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Weekend films

'Hit Man - Killer by chance', irresistible fun

Richard Linklater's new feature film arrives in cinemas. The committed 'Four Daughters' is also among the new releases

by Andrea Chimento

28 June 2024

3' min read

Key points

Four daughters
Mixing genres

3' min read

One of the funniest films of the year is the big star of the weekend in theatres: it is 'Hit Man - Killer by Chance', the new feature film by Richard Linklater, an American director who has penned such unforgettable works as 'Boyhood', 'Last Flag Flying' and 'Apollo 10 and a Half'.

“Hit Man – Killer per caso” e gli altri film della settimana
Photogallery5 foto

Set in New Orleans, the film stars Gary Johnson, a quiet professor with a sloppy everyday life who, when necessary, steps into the role of an undercover hitman for the police, with the task of flushing out those who hire him as a hitman. The problems begin when he breaks protocol to help a desperate woman trying to escape an abusive boyfriend.

Presented out of competition at the Venice Film Festival 2023, where it would have richly deserved to be in competition, 'Hit Man' is a brilliant comedy with great pace and enhanced by a script written and staged with perfect timing.

It is nothing new that Linklater's scripts are beautifully crafted (think also of his trilogy consisting of Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Sunrise), but the 1960 Houston-born director always manages to impress at the writing stage with his sharp dialogues and certainly unexpected narrative twists.

The humour becomes more caustic than ever in this film, which rambles on about the concept of identity and which may recall, albeit in very different tones, some of the cues from the 'Breaking Bad' series, albeit decidedly veered into a comic and brilliant sauce.

Mixing genres

Comedy blends with crime films, romantic films with action films, in this curious operation that also touches on noir and manages to maintain an enviable balance within the many registers it deploys.

There is also no lack of interesting existential insights in this light yet profound production, which carries with it several desecrating intentions towards many contemporary Hollywood feature films.

'Hit Man' is indeed an unconventional work, not least in terms of the psychology of the characters (well played by a cast that is up to the mark) and the ability to entertain in an intelligent manner, leaving more than one element for reflection at the end of the credits.

Linklater's next projects include the much-anticipated 'Nouvelle vague', a film recounting the production stages of Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 masterpiece 'To the Last Breath'.

Four daughters

Another new entry is 'Four Daughters', a film by Kaouther Ben Hania that mixes fiction and documentary.

At the centre is the life of Olfa, a middle-aged woman and mother of four daughters, who sees her existence completely turned upside down when two of the four girls suddenly disappear. A number of actresses are called upon to replace them.

Through a structure that combines repertory material and passages totally related to the universe of fiction, this curious project has a very peculiar structure and reveals its hybrid nature right from the starting subject.

The Tunisian director has courage, as she had already demonstrated in 'Beauty and the Beasts' and 'The Man Who Sold His Skin', but this last film of hers only half works because of a rather uncertain dramaturgical skeleton that is incapable of shaking you as it should and would like to.

The touching moments are not lacking and there is room for several effective messages of socio-political value, but some passages seem too contrived and, once the conclusion is reached, there is a hint of bitterness in the mouth for a vision that could have been far more incisive.