New Orleans-shot crime comedy ‘Hit Man’ shows the talent of Oscar-winner Richard Linklater

Good luck trying to pigeonhole Richard Linklater.

For the past 30-something years, the genre-defying director has been crafting films that are almost always thoughtful and enjoyable — you can count on that much. But that’s pretty much all they tend to have in common.

Sometimes, he’s feeling pensive, as in his ambitious, Oscar-winning “Boyhood.”

Sometimes, he’s more playful, as in the easy-breezy “School of Rock” and “Dazed and Confused.”

And sometimes, his tendency toward romantic realism takes center stage, as in his eminently rewatchable “Before” trilogy (“Before Sunrise,” “Before Sunset” and “Before Midnight”).

Along the way, he’s demonstrated a penchant for exploring new ground, new themes and even new forms, including animation (“Apollo 10½”) and documentaries (“God Save Texas: Hometown Prison”).

All of that makes ever more challenging the task of defining just what a Linklater film is.

Until now, perhaps.

Larkish Linklater

His latest offering, the larkish, New Orleans-shot crime comedy “Hit Man,” is the epitome of the Linklater oeuvre. If you want to know what a Linklater film is, this is as good an example as you’re likely to get.

Funny, thoughtful and fueled by scenes of extended but smartly written dialogue — and with a star-making turn from actor and co-writer Glen Powell thrown in for good measure — “Hit Man” from start to finish feels every bit a Linklater joint.

It is also a satisfyingly low-key gem.

It all starts with its offbeat premise, which is one of those ideas that wouldn’t be remotely believable if it hadn’t actually happened. Most of it, anyway; Linklater begins his film with the words, “What you’re about to see is a somewhat true story.”

Powell stars, playing a part-time college psych instructor named Gary Johnson, who — as chronicled in 2001 in Texas Monthly magazine — was recruited by Houston-area police to pose as a gun for hire as part of a sting operation targeting people on the market for a hitman.

Johnson, we learn, took the job seriously. Using his psychology background, he would study each would-be customer and then don a disguise to transform himself into what he believed would be that person’s “perfect” hitman.

How it worked

It worked in real life, and it works just as well in Linklater’s film, as the chameleonic Powell demonstrates an impressive range to portray the various hit men Johnson portrayed.

Think more Chevy Chase in “Fletch” than Eddie Murphy in “Norbit,” and you’ve got an inkling of what’s in store.

With the addition of Adria Arjona as a potential love interest who enters the picture right around 30 minutes in, “Hit Man” becomes a romantic romp — but it’s also more than that.

Linklater himself shrugs it all off as a “fun little romantic thriller,” but he’s selling himself short. There’s a subtle profundity to his tale, which goes on to explore ideas involving personality and self-identity — and, intriguingly, whether it’s possible for a person to change theirs.

(In the film, Johnson’s cats are named “Ego” and “Id,” an unspoken detail that speaks volumes about both the thoughtfulness and playfulness at work.)

Easy on the ‘NOLA’

Speaking of subtlety, Linklater also shows an admirable restraint in portraying New Orleans, which replaces Houston — where Johnson’s saga in fact played out — as the story’s setting.

Unlike other locally set films that shall go unnamed, there are no random urban alligators to be found here. No out-of-context Mardi Gras parades or gratuitous Bourbon Street shenanigans.

Rather, we get something closer to the real New Orleans — the one the city’s residents know — with scenes playing out in eastern New Orleans, St. Roch, City Park and various greasy spoons around town.

Even there, Linklater’s artful eye is evident, with his inclusion of such curbside poetry as the street signs marking the intersection of Law and Desire, as well as those marking Pleasure and Piety.

Undergirding it all: Music lifted directly from your New Orleans playlist, including the likes of Dr. John, Professor Longhair, Allen Toussaint and Jelly Roll Morton.

What we end up with is a rare treat: a mid-budget movie for grown-ups — no capes, no magic wands, no kid’s stuff.

In other words: pure Linklater.

And that’s a good thing.

Mike Scott can be reached at moviegoermike@gmail.com.

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‘HIT MAN’

3 stars, out of 4

SNAPSHOT: Richard Linklater directs a New Orleans-shot, New Orleans-set crime comedy.

CAST: Glen Powell, Adria Arjona, Austin Amelio, Retta, Sanjay Rao, KC Simms.

DIRECTOR: Linklater.

RATED: R

TIME: 1 hour 55 minutes.

WHEN AND WHERE: Now playing at Canal Place; begins streaming June 7 on Netflix.