Brief Story Line
Gary Johnson (Glen Powell - Top Gun: Maverick, Devotion etc) was a philosophy professor who lived alone and worked part time tech support for the New Orleans Police Department with Claudette (Retta - Parks and Recreation TV series etc) and Phil (Sanjay Rao - Bad Romance etc). When Jasper (Austin Amelio - The Walking Dead TV series etc) who was supposed to be working undercover and posed as a hit man for hire was suspended, Gary was asked to fill in for him.
Though reluctant, Gary decided to do so and ended up doing it regularly while Jasper was still in suspension. However, things became complicated when Gary who posed as Ron the hit man, met with potential client Madison (Adria Arjona - 6 Underground, Sweet Girl etc) who wanted to hire him but he was attracted to her.
So what would happen to Gary and his potentially unprofessional relationship with Madison? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
OK, this movie was a bit different from my expectation which was due to my lack of proper reading of the synopsis from Netflix. I honestly thought that this was an action comedy so it would have some action combined with comedy. But after a while I realized that this was more like a dark/black comedy combined with romance. In fact I felt it was probably better categorized as rom-com with a very unique background.
If you read my brief story line (which I do not think as a spoiler since the description from Netflix was already quite clear), you would know that the focus would be the odd relationship between a fake hitman with a young woman who was having her own problem. But the thing that made me enjoy the film was the way Gary took his "side job" very seriously. It was making me chuckled a bit every time he did his work (you would understand it if you have seen the movie). Meanwhile his relationship with Madison was the type that was rather steamy and not the sweet romantic kind.
As the story progressed, I could have guessed where it was heading, especially with the appearance of another character. And after that, the story was actually more exciting for me but still with the humorous approach. The ending though was something that surprised me as I did not see it coming but in a nice way. The part which I sometimes felt a bit uninteresting was the long philosopy lecture Gary was giving in his class. If you have read on my previous posts, you would know that I am not a major fan of philosophical things in a movie as it made me feel like I had to think hard to understand, and a bit uneasy if I felt it too boring (unlike the sophisticated minds of some other people).
Glen Powell was fantastic here. Amazingly he was also credited as writer and producer. Glen really nailed it when posing as hit men which showed how good he was in portraying completely different people. His chemistry with Adrian Arjona was very convincing as well and I also thought Austin Amelio was perfect as his character Jasper. In addition to the names I mentioned above, there were also the appearance of support cast like Molly Bernard (Younger TV series etc) as Gary's ex wife Alicia, Gralen Bryant Banks (The Burial etc) as Sergeant Banks and Evan Holtzman as Madison's ex Ray. The movie itself was directed by Richard Linklater (School of Rock, Before trilogy etc).
I noticed that the movie was actually a 2023 production which after further reading I found out it was shown in the Venice film festival and was acquired by Netflix. I think it was due to the great critical reception which was understandable as they tend to appreciate this kind of movie. It would appear that audience also embrace it as proven by its high score. In the closing credit I read that the film was based on the Texas Monthly Article of same title by Skip Hollandsworth whose writings have been adapted into movies such as the 1991 Bernie. Though there was no mid or post end credit scenes, but there were few photos and description that really had me by surprise as it turned out that the wordings before the movie started did have some basis.
Overall this was a fun and pretty entertaining film. For me the best value would be the versatility of Glen Powell and the unique story. The downside for me was the rather frequent philosophical lectures or discussions, and also the lack of action (which was my own mistake). Oh I also like the rather unexpected ending even if the part about Madison was rather predictable. So if you are into a black comedy highly praised by critics and want to see Glen Powell awesome performance, then you could certainly give it a try.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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