Although he’s made a wide range of movies since the release of Slacker, the feature that put him on the colorful map of creators, writer-director Richard Linklater can seem at his most jubilantly engaged whenever he circles back to the sort of character who might have slipped in to take their turn among the compulsively philosophizing odd ducks who populated that foundational screen triumph. Linklater favors the endearingly off-kilter, people who see the world a little differently and don’t mind chatting through why that’s the case. The filmmaker is also a devoted scholar of his cinematic predecessors, understanding how acts of narrative artifice reveal and conceal greater human truth. In those instances when Linklater can bring all those fascinations together with his own well-honed storytelling skill, he makes movies that crackle with life.

Hit Man is based on a true story, though plenty of liberties are taken. A 2001 article in Texas Monthly detailed the strange moonlighting work of Gary Johnson, an academic who regularly played a hit man in undercover sting operations for the Houston police department. Linklater adapted the piece with Glen Powell, an actor who’s appeared in several of the director’s films (Everybody Wants Some!! is probably the most notable example), and together the pair fashion a true star vehicle for Powell. Emphasizing the absurdity of hit men, which Linklater has pointed out is a nonexistent profession that movies and other fictions have made seem pervasive, the script contrives to make Gary an impish master of disguise. He presents himself to potential clients as a snarling Russian, a hyperactive good ol’ boy, or, maybe most memorably, a riff on Christian Bale’s mannered portrayal of Patrick Batemen in Mary Harron’s American Psycho. Powell revels in the opportunity to romp through these comic caricatures, counterbalancing the extremes with more intricate work as the sweetly nebbishy Gary.

It’s to Gary’s good fortune that he forgoes the wigs, prosthetics, and accents when he responds to the initial inquiry from Madison (Adria Arjona, terrific in a role that keeps revealing new layers), a woman who seeks his services to help free her from a smothering marriage. Sympathetic to her plight — and probably immediately smitten — Gary, posing as Ron the hit man, steers Madison away from the criminal transaction and urges her to find a different way to restart her life. Before long, the two are caught in a lusty romance that is complicated by Gary’s persistence in operating under his fake identity, which is essentially a cooler, more confident version of himself.

Hit Man percolates along as a mix of dark comedy, sexy rom-com, and thriller, all the while exploring themes that have long cropped up in Linklater’s films, such as the surprising pliability of identity and the elusiveness of straightforward morality. Mostly, the film is distinct for its exuberant sense fun. It hums with the conviction that movies have an obligation to be entertaining. Hit Man isn’t without its flaws: plausibility occasionally cedes to narrative efficiency, and Gary’s classroom lectures get a honorable mention on the long list of laughable depictions of U.S. higher education on the screen. The problems seem negligible when the film is eagerly engaged in joyful showmanship. Linklater is clearly charmed by these people and their shared story, and that affection comes through in every beat of the film. I’m charmed by this Hit Man, too.