There are times when the film industry is determined to force-feed us an actor who, they’re convinced, is going to be the next big thing. It happened with Sam Worthington, Armie Hammer or Taylor Kitsch before we discovered that really nobody cared about any of them… and we all still wonder whether the same thing will happen with Glen Powell, an actor who has either chosen his films well, or sells tickets with his pretty face. It’s not the same thing, and this film, which flopped at the box office but has a second life on streaming, knows it well.
The new Tom Cruise or the new Flop Cruise?
Powell’s career, since he broke out in Top Gun: Maverick, is something of a mixed bag: Anyone But You, Hit Man, Twisters or Super Mario Galaxy sit alongside flops like The Running Man or this Jugada Maestra. But if we’re honest, the truth is that neither of those two deserved to flop at the box office. The Stephen King adaptation is a very honest piece of work from Edgar Wright, looking to carve out a place for himself in the American blockbuster, and Jugada Maestra is the kind of film that back in the early 2000s would’ve filled theaters… and now racks up views at home.
This is a remake of a 1949 classic, Kind Hearts and Coronets, which in turn was loosely based on a 1907 novel. The leap across mediums, from novel to film and from film to contemporary cinema, doesn’t hurt Jugada Maestra, which leans on Powell’s charisma to shape a protagonist who is terribly wicked but still manages to get his way all the time. The typical scoundrel Hollywood has taught us to love, but with a twist: he’s a penniless nobody with a very good reason to murder his whole family without batting an eye for $28 billion. An antihero? Yes, but it’s inevitable that we take his side.
Jugada Maestra also has addictive editing, almost an heir to the TikTok generation and with A24’s usual polish, where impossible shots mix with an irredeemably fast pace, leaving little room to breathe beyond a few necessary conversations to keep moving forward. It’s very, very hard not to get hooked despite an ending that doesn’t have much more to give and a somewhat predictable story (once you get to a certain point, a collection of black-comedy sketches) perfect for those summer afternoons when the sun has fried our brains completely.
Along the way we’ll come across not only Powell, but a whole lot of familiar faces from American cinema like Margaret Qualley, Jessica Henwick, Zach Woods, Ed Harris, Topher Grace or Sean Cameron Michael, in a real who’s who that recalls those star-stuffed comedies of yesteryear that we miss so much. It’s also true that with Jugada Maestra you either buy in or you don’t, with no middle ground. It’s a vehicle to show what Powell has to offer, and, probably, whether you like it or not will depend solely on what you think of the actor. He’s not Tom Cruise, obviously, but few people have that same magnetic smile.
You can watch it on HBO Max, and I’m warning you right now: grab your bowl of popcorn and get ready to have fun, because it may not hold up to highbrow criticism, but it’s ideal for a pre- (or post-) pool afternoon. We’re in the middle of August, do you really want anything more than Glen Powell killing people to steal their inheritance?
