Linklater and Powell, it’s a cleverly existential comedy about identity that deepens in meaning as it escalates in absurdity. A Netflix release.