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Related: About this forumThe Interview: Richard Linklater Sees the Killer Inside Us All
David Marchese
By David Marchese
June 1, 2024
Richard Linklaters latest movie, Hit Man, is a bit of a departure for the director, who has made some of the most acclaimed and influential indie films of the last 30-plus years. The movie, which stars the ascendant Glen Powell, is about a mild-mannered college professor who has a side gig with the New Orleans Police Department, setting up stings by posing as different hit men. Its a tight, stylish and sexy thriller, with some twisted romance added in, from a filmmaker better known for the ambling rhythms and gently existential tone of beloved classics like Dazed and Confused, Boyhood and Before Sunrise (not to mention his great comedy School of Rock, which exists in a category of its own).
But alongside its pop charms, Hit Man still manages to sneak in a provocative exploration of one of Linklaters pet themes: the nature and malleability of personal identity. Its also, as so many of the 63-year-olds films are, a movie that understands the pure cinematic pleasure of watching smart, inquisitive people converse exploring ideas and philosophies, making one another laugh, testing one another.
Its the talking that made me fall in love with Linklaters films, which he almost always writes or co-writes. (He co-wrote Hit Man with Powell.) The way his vivid, relatable characters discuss the big questions, with so much soul and hang-looseness, free from any highfalutin airs, has long been something of a north star for me as a movie lover and as a talker. The searching, openhearted discussions in Linklater films are the kind of conversations most meaningful to me in my own life and work. I dont want to make too big a deal of it, but I can see a pretty clear line from adolescent me sitting around watching all the chatty oddballs in Waking Life and Slacker to middle-aged me, here and now, speaking with Richard Linklater who, surprise surprise, sounds a lot like a character from one of his movies.
Im curious how you think about your identity at 63 years old. Do you feel as if its fixed? Do you still have formative experiences? Its the kind of thing Ive thought a lot about my entire life: What could transform me? I was probably more in the camp of were fixed, give or take whatever little percentage around the edges. So I was interested in this notion lately that, oh, you can change, the personality isnt fixed. That seems current: this notion of self and identity, gender. I sort of like that its all on the table, that everybodys thinking you kind of are who you say you are. To me, thats interesting.
By David Marchese
June 1, 2024
Richard Linklaters latest movie, Hit Man, is a bit of a departure for the director, who has made some of the most acclaimed and influential indie films of the last 30-plus years. The movie, which stars the ascendant Glen Powell, is about a mild-mannered college professor who has a side gig with the New Orleans Police Department, setting up stings by posing as different hit men. Its a tight, stylish and sexy thriller, with some twisted romance added in, from a filmmaker better known for the ambling rhythms and gently existential tone of beloved classics like Dazed and Confused, Boyhood and Before Sunrise (not to mention his great comedy School of Rock, which exists in a category of its own).
But alongside its pop charms, Hit Man still manages to sneak in a provocative exploration of one of Linklaters pet themes: the nature and malleability of personal identity. Its also, as so many of the 63-year-olds films are, a movie that understands the pure cinematic pleasure of watching smart, inquisitive people converse exploring ideas and philosophies, making one another laugh, testing one another.
Its the talking that made me fall in love with Linklaters films, which he almost always writes or co-writes. (He co-wrote Hit Man with Powell.) The way his vivid, relatable characters discuss the big questions, with so much soul and hang-looseness, free from any highfalutin airs, has long been something of a north star for me as a movie lover and as a talker. The searching, openhearted discussions in Linklater films are the kind of conversations most meaningful to me in my own life and work. I dont want to make too big a deal of it, but I can see a pretty clear line from adolescent me sitting around watching all the chatty oddballs in Waking Life and Slacker to middle-aged me, here and now, speaking with Richard Linklater who, surprise surprise, sounds a lot like a character from one of his movies.
Im curious how you think about your identity at 63 years old. Do you feel as if its fixed? Do you still have formative experiences? Its the kind of thing Ive thought a lot about my entire life: What could transform me? I was probably more in the camp of were fixed, give or take whatever little percentage around the edges. So I was interested in this notion lately that, oh, you can change, the personality isnt fixed. That seems current: this notion of self and identity, gender. I sort of like that its all on the table, that everybodys thinking you kind of are who you say you are. To me, thats interesting.
Continued at the New York Times - Gift Link
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The Interview: Richard Linklater Sees the Killer Inside Us All (Original Post)
BootinUp
Jun 2024
OP
Mme. Defarge
(8,394 posts)1. Name someone who fits the profile of a
sh*tman or a merderer. . .
mahina
(18,595 posts)2. I loved Waking life
Seen it 10 times