Paul McGuire Grimes from Paul’s Trip to the Movies gives us his take on three shows, all available on streaming services.

HIT MAN (Netflix)

Glen Powell is one of the hottest young actors working in Hollywood right now thanks to Top Gun Maverick and the rom com Anyone But You. He’s now reteaming with director Richard Linklater for Hit Man. The opening text shares that Hit Man is a “Somewhat True Story” based on the Texas Monthly Article by Skip Hollandsworth. Glen Powell co-wrote the film with director Richard Linklater and stars as mild-mannered Gary Johnson, a philosophy professor by day who also happens to work undercover for the New Orleans Police Department. He works on a team that poses as hit men to prevent future murder for hire plots. Gary’s hit man alias is “Ron” and his latest client Madison (Adria Arjona) wants Ron to kill her mentally abusive boyfriend. Ron takes pity on her and convinces Madison to pull the plug on the plan and start a new life somewhere else. They bump into each other again and a “friends with benefits” relationship begins between the two of them. Gary has to keep up the ruse of being “Ron the hit man” whenever he’s with her, but it’s not long before people get suspicious of what’s really happening with Gary, aka Ron.

-Powell provides the film’s narration as Gary recounting this strange turn in his life. There’s a fun montage with him debunking the murder for hire concept as different movie characters play behind him.

-Powell’s the kind of actor that can sell any character, and thankfully, he and Richard Linklater know just the right tone to give this film. It leans into dark comedy with Gary having a geeky sensibility to him and is someone who would never be thought of as a fake hit man.

-Watching Glen Powell switch personas is a real treat as he’s a fantastic character actor while also being a guy next door leading man type. He has that effortless charm to pull off any persona. He’s almost too good at it, and Powell and Linklater seem to toy on whether Gary/Ron can be trusted.

-This story is part con movie part philosophy lesson, as Gary reminds his students, “Seize the identity you want for yourself” and this comes after their lessons on Freud’s concepts of the Ego, Id, and Superego.

-There are layers and twists in this film that really start to unfold in the third act. It’s not overly complicated or absurd, but just twisted enough where I didn’t know how it was going to end. It leans into the fun and sexiness from start to finish, and yes, you get pictures of the real Gary Johnson over the closing credits. I want to find the original article and read more about the actual true story.

RATING: 4 out of 5 TICKET STUBS

THE ACOLYTE (Disney +)

The latest Star Wars series, The Acolyte, is another win for them much like Ahsoka and Andor. The story is set 100 years before the birth of the empire. It’s a time of peace in the galaxy. There are a few powerful individuals who have learned how to use the Force. Now there’s one lone assassin who seeks revenge. The opening scene features Carrie-Ann Moss as Jedi Master Indara who is killed by a former young Jedi identified as Osha. She’s played by Amandla Stenberg. Osha’s whereabouts are mysterious as she jumps from ship to ship. She’s quickly found but claims her innocence. Her former Jedi trainer, Master Sol (doesn’t believe she would be capable of something like this. Master Sol quickly learns the truth of whose really behind this killing and learns he’s one of the four targeted Jedi Masters.

-Starring: Amanlda Stenberg, Carrie-Ann Moss, Lee Jung-Jae, Jodie Turner-Smith, Dafne Keen, Dean-Charles Chapman, and Charlie Barnett

-The Acolyte will be eight episodes from creator Lesley Headland who has created one of the best Star Wars series to date making it a character driven revenge story over one relying on action scenes, light sabers battles or legacy characters to drive the series.

-Setting it a hundred years before the Empire allows this Jedi story to stand on its own and for Headlead to create new rules and characters to play with while still feeling like familiar Star Wars territory.

-I was struck early on by how strong this new cast was with Carrie-Ann Moss who feels right at home in the Star Wars universe as a Jedi Master. The martial arts inspired action scenes gave a nice callback to her Matrix days. Lee Jung-Jae won an Emmy for his work on Netflix’s Squid Game and is another strong casting choice. He makes for the ideal Jedi Master in the stillness and wisdom he brings to Master Sol. There’s also this underlying feeling that Master Sol feels partly responsible for what is happening.

-Amandla Stenberg successful navigates two roles in The Acolyte making each one stand out in their motivation and appearance. 

-On the outset, The Acolyte is a revenge story, but underneath that, it’s one of sisterhood and family and what happens when a family member is no longer who we think they are or what we want them to be. There’s a universal understanding there that fits within the Star Wars duality of good and evil. Lesley Headland has a strong first half to this series and I hope this momentum carries on through the finale.

RATING: 4 out of 5 TICKET STUBS

BRATS (Hulu)

For many of us, movies like The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire or Sixteen Candles hit a sweet nostalgic spot of reflecting our own coming of age in high school or life in our early 20s. For actor Andrew McCarthy, he’s reflecting on what it meant to be a part of that era in his new documentary, Brats. The mid 1980s saw a surge of movies geared toward teen audiences with actors like Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Andrew McCarthy, Rob Lowe, and more that spoke to, not only that generation, but every one since then. This era was highlighted in a New York magazine article called “Hollywood’s Brat Pack,” by David Blum, which first appeared in the June 10, 1985. The name “Brat Pack” was a play on the Frank Sinatra/Dean Martin era of the Rat Pack but came with a more negative connotation for its subjects. Andrew McCarthy starred in St. Elmo’s Fire, Pretty in Pink, Class, and more but found that the article ruined his chances of being taken as a serious actor. Now forty years later, he’s hoping to track down his old co-stars to commiserate over what it meant to be a member of the Brat Pack.

-The concept of Brats is highly alluring for anyone who grew up loving this era of Hollywood. Reunions amongst actors and castmates can have a fun and nostalgic feel to them. Don’t go into Brats looking for that same feeling.

-Andrew McCarthy directed this film, and it has a certain scrappy, personal endeavor to it. He proclaims that “experiencing The Brat Pack from the inside, it was something very different.” Brats acts like one big therapy session as he wrestles with a forty-year headspace.

-McCarthy interviews a good number of former castmates like Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore and Brat-pack adjacent people like Jon Cryer and Lea Thompson. They all seem to have moved on with McCarthy being the one still hung up and looking for closure. Demi Moore offers the greatest advice for McCarthy.

-It feels like these interviews didn’t offer up enough of what he wants, so McCarthy then interviews other people like casting directors, pop culture experts and authors like Malcolm Galdwell to get an outsider’s perspective of how and why these movies hit the zeitgeist like they did. There seems to be two different movies here squeezed into one.

-It all culminates to McCarthy talking to author David Blum about why he wrote the article and wanting some sort of apology about the term “brat pack” It’s an awkward and cringey conversation, to say the least.

-I can’t decide if Brats is a successful documentary. Did Andrew McCarthy get what he was searching for? Should this feel more nostalgic and easy-going? It’s a reunion that feels like a “What are we doing here?” instead of a “remember those good times!”

RATING: 2.5 out of 5 TICKET STUBS