The Killer
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I miss the times when you could see a David Fincher movie in the cinema. The last time he made a true cinema picture was almost 10 years ago in 2014. Since then he fully embraced the DRM filled streaming dis-service models. And his latest film The Killer is a straight to Netflix production. And it seems like he himself feels a bit off about it. Because if we take the character as a proxy for Fincher himself. This character is complex in how much he tries to justify himself being a terrible person.
The movie is about a guy who wants to be a psychopath, but who is ultimately isn't one. He is very close to psychopathy. But a tit bit of empathy still lives inside of him. Even the main plot is an expression of his empathy, so to speak. Even though it consists of killing people.
The movie has a very interesting decision. There are multiple different names that the main character has. And all of them are unimportant. Therefor even the credits call the main character simply "The Killer". This killer is very calculative and cold. Similar to Fincher himself. And he does bad things for money. Similar to Fincher himself. ( Making movies isn't bad, distributing them with DRM is ). Perhaps the real name of The Killer is David Fincher.
When watching this movie, I was subtly manipulated into comparing it with The House That Jack Built. It's not nearly as bad. In the house that jack built, the director went for psychologically disturbing portrayal of what real psychopathy might be like. The Killer plays with disturbing suggestions. But since the character has empathy, it's not nearly as psychologically disturbing. In few scenes where stuff is suggested it is done so to elevate the suspense of the situation. There are shots showing what this killer guy could have done. For example, when he tests his lens, he looks through it on a child on the street. Suggesting that he had an absolute ability to kill that child then and there. But it was not his objective, so he didn't do it. The suggestion is what scary here. Not the action itself.
Directorially the movie is very Finchery. You have very static shots. Sometimes very slow movements of the camera. The shots are composed very to the point. When the character is in control the shots are static. When he is not in control the shots are hand held and frantic. The movie has a few chase scenes. All of which do not feel hollywoody. One is a very calculated escape. No flashiness. The flashiness would attract the police. The escape, even though quick, was done in such a way that the police didn't even see it. The others are mostly stealth chases. Think the chase scene from Vertigo, not a chase scene from Baby Driver. There is one very good fight scene in the middle of the film. There is no Kung-Fu or anything flashy. But there is an imbalance in power against the main character. He is a skinny dude. Smart, but with not a lot of physical strength. And he is fighting a big ass bulldozer type guy.
Acting-wise there is a lot of subtlety in this film. There is a very good conversational scene between The Killer played by Michael Fassbender and The Expert played by Tilda Swinton. For the majority, she is talking and he is just sitting there kind of frozen to intimidate her. But then very subtly some movement appears. And toward the end of the conversation the main character almost feels something. Of course the whole conversation is playing with his identity as a psychopath. While he is not. And this becomes very interesting. Even though the performance feels kind of monotone at times.
Music is very interesting in this movie. There are a few songs playing. But the original score is very practical. It doesn't even sound like music. It sounds like rhythmic sound-effects that let you feel the tension more vividly.
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