After the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, the film industry is still trying to find its sea legs in 2024. While the box office has been lagging, and there’s been no “Super Mario Bros,” “Barbie,” or “Oppenheimer” so far this year, to be fair, most of those hits didn’t arrive until the summer (minus the Nintendo adaptation). While it’s been a relatively slow year at the domestic box office, there have been hits in “Dune: Part Two” and “Godzilla x Kong,”

And, while the movie industry seemingly slowed down production last year because of said strikes, there’s absolutely no lack of content this year.

Continue reading Summer Movie Preview: 50 Must-See Films To Watch at The Playlist.

What happens when a fake hit man blurs the lines between reality and fiction? The true story of a professor going undercover acts as a starting point for Richard Linklater’s “Hit Man” (read our review). Its premise goes well beyond the events written about by Texas Monthly’s Skip Hollandsworth. Instead, the film takes a fictional journey into what could have happened between two people under different circumstances.

Continue reading ‘Hit Man’ Trailer: Glen Powell & Adria Arjona Lead Richard Linklater’s New Romantic Action Flick at The Playlist.

Netflix did its annual blitz, a big dog and pony show for the press last night, revealing its entire film slate for 2024.  Most of the heavy hitters you already know, like Zack Snyder’s “Rebel Moon: Part 2 – The Scargiver,” which we already know, comes out in April, or “Beverley Hills Cop: Axel Foley,” or John Ridley’s “Shirley,” or Richard Linklater’s “Hit Man,” recently announced for a June release, but there’s plenty of surprises and new confirmations too.

Continue reading Netflix 2024 Film Slate Includes Jerry Seinfeld’s ‘Pop Tarts,’ New JLo, Lee Daniels, Mark Wahlberg Movies & More at The Playlist.

Can an undercover officer separate fact from fiction? “Hit Man” follows one man’s confusing journey into a world he thought he knew. The film comes from respected director Richard Linklater, whose previous works include “Boyhood” and ‘Before’ trilogy. He reflected on why the story’s central figure was such a fascinating draw. “This character, Gary Johnson, the undercover hitman, opened up such a fascinating world — these people who want to hire someone to kill someone,” the filmmaker told THR.” That’s about as extreme as it gets in the world, right?

Continue reading ‘Hit Man’ Trailer: Richard Linklater’s Assassin Rom-Com Starring Glen Powell Arrives In June at The Playlist.

How’s this for a big pick-up in an otherwise quiet sale season on the Fall film festival circuit? Variety reports that Netflix bought the rights to Richard Linklater‘s latest film “Hit Man” after it screened at the Venice Film Festival and TIFF to rave reviews. It’s Netflix’s second significant purchase out of TIFF, the other being Anna Kendrick‘s directorial debut “Woman Of The Hours.”

READ MORE: ‘Hit Man’ New Look: Richard Linklater Says His New Genre-Bending Movie Is “All About Identity”

Based on a true story (but taking liberties with the source material) “Hit Man” stars Glen Powell as Gary Johnson, a part-time teacher who moonlights as a fake hitman for the local Texas police department.

Continue reading ‘Hit Man’: Netflix Snatches Up Richard Linklater’s Crime Comedy With Glen Powell For $20 Million at The Playlist.

That Glen Powell is a gem of an actor is nothing new, but twenty years into his career, and after stealing the show in a bunch of films and series, we can all finally stop praying for him to get a leading role worthy of his talents. In “Hit Man,” Powell reunites with his “Everybody Wants Some!!” director Richard Linklater for a part that allows him to be by turns nerdy, sexy, and funny, but at all times almost unbearably charming.

Continue reading ‘Hit Man’ Review: Glen Powell Stars In Richard Linklater’s Sexy, Delightful Comedy Tailored To His Talents [Venice] at The Playlist.

It’s officially September. Summer is winding down, school is starting, and the Fall film festival circuit has kicked off. By the time you read this, you’ll have seen dozens of our reviews from the Venice Film Festival and Telluride Film Festivals. And so, while TIFF boasts much-anticipated titles like Christos Nikou’s “Fingernails” with Jessie Buckley, Richard Linklater’s “Hitman,” Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers” reuniting him with Paul Giamatti, Michel Franco’s “Memory” with Jessica Chastain, Kitty Green’s “The Royal Hotel” with Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick, you’ll have read our reviews of those now.

Continue reading Toronto International Film Festival 2023: 26 Must-See Films To Watch At TIFF at The Playlist.

In Richard Linklater’s “Hit Man,” truth proves stranger than fiction. Based on Skip Hollandsworth’s Texas Monthly piece of the same name from 2001, Linklater’s newest film follows Glen Powell as Gary Johnson, a man so good at pretending to be someone else he could convince clients he was a cold-blooded contract killer. In real life, after Johnson confirmed with a client he’d been hired to murder someone, recording the conversation for evidence, the police would arrest the person afterward.

Continue reading ‘Hit Man’ New Look: Richard Linklater Says His New Genre-Bending Movie Is “All About Identity” at The Playlist.

With SAG and WGA strikes and little talent to promote them, the deep worry about this fall was that festival season would suffer. And guess again, as the 2023 New York Film Festival proves, anything is but the case. The 61st edition of NYFF announced the inclusion of Bradley Cooper’s much-anticipated “Maestro” to lead its Spotlight section, and today, the complete Spotlight section has been announced, and it’s fantastic.

Continue reading Full 2023 NYFF Spotlight: Emma Stone Leads With The Safdies & Nathan Fielder’s ‘Curse,’ & New Yorgos Lanthimos Short & More at The Playlist.