A David Fincher movie? Sign me up. With a Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross score? And a protagonist with an ever-present nihilistic inner monologue? Ummm…is this my new favorite movie? It’s not, but it’s still very good.
Fincher brings to the big screen a story adapted from a popular French graphic novel, which follows the life of an unnamed assassin. And that’s it. A story so simple that it is impossible to spoil. Fincher gets this. He displays an understanding of the material and how the person at the center of it sees the world. His direction (with some masterful cinematography from Erik Messerschmidt) allows for audiences to feel the Killer’s isolation, the cold unforgiving world he exists in and the claustrophobic ever-present danger that closes in on this man during every moment of this movie. Fincher does what he does and does it to perfection.
Narrated by “The Killer” (Michael Fassbender), we follow this solitary assassin during a stakeout. With only his meticulous inner monologue to keep him occupied, he walks us through his outlook on life as a person who kills for money. Not quite holding a misanthropic/Travis Bickle vision of the world, the Killer’s monologue is a mix of forced disengagement, skepticism and nihilism with a tinge of curiosity. The details of said monologues are often couched in random facts, philosophical insights and anecdotes; historical and otherwise, depending on his actions in that very moment. Some of the Killer’s mantras include: “stick to the plan”, “anticipate, never improvise”, “trust no one” and “forbid empathy”. And everything seems to be going according to plan until he mistakenly misses a target, which propels him into an entire movie’s worth of battles with ruthless employers who now see him as a loose end.
Fassbender embodies this man of few spoken words, as someone who slips through this world constantly attempting to convince himself to do what it takes in order to succeed, all while maintaining a detachment from the violence he puts into the world with such ease that we develop a bond with this cold-blooded killer as he details how cold-blooded he is.
Final Thought: The vibe is a dreary, dimly lit and stylish revenge story with a ruthless protagonist. A tale built for the cinema, from a director who can do no wrong. Currently available on Netflix, I just wish I could’ve seen this in the theaters. The Killer is introspective John Wick. And yes, I now need a series of these films.
Follow me on X (Twitter) @moviesmarkus and Instagram @moviesmarkus1
MOVIESMARKUS 