The Killer

The first thing that hit me about The Killer is how screamingly funny it is. 

I don’t want to give too much away but it’s more than just the cute alias names that no normal citizen recognizes — it’s also every step in The Killer’s journey being a step further away from his repeated mantras. 

It’s a movie about a guy violating his (horrific) ethos and regressing until you watch him and be amazed as he does all of the things he’s been saying a good criminal would never do. 

Judge me by my actions.  

Director David Fincher, screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker and lead actor Michael Fassbender clearly know what they have here and extract every bit of entertainment value out of the proposition. 

Fincher proved with The Social Network and Mank that he could make great movies without a bunch of brutal set pieces. But this is the other thing. It features well shot and interesting violence similar to Gone Girl, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Panic Room. It’s not 

There is one scene that reminded me of the master, Alfred Hitchcock. 

“In films murders are always very clean. I show how difficult it is and what a messy thing it is to kill a man,” he said. 

When The Killer invades a home to get some revenge (something his mantra would suggest he should never do) Fincher gives us a perfect showcase of how hard it is to kill a man. 

The Killer takes time to show that and to show some of the effort it takes to get away clean. Clean physically, a clean getaway from the cops but never a clean escape for your soul. 

Fincher has probably made another flick that incels will latch onto but as he said in the interviews leading to The Killer’s release it’s not his fault if the people who watch his movie can’t recognize that he’s condemning them and not praising their commitment to being trashbag human beings. 

It remains thrilling to watch Fincher’s flicks. I don’t believe in the auteur theory (unless the director is also the screenwriter and even then the enterprise is a massive collaborative undertaking) but Fincher is one of the handful of current directors who could honestly lay claim to the title. 

Does this material work without a director of his taste and caliber? Maybe, but you would end up with something a lot closer to a John Wick knock off than the riveting little noir crime story you get here. 

One final thing, The Killer, after killing one innocent person and killing someone else that he maybe could have left alive then goes out of his way to drug a dog so that he can accomplish a bit of revenge without killing the animal. 

Why does he do this? This guy has been telling us for most of the movie that he is a nhillist who believes that his deadly actions will have no consequences in the world. 

Cause it’s a movie. 

And Fincher, Fassbender and Walker aren’t dopes. They know they can get away with a ton of indiscriminate killing but a dog … that’s where the audience will draw the line.