Hit Man

Originally published on 06/10/23 on Letterboxd

Very Lubitsch in its comedic sensibilities- there’s a precarious balance between Linklater’s indulgence in genre here and the maintenance of life-and-death stakes, and somehow he never truly allows either sphere to overwhelm the other. Comparisons to the regional specificity of the Coens (seeing as this is, after all, truly only something that could happen in Texas of all places) are tempting, but there’s a deliberate absence of the imposition of any kind of structural conceit (or, as their films are so often guilty of, gimmicks). Instead, Linklater reaches into the naturalism of his college films- often embodying the pleasures of durational cinema- and weaves artifice into the crevices of mundanity. Can’t remember the last time a romcom was powered by a virtuoso performance as masterful as Powell’s here, and neither can I remember when was the last time a romcom was allowed to be this swooningly romantic.