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  • Movie Review: ‘Hit Man’

    Glen Powell in 'Hit Man'.
    Glen Powell in ‘Hit Man’. Photo: Netflix. Copyright: © 2024.

    In theaters now and premiering on Netflix June 7 is ‘Hit Man,’ directed by Richard Linklater and starring Glen Powell, Adria Arjona, Retta, Austin Amelio, and Sanjay Rao.

    Related Article: 10 Things We Learned at the ‘Hit Man’ Press Conference with Cast and Crew

    Initial Thoughts

    Glen Powell as Gary Johnson in 'Hit Man.'
    Glen Powell as Gary Johnson in ‘Hit Man.’ Photo: Netflix © 2024.

    Premiering in 2023 at the Venice and Toronto film festivals before being scooped up by Netflix for a reported $20 million, ‘Hit Man’ – kind of like the recent ‘Challengers,’ but very different – is a breath of fresh air: an adult-oriented genre mash-up of rom-com, crime thriller and comedy that’s all the more astounding because it’s partially based on a true story.

    Directed by Richard Linklater (‘School of Rock’) with a verve that’s been missing from some of his recent work, and starring Glen Powell in another star-making turn as a humdrum academic who rediscovers his passion and confidence by pretending to be a smoldering assassin, ‘Hit Man’ is smart, sensual, character-driven, and highly entertaining.

    Story and Direction

    Adria Arjona as Madison, director and co-writer Richard Linkletter, co-writer Glen Powell as Gary Johnson, and director of photography Shane F. Kelly.
    (L to R) Adria Arjona as Madison, director and co-writer Richard Linkletter, co-writer Glen Powell as Gary Johnson, and director of photography Shane F. Kelly. Photo: Brian Rondel / Courtesy of Netflix.

    ‘Hit Man’ is based partially on an article of the same name, written by Skip Hollingsworth, that appeared in Texas Monthly magazine in 2001. It told the story of Gary Johnson, a college professor who moonlighted with the New Orleans police department first as a surveillance tech and then as an undercover agent himself, part of a sting operation set up to nab people looking to hire a hitman to off someone who had become an irritant in their lives.

    What Johnson discovered is also what his screen counterpart, played by Glen Powell, discovers: that he has a genuine knack for not just undercover work, but inhabiting different personalities according to what he thinks the target will respond to. As the film begins, Johnson – lonely, divorced, boring his students and, whether he wants to admit it or not, boring himself – is thrust into his first undercover role when the usual front man, Jasper (a slippery Austin Amelio), is benched after beating on some alleged perps. Much to his surprise, Gary gets into the ‘tough guy’ persona he comes up with on the spot – and the head of his team (Retta) is pleased enough to recommend he keep doing it.

    As Gary moves forward, he begins donning different costumes for each sting: in one of the movie’s funniest ongoing gags, they reference everyone from Christian Bale’s Patrick Bateman in ‘American Psycho’ to Javier Bardem’s Anton Chigurh from ‘No Country for Old Men.’ But while disguised as a cool, suave, and yes, sexy assassin named Ron (Ron wears black tank tops under shirts open halfway down his chest, his hair swept back, while Gary dresses in flannels, khakis, and glasses, his hair flopping over his face), Gary meets a woman named Madison (Adria Arjona), who is looking to have her abusive husband killed.

    Adria Arjona and Glen Powell in 'Hit Man'.
    (L to R) Adria Arjona and Glen Powell in ‘Hit Man’. Photo: Netflix. Copyright: © 2024.

    Gary, as “Ron,” talks Madison out of going forward with her plan, surprising both himself and the members of his team listening in. But no one is more surprised than Gary when he – or rather, “Ron” – reconnects with a newly-separated Madison and begins a steamy relationship with her. From that point on, the story takes multiple twists, and no one – least of all Gary, who is finding it increasingly difficult to figure out where he ends and “Ron” begins – is exactly what they seem.

    Linklater directs all this with a sure hand, confident in the material, the characters, and his actors but adding a little flash here and there with a comic montage or two. What works best about ‘Hit Man’ is its unpredictability: the movie shifts from romance to crime caper to psychological exploration without ever feeling like it’s taken too jarring a turn, which is a credit again both to the balancing of tone in both Linklater’s direction and the script by him and Powell.

    There is perhaps one false note at the end of the picture – a bit of moral ambiguity that is not quite resolved – but in the final analysis, it works within the context of the rest of the story and, if anything, adds a nice touch of subversion to a movie that already lightly subverts some well-worn genre tropes.

    The Cast

    Adria Arjona and Glen Powell in 'Hit Man'.
    (L to R) Adria Arjona and Glen Powell in ‘Hit Man’. Photo: Netflix. Copyright: © 2024.

    Glen Powell has obviously been around for a minute (he’s worked with Linklater several times already), but his breakout work in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and his leading man turn in last year’s ‘Anyone But You’ has positioned him as one of Hollywood’s next big things. Frankly, he deserves it: ‘Hit Man’ features Powell at his most winning, with Gary a complex, compelling, and attractive protagonist who is empathetic and believable from the get-go even as his personal situation becomes more trying. His evolution from nerdy, existentially fuzzy Gary to confident, even swaggering Ron – and then fusing the two from there – is organic and expertly portrayed.

    He and Adria Arjona have instant, off-the-chart chemistry from the start, an ingredient that helps make their love scenes in ‘Hit Man’ more sensual than some of the other screen romance we’ve seen in recent times. We last saw Arjona in a thankless role in 2022’s forgettable ‘Morbius,’ and here she’s much more alluring, sparkling, and funnier. But the character of Madison is somewhat undercooked: she goes from a relationship in which she has absolutely no agency to one in which…she kind of has no agency, waiting in her apartment for “Ron” to come around so they can get busy. There are some subtle reveals to the character later that help flesh Madison out, but she doesn’t come quite as fully to life as Gary.

    The supporting cast is gold, led by Retta as the no-nonsense Claudette and Austin Amelio as the calculating, untrustworthy Jasper. And let’s not forget to mention the parade of suspects that Gary gets locked up through the sting operation – sure, some of them are no more than easily recognizable archetypes, but they each get a funny moment or two.

    Final Thoughts

    Glen Powell in 'Hit Man'.
    Glen Powell in ‘Hit Man’. Photo: Netflix. Copyright: © 2024.

    Light and sure on its feet, ‘Hit Man’ also touches on some heavy questions: Who are we and how many different layers are there to our personalities? Are we really the best version of ourselves and if not, how do we get there? These musings are sprinkled liberally through the film, but the philosophical underpinnings don’t slow down what is still essentially a romp, bolstered by well-drawn characters and a powerhouse lead turn. If a movie like ‘Hit Man’ finds it harder to exist in movie theaters, the industry is truly having an existential crisis of its own.

    ‘Hit Man’ receives 8 out of 10 stars.

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    What is the plot of ‘Hit Man’?

    New Orleans college professor Gary Johnson (Glen Powell) moonlights for the police department as a fake hitman, using multiple disguises to catch people looking to have someone in their lives killed off. But after he talks a beautiful woman (Adria Arjona) out of ordering a hit on her husband — while disguised as a smoldering hitman named Ron — Gary gets caught in an identity crisis that leads him to wonder just who he really is.

    Who is in the cast of ‘Hit Man’?

    • Glen Powell as Gary Johnson
    • Adria Arjona as Madison Masters
    • Austin Amelio as Jasper
    • Retta as Claudette
    • Sanjay Rao as Phil
    • Evan Holtzman as Ray Masters
    Adria Arjona and Glen Powell in 'Hit Man'. Photo: Netflix.
    (L to R) Adria Arjona and Glen Powell in ‘Hit Man’. Photo: Netflix. Copyright: © 2024.

    Other Movies Similar to ‘Hit Man’:

    Buy Tickets: ‘Hit Man’ Movie Showtimes

    Buy Glen Powell Movies On Amazon

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  • ‘Hit Man’ Press Conference with Cast and Crew

    Retta, Adria Arjona, Glen Powell and director Richard Linklater for 'Hit Man'.
    (L to R) Retta, Adria Arjona, Glen Powell and director Richard Linklater for ‘Hit Man’. Photo: Netflix.

    ‘Hit Man’ is a new comic thriller coming to Netflix on June 7th after a limited theatrical run on May 24th. Directed by Richard Linklater (‘Boyhood’) and co-written by Linklater and star Glen Powell (‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ ‘Anyone But You’), the film is based on a 2001 Texas Monthly article by Skip Hollandsworth about a man named Gary Johnson, a New Orleans college professor who moonlights with the Big Easy’s police department as a surveillance tech expert.

    In the film, as in real life, the unassuming Johnson (Powell) is working with a team of detectives conducting a sting operation to catch people who want to hire a hitman to kill a spouse, business partner, or anyone else they want to get rid of. When Johnson must suddenly pose as the fake hitman, he discovers he has a knack for it – as well as a talent for disguising himself as a different type of person for every potential customer.

    Glen Powell as Gary Johnson in 'Hit Man.'
    Glen Powell as Gary Johnson in ‘Hit Man.’ Photo: Netflix © 2024.

    But while posing as a suave, cool, and sexy assassin named Ron, Gary meets a woman named Madison (Adria Arjona, ‘Andor’), who wants to off her abusive husband. “Ron” talks her out of it, and soon he and Madison begin an affair of their own — with Madison not knowing who “Ron” really is — while Gary finds himself entangled in an escalating combination of identity crisis and deception.

    Co-starring Retta (‘Parks and Recreation’), Austin Amelio (‘The Walking Dead’), and Sanjay Rao, ‘Hit Man’ is a crackling, inspired mix of noir, crime thriller, and rom-com that’s hard to pin down to one genre and even more difficult to believe is based on a real person. Powell, Linklater, Arjona, and Retta all recently participated in an online press conference for the film, and here are 10 things we learned there, edited for clarity and length.

    Related Article: Glen Powell, Anthony Mackie and Laura Dern Starring in ‘Monsanto’

    1. Glen Powell Discovered the Story During The Pandemic

    Glen Powell stars in 'Hit Man'.
    Glen Powell stars in ‘Hit Man’. Photo: Netflix.

    Glen Powell says it was early in the pandemic when he first discovered the true story of Gary Johnson and was fascinated by it.

    Glen Powell: Immediately, it was so clear there was such a compelling character there. If you look at the real-life Gary Johnson, he was a psychology professor who actually moonlighted with the police department, did AV equipment, was an ornithologist, Zen Buddhist. It was just such an incredible character piece, but I didn’t really know where it went. All I knew is that there was a fascinating guy here, and they called him the Laurence Olivier of fake hitmen because he approached the job differently. Instead of just becoming the hitman for hire across from someone who is trying to kill their husband or their wife or their business partner, he embodied their fantasy of what a fake hitman is, because hitmen don’t exist. So he took this skillset to a whole new level and started putting on these disguises and all these different things. It was just a fascinating idea…So I called up Rick and I said, I just read this amazing article called ‘Hit Man.’ And Rick said, “Yeah, I read that article when you were in 7th grade.”

    2. Powell Helped Linklater Crack the Story of ‘Hit Man’

    Adria Arjona as Madison, director and co-writer Richard Linkletter, co-writer Glen Powell as Gary Johnson, and director of photography Shane F. Kelly.
    (L to R) Adria Arjona as Madison, director and co-writer Richard Linkletter, co-writer Glen Powell as Gary Johnson, and director of photography Shane F. Kelly. Photo: Brian Rondel / Courtesy of Netflix.

    Richard Linklater says he had been thinking about making a movie out of ‘Hit Man’ for years but that working with Glen Powell finally unlocked the story.

    Richard Linklater: I was so excited to get this call from Glen because that story had been kicking around in my head. I had talked to Skip, I had had a couple of meetings on it over the years, but it didn’t really work. It didn’t really work as a film because there was this repetition. It didn’t really go anywhere. So I told this to Glen [and] he said, ‘Well, let’s talk about it.” I was like, “Oh, wow, it’s the pandemic. What else are we going to do?” So talk we did, every day for a while. We would just have hours of conversations. And Glen kind of loosened the logjam I was in. He said, “Well, what if we deviate? Why do we have to stick to the facts?” So once that floodgate opened, we were off to the races. We just started having these great ideas, and the last two thirds of the movie kind of comes out of that. The genres kick in and it becomes this thrill ride. But it was grounded in Gary Johnson’s life reality…[he] was a real person, [with] a real job, the strangest occupation anyone could ever have.

    3. One Paragraph in the ‘Hit Man’ Article Became Half the Movie

    Glen Powell and Adria Arjona in 'Hit Man'.
    (L to R) Glen Powell and Adria Arjona in ‘Hit Man’. Photo: Netflix. Copyright: © 2024.

    In the movie, Gary Johnson meets with a woman who wants to put out a hit on her abusive husband. Gary, disguised as a suave assassin named Ron, talks her out of it, persuading her to take control of her life instead. The two later begin their own relationship, which drives the second half of the film.

    Glen Powell: The story wasn’t revealing itself in a natural way, but then there was this paragraph about this woman that the real-life Gary Johnson sat down with. She was approaching him to get him to kill her husband. And instead of sending her to jail like he did with everybody else, he didn’t believe that she was capable of this thing. He sort of believed in the best of her and talked her out of it. It was the first time that ever happened, and there was a relationship that developed from that. But all of a sudden the article just sort of moves on, and Rick and I were like, well, what if we pull at that thread? We have so many questions about what that relationship is and how they reengaged with each other. Did he stay as the fake hitman? So really that was a big breaking point because that was when we started thinking about, [what] if he got stuck in this identity as this fake hitman?

    4. Not Just Another Femme Fatale

    Adria Arjona stars in 'Hit Man'.
    Adria Arjona stars in ‘Hit Man’. Photo: Netflix.

    Adria Arjona’s character, Madison, reveals more layers to her personality as the film goes on, which is something Arjona wanted to happen.

    Adria Arjona: She’s a woman that’s coming from a traumatic relationship, this weird kind of dark relationship, and she’s desperate for reinvention. I think we all do that in life, where we’re all always trying to find sort of a different version of ourselves. She’s sort of playing that. She’s kind of looking at Ron and going, what would Ron like? What would a bad boy like Ron want in a woman? So I don’t see Madison as a femme fatale. I see a woman trying to play the illusion of a femme fatale. That was really fun to play with. I just had so much fun crafting that with them, and it felt a little bit more grounded. That was something that I could do. I wasn’t interested in just being the femme fatale.

    5. Retta Didn’t Find Out She Had Her Role For, Like, Forever

    Retta stars in 'Hit Man'.
    Retta stars in ‘Hit Man’. Photo: Netflix.

    The ‘Parks and Recreation’ star auditioned for the role of Claudette, leader of the undercover New Orleans police sting operation for which Gary first does surveillance and then acts as a fake hitman.

    Retta: I got an audition from my agent and I was like, oh, it’s Rick and Glen. I didn’t know Glen wrote. So I was like, “Look at you, fancy.” So I put myself on tape and didn’t hear anything for a long time. Then Glen and I happened to be at [a party] and Glen is talking to me as if I was hired. He was like, “We’re going to make that movie. We’re going to have so much fun.” I was like, “Dude, did I get the job?” I literally went home that night and texted my manager and I was like, did someone not email me to let me know that I booked this gig? But I know Glen from 10 years ago; we did a movie together [‘Sex Ed’]. I know Rick from 20 years ago; we did a pilot together. So I know them personality-wise, and I was like, “Oh, this is going to be a very calm environment.”

    6. How Retta’s Role Changed From Claude to Claudette

    Austin Amelio as Jasper, Sanjay Rao as Phil and Retta as Claudette in 'Hit Man'.
    (L to R) Austin Amelio as Jasper, Sanjay Rao as Phil and Retta as Claudette in ‘Hit Man’. Photo: Brian Roedel/Netflix © 2024.

    As is often the case, the role of Claudette was supposed to be a man (Claude), but Retta took it over with few changes and not a lot of research.

    Retta: It was written originally as a guy. So I just chose to be me if I were a detective. Those are the choices that I made. I was me saying those lines as a detective in that space. It wasn’t much more than that. I didn’t study anything. We met some detectives that told us how things go, but that was about it for me. I don’t watch a lot of true crime. I listened to some podcasts and they used to scare me, so I stopped. I like to problem-solve. So that’s why I was like, I feel like he said this, so I feel like we need to do that.

    7. Richard Linklater Was Very Happy to Work With Glen Powell Again

    Glen Powell, Adria Arjona, director Richard Linklater and Sanjay Rao for 'Hit Man'.
    (L to R) Glen Powell, Adria Arjona, director Richard Linklater and Sanjay Rao for ‘Hit Man’. Photo: Netflix.

    Richard Linklater previously directed Glen Powell in 2016’s ‘Everybody Wants Some!!’ with the latter playing Walt “Finn” Finnegan.

    Richard Linklater: Kind of the greatest thing about getting to do this over the years and decades is when you work with someone you like and if the planets align, you get to work with ’em again. It’s just wonderful. With Glen, I think our big breakthrough was 10 years ago we were shooting ‘Everybody Wants Some!!’ Glen came in and auditioned. I had a part that I thought would be very difficult to cast. He’s an athlete, yet he’s really smart and charming, and he’s kind of the team intellectual. I was like, oh, this is a small little target, who’s going to do this? I’d known Glen for about 10 years at this time. I’d worked with him when he was young, like a high school kid…But he walked in the room and was this guy. I was like, when did Glen become so amazing? He’s so smart. He’s so charming. I was just seeing this force of nature. I was like, oh my God, he solved my problem. I got my guy to play this thing. But we had such a great creative time on that…when he called me with this, it was off to the races creatively, because he is just fun to work with. He’s funny and smart and a great collaborator.

    8. Glen Powell to Richard Linklater: Right Back Atcha, Pal!

    Glen Powell in 'Hit Man'.
    Glen Powell in ‘Hit Man’. Photo: Netflix. Copyright: © 2024.

    Glen Powell explains why he enjoys collaborating with Linklater and would like to keep it going.

    Glen Powell: The wonderful thing about writing with Rick is that your conversations become wonderful pages and friendship and work blend together in this kind of effortless way. It’s what I think makes him magical as a filmmaker. He’s never attacking a story. He sort of lets the story reveal itself. And when he casts people, he really allows them to come into the process. There’s sort of this wonderful room for life that he gives everything. I think it makes that ecosystem very different and very fruitful. So I’d love to keep doing this till our fingers just freeze up on the keyboard.

    9. The Texting/Playacting Scene Was Everything

    Adria Arjona and Glen Powell in 'Hit Man'.
    (L to R) Adria Arjona and Glen Powell in ‘Hit Man’. Photo: Netflix. Copyright: © 2024.

    During one crucial, showstopping scene late in the movie, Gary (Powell) guides Madison (Arjona) through a fake argument by texting her what to say and how to act, even as the other members of his police team are listening to them talk.

    Adria Arjona: We spoke about that scene so much between the three of us. It was that scene that we just never gave up on. There were so many different iterations of how we might do it… So when we first heard that first “action,” all of a sudden I start seeing Glen kind of guide me through this scene in such a seamless way. My job really was to follow his lead as much as I could. It was one of those scenes where we didn’t stop looking at each other. I looked at every gesture that he did, and it triggered something in me. So I feel like it’s a scene where teamwork was so important and so crucial. I don’t think I’ve done that before in any movie. You aspire to be the best listener you can. I mean, that’s what acting is all about. But everyone has their own motives. You’re playing your own characters. For this scene, we had to be symbiotic for it to work. It was also so much fun.

    10. What a Surprise: The Studios Didn’t Get ‘Hit Man’

    Glen Powell in 'Hit Man'.
    Glen Powell in ‘Hit Man’. Photo: Netflix. Copyright: © 2024.

    According to Powell, no Hollywood studios were interested in backing ‘Hit Man.’ The movie was financed and filmed independently, then played at the Venice and Toronto film festivals in 2023 – with Netflix purchasing it at the latter for a reported $20 million.

    Glen Powell: We took this movie out and no one got it. We took this script out. We were so proud of it. We were so excited about what it said about identity and passion. We thought it was so universal and exciting. It was going to be an audience movie. And then it was just crickets. No one got it. Nobody responded to it because I don’t think it fits into one box. We were trying to do something original, and I think the town always wanted it to be something else. I think what I’m just really proud of is we got to make this movie independently, and make the movie that we wanted to make. It doesn’t subscribe to any genre. It doesn’t fit into any box. I think the reason it’s a really great audience movie, and the reason people are responding to it, is you can’t get out in front of it. You can’t predict it because it’s all the things.

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    What is the plot of ‘Hit Man’?

    A part-time staffer (Glen Powell) with the New Orleans Police Department stumbles into the role of posing undercover as a reliable hitman with the goal of arresting those trying to hire him. He discovers he has a talent for theatrically matching the expectations of his suspects with often-humorous costumes, accents, and mannerisms, which makes him especially adept at his work. He meets with a woman (Adria Arjona) who wants a hitman to kill her husband, but he falls for her at first sight and saves her from getting entrapped. Later she bamboozles her way into his life and murders her husband for the insurance money. The story explores how far will a person go for infatuation, love, and personal happiness.

    Who is in the cast of ‘Hit Man’?

    • Glen Powell as Gary Johnson
    • Adria Arjona as Maddy Masters
    • Austin Amelio as Jasper
    • Retta as Claudette
    • Sanjay Rao as Phil
    • Evan Holtzman as Ray Masters
    • Molly Bernard as Gary’s ex-wife
    Retta, Glen Powell, Adria Arjona, director Richard Linklater and Sanjay Rao for 'Hit Man'.
    (L to R) Retta, Glen Powell, Adria Arjona, director Richard Linklater and Sanjay Rao for ‘Hit Man’. Photo: Netflix.

    Other Movies Similar to ‘Hit Man’:

    Buy Tickets: ‘Hit Man’ Movie Showtimes

    Buy Glen Powell Movies On Amazon

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  • ‘Good Girls’ Renewed for Third Season at NBC

    ‘Good Girls’ Renewed for Third Season at NBC

    NBC

    The women of “Good Girls” will be back for a third season.

    The series, which stars Christina Hendricks, Mae Whitman and Retta as friends who rob their local supermarket and then get swept up in money laundering, was created by Jenna Bans.

    “We’re so excited to continue following the friendship and adventures of these three incredible women while also exploring relatable issues in both funny and surprising ways,” said Lisa Katz and Tracey Pakosta, co-presidents of scripted programming at NBC Entertainment. “Congratulations to Jenna Bans, and our amazing writers, cast and crew who give these stories depth and humanity.”

    The show’s second season, which ends on May 19,  is averaging 2.4 million total live viewers and a delayed viewing (live +7 days), average of 4.1 million total viewers.

    “Good Girls” now joins NBC’s previously renewed dramas “The Blacklist,” “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago Med,” “Chicago PD,” “Law & Order: SVU” and “New Amsterdam.” Also renewed for the 2019-2020 season, comedies “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “The Good Place,” “Superstore” and “Will & Grace.”

    [Via Variety]

     

  • Retta, Christina Hendricks, and Mae Whitman Rob a Grocery Store in the ‘Good Girls’ Trailer

    Three of our favorite TV stars — Good Girls,” and based on the fabulous first trailer for the intriguing dramedy, it appears poised to become our new favorite show.

    If the above starry cast alone didn’t pique your interest, then this first clip should. The three titular women (Retta, Hendricks, Whitman), regular suburban moms all in various stages of financial/life distress, decide to rob a grocery store to get some much-needed cash — and take control of their lives once and for all. But how will they handle the fallout from their first foray into crime?

    It turns out, not so well, since they’re eventually caught by some scary guys with guns and tattoos who know exactly what they did. But don’t count out these so-called good girls just yet.

    “We’re not going to sit back and let everything be taken from us,” declares Hendricks’s character.

    We certainly don’t want to mess with this tough-as-nails trio. And we can’t wait to see how their story unfolds.

    “Good Girls” premieres on NBC on February 26.

  • ‘Parks and Rec’ Star Retta Wrote a Book, So Get Ready to Treat Yo Self

    6th Annual Women Making History Awards - ArrivalsWhat’s better than massages, mimosas, and fine leather goods? Anything having to do with Parks and Recreation” alum and hilarious Twitter personality. Now, fans can treat themselves to even more, longer musings from the star: Retta has written a book, due out next year.

    The actress revealed the exciting news herself — where else? — on social media on Monday, giving “Parks” fans an early Treat Yo Self Tuesday gift.

    “Ya girl wrote a muhfuhkin book!” Retta tweeted, sharing a photo of the tome’s cover. “When did I find the time?!”

    Indeed, the star has been busy since “Parks” left the air in 2015, lending her voice to “The LEGO Ninjago Movie,” starring in Bravo series “Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce,” and co-headlining the intriguing new drama pilot “Good Girls.” But we’re so glad that she was able to take a breather from her busy schedule — and bustling Twitter feed — to give fans a deeper look into her life.

    There’s not much info about the book available right now, but here’s the blurb from the publisher:

    In her hilarious book of essays, Parks and Recreation star Retta shares the stories that led to her success in Hollywood.

    “So Close to Being the Sh*t” is due out on June 26, 2018.

    [via: Retta/Twitter]

  • Treat Yo Self to Aziz Ansari & Retta’s ‘Parks and Rec’ Reenactment

    NBCUNIVERSAL EVENTS -- NBCUniversal Press Tour, January 2015 -- "Parks and Recreation" -- Pictured: (l-r) Adam Scott, Jim O'Heir, Amy Poehler, Chris Pratt, Aziz Ansari, Retta -- (Photo by: Paul Drinkwater/NBC) NBCUNIVERSAL EVENTS -- NBCUniversal Press Tour, January 2015 -- "Parks and Recreation" -- Pictured: (l-r) Adam Scott, Jim O'Heir, Amy Poehler, Chris Pratt, Aziz Ansari, Retta -- (Photo by: Paul Drinkwater/NBC) NBCUNIVERSAL EVENTS -- NBCUniversal Press Tour, January 2015 -- "Parks and Recreation" -- Pictured: (l-r) Adam Scott, Jim O'Heir, Amy Poehler, Chris Pratt, Aziz Ansari, Retta -- (Photo by: Paul Drinkwater/NBC)The “Parks and Recreation” cast is a famously tight-knit crew, supporting each other’s creative endeavors outside of Pawnee and generally being the best friends ever. And even though the series is over, that’s still true today, as stars Aziz Ansari and Retta have proven with a hilarious new Dubsmash video recreating one of their most well-known “Parks” scenes.

    Ansari and Retta hung out this weekend in celebration of the bow of Ansari’s new Master of None.” But the pair couldn’t resist reliving their “Parks” past, with Retta posting an awesome Instagram Dubsmash of the stars mouthing along to their “Treat Yo Self” scene from season four.

    Though the actress admitted that her timing was a bit off, the video is still pretty perfect, especially the way she and Ansari remain deadly (and hilariously) serious about their massages, mimosas, and fine leather goods. (Retta’s over-enunciation of that last item always gets us.) It really was/is the best day of the year, and we’re glad we can relive it with them.

    Treat yo self to the amazing clip, below.


    [via: Retta]

    Photo credit: Paul Drinkwater/NBC

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