Movies You Need To See: Hit Man & In A Violent Nature

HIT MAN (R)

The fourth team up between legendary writer/director Richard Linklater (“Dazed & Confused”, “School of Rock,” “Everybody Wants Some!!”) and recently crowned Hollywood royalty Glen Powell (“Anyone But You,” “Top Gun: Maverick”) finds these two Texas boys collaborating on script and screen for the true story of a lowly college professor who moonlights as a fake hitman for the New Orleans Police Department.

Based on a Texas Monthly article by Skip Hollandsworth, who also wrote the article that inspired Linklater’s “Bernie,” and shot on location in New Orleans, “Hit Man” synthesizes Linklater’s patented directorial flash with Powell’s simmering charisma for the kind of snazzy, sexy crime thriller that so rarely graces screens of late. Allowing him the full range of his comedic and smoldering capabilities, Powell’s well honed screen persona is let loose to full and fun effect as a bumbling nerd who discovers new sides of himself play acting the role of the smooth-talking con man.

A new Linklater film is always a cause for celebration. Here’s hoping he has found his new muse in Powell and their collaboration continues for many films to come.

“HIT MAN” is playing at the Prtyania Theatres at Canal Place.

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IN A VIOLENT NATURE (UNRATED)

Riding the line between the gory delights of “Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter” and the swooning vistas of a Terrence Malick epic, “In A Violent Nature” is a slasher film unlike any you have ever seen; melodic, contemplative, and oh so gory. An independent film from Writer/Director Chris Nash, this Canadian hack and slash takes the traditional format of a ‘killer in the woods’ film and flips the perspective, both emotionally and cinematically. When hapless kids take a necklace from a burnt-out shack in the woods, a hulking undead creature known as ‘Johnny’ rises from his unhallowed grave to take back what is rightfully his.

While most slasher films marinate in the suspense of the victim, “In A Violent Nature” chooses instead to focus on Johnny, allowing us to track his plodding perspective from slaughter to slaughter. And slaughter he does. Not since the Louisiana filmed and set “Hatchet” series has such loving care been taken with the mangling and wrenching of human bodies. But while it is apparent how delighted the filmmakers were imagining new and novel approaches to dismemberment, shock value isn’t the goal here. With every death, there is a quiet, a melancholy. Johnny is no Jason Voorhes, his actions feel studious; like an exterminator who finds no joy in bringing unholy death to the vermin who overran his home. The soft ambiance of the forest, unintruded upon by any musical score, is the soundtrack to the unholy culling; the birds and the bugs merely indifferent bystanders to the slow bloodletting of this sad, vengeful creature. The film asks you to empathize with Johnny, with his victims, and with ourselves for being witness to these atrocities. What is the value of violence when the Hollywood sheen is removed, and what does it say about us for valuing it at all?

The film has lingered with me in ways I can still not quite pinpoint. The kills made me feel gross for enjoying them. The final scene left me breathless and terrified without a monster to be seen. I have never seen a film quite like it and I bet neither have you.

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Check it out on the big screen while you can. You’ll be glad you did.

“IN A VIOLENT NATURE” is playing at Prytania Theatres at Canal Place.

 

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