I have never been more confused by the reception of a film than I am by Netflix’s new comedy-drama Hit Man, a film by longtime director Richard Linklater. The movie is scoring big with critics (who aren’t named Erik Kain) and audiences alike, and over at Reddit, the reviews are glowing.

I am baffled. I am utterly mystified. It’s like the entire world went crazy and left me—and just a small handful of others—behind. What’s going on? The critics must be crazy, sure, but the audiences along with them this time!

Usually, when I really like something that the rest of my peers seem to hate, the audiences also tend to like it. Or I see the opposite divide, and critics really like something—like The Acolyte—but audiences can’t stand it. I usually find myself on one side of a controversial movie, either agreeing with critics and disagreeing with audiences—like The Green Knight—or the other way around.

It is a very rare day when a movie is beloved by both critics and audiences that I find myself standing over here scratching my head and asking “Why?” Why do people like this movie so much? It’s . . . really not good. And hey, maybe if this was a debut picture from some starry-eyed newcomer who had never been behind a camera before, written by a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed brand-new screenwriter, I could cut it some slack. But Linklater directed Dazed and Confused over 30 years ago, and School Of Rock and Boyhood and Before Sunrise (and the other two films in that trilogy) and plenty of other classics.

This feels like amateur hour to me. As I noted in my review, it feels like three different films awkwardly stitched together: The oddball comedy, where Glen Powell’s character Gary Johnson dresses up in silly costumes and takes on goofy personas to hoodwink criminals in his fake hit man act; the rom-com bit (that critic Jason Fraley hilariously described as “Fifty Shades Of Gary”); and the final fake film noir bit that really convinced me that this movie had no clue what it wanted to be. For a film about identity, Hit Man has none.

So why do all these critics and moviegoers have such a crush on it? Is it the handsome, easy charm of leading man Glen Powell? Is it the sizzling good looks of Adria Arjona? At least Powell gets to be funny. Arjona is basically a character without any personality. She’s given no backstory, no life to explore, no character development. She just shows up and looks hot. And in the third act, when she had the opportunity to surprise us as a ruthless femme fatale, it’s all a fakeout. She’s just a damsel in distress, after all—albeit a murderous one.

I don’t get it. I also don’t mean to belabor the point, but I’ve just never witnessed anything like this before. This is a 7/10 on a good day. I’d give it two stars out of four, feeling generous. If I’d seen this in theaters and you’d asked me to give you a prediction on its Rotten Tomatoes score, I’d say 65% with critics and maybe 70% with audiences. And that’s not because it’s a good movie, but because it’s an easy, mostly feel-good movie with attractive leads. What gives?

Here’s my video review of the film:

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There are 428 million people who track Selena Gomez’s every move on Instagram, a legion of followers larger than those counted by Beyoncé, Taylor Swift or any Kardashian.

For a performer who has been famous since she was a kid — she had a regular gig on the Disney Channel by the time she was 15 — such incessant scrutiny has taken its toll as cutting comments about her romantic life or her looks hurt her mental health. She has taken numerous social media breaks to focus “on what really matters.” But she’s always found her way back online, opting instead to use her massive platform for real talk.

Discover the change-makers who are shaping every cultural corner of Los Angeles. This week we bring you The Connectors, who understand that power doesn’t travel in a straight line and know how to connect the dots. Come back each Sunday for another installment.

In her 2022 documentary, “Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me,” she opened up about seeking treatment at a psychiatric facility after canceling a world tour in 2016. At the time, she said she needed help dealing with anxiety, panic attacks and depression caused by lupus — but she later revealed she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Since then, Gomez, 31, has launched the Rare Impact Fund, for which she hopes to raise $100 million in the next decade to help young people with their mental health. She also co-founded Wondermind, a digital platform offering mental fitness tips and resources. And in 2022, she met with President Biden to discuss how to erase the stigma for those dealing with their mental well-being.

“I’m not perfect, I’m human. I have things that I walk through,” the Texas native said in conversation with the president. “That’s why I feel like people like me, hopefully, can be the other side of the voice and say … I don’t have it all put together, I have had to work through this. I’ve tried everything to escape this feeling.”

Like most celebrities, Gomez uses social media to promote her projects, too. And she has a lot of them. There’s her cosmetics line, Rare Beauty, which made around $300 million in 2023 — and no product costs more than $30. She’s an executive producer and co-star of Hulu’s critically acclaimed “Only Murders in the Building” alongside Steve Martin and Martin Short. She’s still making versions of her at-home cooking show, “Selena + Chef,” through her production company, July Moon. Her fourth studio album is reportedly due out this year.

Oh, and TikTok announced that she was the most popular artist in the U.S. on the video-sharing platform in 2023. But she only has around 58 million followers there. So, like, whatever.

It seems like murder mysteries are a trending topic this season, with and without quality. In the mediocre ones, it is usually a couple of violent crimes, a decent red herring and a ‘Mister Goody Two Shoes’ detective who steps in to save the day. The first few minutes of Netflix’s recent Polish thriller Colors of Evil: Red promise a unique approach to the genre, but then, it unfortunately succumbs to a lack of inventiveness that has marred many a film of this genre.

Director: Adrian Panek

Cast: Jakub Gierszal, Maja Ostaszewska, Zofia Jastrzębska, Andrzej Zieliński, Andrzej Konopka, Przemysław Bluszcz, Jan Wieteska

Streaming on Netflix