Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Hit Man,” “Daddio” & “Next Goal Wins”

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HIT MAN (no distrib):  A clever, funny, sexy entertainment from Richard Linklater and emerging star Glen Powell, who co-wrote the script with the director (both also produced), inspired by an already-wild true story.  Powell plays Gary Johnson, a philosophy teacher moonlighting as a consultant for a local Texas police department.  He’s supposed to be advising them on surveillance tech, but happenstance puts him in a position to replace one of the detectives and take on the guise of a hit man in a sting to trap people as they attempt to order murders. To the astonishment of everyone, Gary is a natural, and before long he’s adapting his alter ego Ray to fit whatever kind of assassin a prospective employer might desire.  Things get more complicated when Madison (Adria Arjona) approaches Ray to kill her husband, and Gary falls head over heels for her.  What follows has aspects of noir and farce, reminiscent of the Coens but with a sunnier outlook on life.  Powell, who’s been hovering on the edge of wide success with ensemble roles in Top Gun: Maverick and Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some, as well as a lead in Netflix’s Set It Up, has given himself a big-time star vehicle that provides a showcase for him across genres.  The secret sauce of Hit Man, though, is the electricity between Powell and Arjona, playing a woman who may or may not be a femme fatale.  This is by far the best role the actress has had to date after laboring in action movies like 6 Underground and Morbius, and watching the two of them is a reminder that American movies have more or less cast romantic thrillers aside, allowing actors to spark each other only in the tamer realm of rom-coms.  Hit Man doesn’t have much more on its mind than supplying audiences with a couple of hours of diversion, but what more really do we need?

DADDIO (no distrib):  Christy Hall’s feature debut (she created the Netflix edgy superpower comedy I Am Not Okay With This) isn’t just an almost pure two-hander, it could practically have been a radio play.  The set-up is simple:  a woman (Dakota Johnson) gets into a cab at JFK, and we follow the ride in real time as the driver (Sean Penn) takes her to midtown Manhattan.  Hall doesn’t ring any stylistic or formal changes on the traditional format for a story like this, as the two people temporarily occupying a close space shift over time from polite conversation to major revelations (with some setbacks for mild hostility along the way), until by the end of the ride they’ve made an imprint on each other.  The technical aspects of keeping the audience almost entirely inside a cab without being claustrophobic or tiresome are handled very nicely by cinematographer Phedon Paramichael and editor Lisa Zeno Churgin.  In the end, though, a vehicle like this will always depend on the actors shouldering the narrative.  In Daddio, Johnson and Penn are more than up to the task.  Johnson has the more active role, with Penn serving as interlocutor, sometimes genial and eventually challenging.  Penn, of course, is one of our notable actors, with a pair of Oscars to his name, so it’s no surprise that his work is high-caliber.  It’s been a while, though, since he’s committed himself to partnering another performer, and his work here is beautifully calibrated.  Those who haven’t seen Johnson’s recent turns in small films like The Lost Daughter and Cha Cha Real Smooth (as well as the little-seen Am I OK) may be surprised that she can go toe-to-toe with her celebrated co-star, but she’s more than able to match him.  Daddio is a pleasing if unsurprising opportunity to see two fine actors in strong form.

NEXT GOAL WINS (Searchlight/Disney – Nov. 17):  Production began on Taika Waititi’s comedy almost 4 years ago, before the filmmaker began shooting Thor: Love and Thunder.  Although some of the extremely long delay before release had practical cause (footage that included Armie Hammer in a supporting role was discarded and reshot with Will Arnett after Hammer became a subject of scandal), it was an open secret that Next Goal Wins was being heaviy reworked in postproduction.  Sometimes the films with discouraging history and nervous buzz prove the naysayers wrong.  Sadly, that’s not the case with Next Goal Wins.  It’s impossible to tell how much of its pieces not fitting together are the result of the multiple rewrites and reshoots, but result is a mess.  Inspired by a true story and documentary film, the movie’s protagonist is Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender), a washed-up soccer coach who’s told by the US Federation that the only job he can get is coaching the American Samoa team, a hopeless bunch who were at the wrong end of a historic 31-0 trouncing in a World Cup qualifying match.  The team, in fact, has never scored a single goal in one of those matches, and Rongen is told that success wouldn’t even require a win, just one score.  Next Goal Wins isn’t particularly ambitious, it just wants to be an eccentric-underdogs-prove-themselves sports story, and everyone Rongen meets on the island is reliably odd, like the jack-of-all-trades mayor, and the player with flowing hair whose name isn’t Samson, it’s Samsung.  But Fassbender, a fine dramatic actor, is dreadfully miscast in a role that requires comedy, and scenes with his ex-wife (Elizabeth Moss) and her new partner (Arnett), both of whom are on the Federation, feel awkward and unshaped–especially after a climactic reveal by Rongen that makes one question the tone of everything that’s come before.  There’s also an unfortunate subplot about the coach’s evolving understanding of the team’s trans player.  Next Goal Wins may not go down to a historic drubbing, but it’s never in the game.