If this summer cannot make Glen Powell a movie star, then maybe there are no more movie stars left to be made.As if predivined by the Hollywood gods, Powell is the unstoppable Next Big Thing, with the actor already attached to a smattering of high-profile projects, including Edgar Wright’s reboot ofand J.J. Abrams’s latest shrouded-in-mystery directorial outing. And, in an increasingly rare occurrence, it seems as if the film industry’s gatekeepers are actually getting it right this time.
, not so much chewing scenery as rolling his tongue around it. The actor seduces and destroys as if it was pure instinct. Which is what makes his performance inso irresistible: Linklater knows exactly the power that his leading man commands, but instead of lazily exploiting it off the top, the director reverse-engineers a charm offensive so earth-shaking that it registers on the Richter scale.
But Gary also has a side hustle helping out the local police force conduct undercover operations. It’s not much – and many of the cops, including sleaze-bag Jasper , regard Gary as little more than a techie nuisance – but it’s something to get him out of his shell. And through a series of rather unbelievable circumstances, Gary starts to go undercover himself as a fake hit man, which is when the character gets to unleash his, well, inner Glen Powell – an object of pure magnetism.
Very loosely adapting a Texas Monthly article about a real undercover officer, Linklater and Powell – who co-wrote the film after previously working together on the 2016 comedyWhile much of the police shenanigans feel just an inch above sitcom level, especially the banter between Gary’s handlers played by Retta and Sanjay Rao, every moment between Powell and Arjona is thrilling and alive.