#90: The Killer
Release Date: October 27th, 2023
Format: Streaming (Netflix)
Written by: Andrew Kevin Walker
Directed by: David Fincher
4 Stars
I suppose the reaction to The Killer could be dichotomous for many David Fincher fans:
Either you believe this is practically a cliche of a David Fincher movie, a retread of his prior filmography with tired motifs that he’s already explored to considerable lengths.
Or you’re just highly entertained by a masterful director working within the milieu that suits him best.
Consider me part of the latter.
Maybe we should think of David Fincher as a master sushi chef. At his best, he’s not going to offer a creative menu. He’s not going to incorporate unexpected flavors. And he will not improvise. But he will absolutely insist on the highest quality ingredients possible, and he will exert as much control over those ingredients as humanly possible. The preparation, intention, and presentation will be immaculate. David Fincher is in control of what he is doing.
And it’s control that dominates Fincher’s work. His visual style is about control, his characters exert control or at the mercy of others’ control, and his ideology seems to be that through control people can bring order to a chaotic, meaningless universe.
The Killer finds Fincher working once again with writer Andrew Kevin Walker, who penned Se7en some 30 years ago. In the movie, Michael Fassbender plays an unnamed killer commissioned to assassinate a wealthy Parisian for reasons we don’t know. For days he waits in a WeWork space across the street with his high-powered rifle, biding his time for the perfect shot. While he waits, we get to hear his inner monologue. In a measured, almost congenial tone, the killer tells us about the nature of his job, his views on life and death, and why McDonalds is a perfectly practical meal. We watch him do yoga. We listen to The Smiths with him.
It’s captivating in its simplicity. It’s voyeuristic. It’s entrancing.
When the killer finally gets his shot, he misses. The chaotic, meaningless universe intervenes. Things are now out of his control, and the movie will follow him as he attempts to regain it.
After watching The Killer, I realized that Edward Norton’s character in Fight Club was also unnamed, and also sought to bring order to his life (not with killing, but with mindless labor and consumerism). Additionally, Social Network depicted Mark Zuckerberg fighting for singular control of what would become FaceBook. Zodiac and Se7en and Girl With the Dragon Tattoo showed detectives struggling to understand killers with a maniacal devotion to control. The Game gave us a protagonist stripped completely of his controlled life for reasons he can’t understand.
The Killer is an extension of these same ideas. It is not an exhibition for Fincher’s growth as a filmmaker. Why would it be? This is an artist sharpening his knife, honing his vision. It’s an exhibition of control.
