TORONTO (AP) ā There's been no shortage of hit-man movies at film festivals this fall. You could line them up on a rooftop somewhere, each with their sniper rifles aimed out at audiences: David Fincher's āThe Killer,ā Michael Keaton's āKnox Goes Away," Harmony Korine's āAggro Dr1ft.ā
But the one that has most resonated ā killed, you might say ā has been a gentler, funnier take on the genre that says right up front: The hired hit man is a Hollywood myth.
Richard Linklater's " stars Glen Powell as Gary Johnson, in sting operations to catch would-be murders looking for someone to do their dirty work.
The film takes Johnson's true story and has some fun with it. Gary, thrust into his faux-hit-man role, dons increasingly colorful personas and finds himself in an especially tricky conundrum of selfhood after falling for a wife (Adria Arjona) who wants her husband dead.
The film, which played at both the Venice and Toronto festivals, is an extremely entertaining showcase for the charismatic Powell, the āTop Gun: Maverickā star who co-wrote the script with Linklater.
For Linklater, the 63-year-old director of āDazed and Confusedā and āBefore Sunset,ā āHit Manā is a typically existentialist film but playfully twisted into a genre-bending noir screwball. Linklater also made the film without a distributor. āHit Manā is for sale at TIFF, and ā given the response ā may be the hottest property at the festival.
āIt used to be the head of studio would sit down with you, talk, maybe say, āI think youāve got the movie in you. Letās do it.ā Now, they don't even want to hear from you. Youāre up against algorithms and marketing in advance,ā says Linklater. āSo it was kind of great to go: āLetās just make the movie and bet on ourselves.āā
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AP: Around your Venice premiere, you said an era of filmmaking was āgone with the wind ā or gone with the algorithm.ā Is it that bleak?
LINKLATER: Iām a very optimistic person. Itās an optimistic business. Itās a good time to be a filmmaker. Iām not a pessimist by nature. But you have to acknowledge changing times. Iāve seen it change over the years, we all have. My thing is trying to get outside our little insular world. The attack is on human consciousness. It has a formidable opponent in something grabbing our brains and grabbing our attention.
AP: That idea was present in your last film, the animated for Netflix, which fondly recalled a less structured, pre-digital upbringing.
LINKLATER: Yeah, it was kind of an analog, free-range childhood where you really had to make your own fun. Nothing was catered to you. There were very few movies or TV shows that catered to kids. You find your way in. They werenāt just spoon-feeding you. They saw kids as a nuisance or a thing to be put up with, not such a market.
AP: The question of how much people change seems to hover over your films. āB“Ē²ā³ó“Ē“Ē»å,ā filmed over an 12-year period, seemed designed to measure change in your actors.
LINKLATER: Yeah, I think so. Identity or the development of self. Itās hard to inject that into a narrative. This one, it wasnāt so much in the article I read for āHit Manā in 2001. Itās really more in the flight of fancy part. I was always in the school ā they talk about it in āBefore Sunsetā ā saying you can change but you have your set points. Iāve always been on that. Iām as happy as I can be given my set points. I had more recently read stuff that said you can change quite a bit. But can you really tweak up that dial? I would like to be different.
AP: How so?
LINKLATER: Everything you say, you can always follow with, āThen I wouldnāt be me.ā But I wish I enjoyed things that other people seem to enjoy so much.
AP: Like what?
LINKLATER: Oh, I donāt know. The big premiere of your movie. (Laughs) Going to awards show. Dressing up. Being on. Iād really rather be watching a movie or reading. I have the opposite of FOMO. I donāt really want to be anywhere. (Laughs)
AP: Your films have a rare amiability and gentleness to them. How does that get filtered in?
LINKLATER: If you take things really serious or itās a big deal, then itās a big deal in your film. I donāt really take anything too seriously. Iām kind of like, āEh.ā I just canāt do certain things with a straight face. Itās all stupid. As an old-school existentialist, I just go through life with a certain detached, fun, irony. Engaged. I care about a lot of things. But Iām not that invested in outcomes. I donāt believe mostly in fictional plotting. Thatās why it was interesting to be a little more plotty, to be more in some genres Iām mashing up. Plotting Iāve always said is just fake. Itās not how life works. We donāt have plot-driven lives. We have character-driven lives.
AP: Here, you're kind of mocking the idea of one of Hollywood's favorite plots.
LINKLATER: Iāve had to talk about this with the movie now. āHit men donāt exist?ā Of course they donāt exist. Do the math. Do you ever hear about hit men getting arrested? They donāt exist at the retail level. The notion that someone youāve never met whoās this icy professional you meet for five minutes is going to risk the death penalty. (Laughs) I think as a culture we have to believe in it. We enjoy believing in it.
AP: Could you tell Powell had something special when you cast him at 14-year-old for a small role in āFast Food Nationā? The real revelation was
LINKLATER: That was the big leap. For āFast Food Nation,ā I mean, I cast him out of hundreds of kids. I went: āThat guyās kind of interesting to play this small part. Thereās something about that kid.ā But it was when he came back on āEverybody Wants Some!ā he was just fully formed. Anyone who knows Glen knows heās a star. I think the times weāre living in, the industry isnāt as invested in creating stars as much. Maybe they donāt want to pay āem.
AP: What do you think changed?
LINKLATER: Well, thereās a lot of YouTube stars. Theyāre coming from everywhere. It used to be that movies and music was it. Now, this century has produced famous people that weāll never know or hear about. Thereās a glut, and in our industry thereās a shortage.
AP: Your films have launched quite a few stars so you've watched it happen. What does it take?
LINKLATER: Iāve worked with a lot of people over the years and think, āIf things break right for them or they get that part...ā But planets have to align. Youāve got to kind of get lucky. You have to get that right part at the right time. Kind of like Matthew (McConaughey) with āA Time to Kill.ā He had been in a bunch of movies. Even Glen, I knew he was up for certain parts in different movies and I was like, āThey didnāt cast Glen against that stiff?ā
AP: So in this age of the algorithm, do you still enjoying moviemaking?
LINKLATER: When itās in my control, I love it. I love everything about making movies. āApollo 10 1/2,ā I loved that whole experience. It was such a personal experience. And then one day it showed up on a platform with no fanfare. Itās always kind of sad when you realize even your friends donāt know your film is out. To me, if anything good happens from this stage on, itās just lucky. You know thereās an audience for your movie, itās just whether they find it. Iāve never made a film that I didnāt think people would like. Even some strange, weird-ass film, you think, āThereās a way this could catch on.ā You gotta be a little delusional. Iām good at self-delusion. (Laughs) Itās what keeps me going.
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Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
