On my media server, I have a folder titled Sure Things. This is a place where I store all movies I think are going to be worth watching without even looking at the trailer or anything else. One night, half-drunk, I decided it was time to watch this one. And let me tell you something right away, The Killer, directed by David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, Gone Girl), and starring Michael Fassbender, is definitely a movie worth watching. This is something you’re going to figure out as soon as it starts. The opening scene featuring a pulsating soundtrack (Trent Reznor. Atticus Ross) and stylish visuals will grip you like a motherfucker.
The Killer is based on the French graphic novel of the same name, created by Alexis “Matz” Nolent. This gives it that familiar and juicy aesthetic, which Fincher further developed with an even juicier cinematography. This is not Matz’s first movie adaptation, as more than ten years ago, we had the pleasure of watching Bullet to the Head. Starring Sylvester Stallone, it follows another hitman on another mission. However, that movie is much more mainstream and stereotypical than this one. There’s one sentence I have written in bold in my notes that I think describes it perfectly.
The Killer is a movie for loners, outcasts, and those who feel that way. It speaks to me in more ways than one. It speaks to the guy who spends half of the game base building or waiting patiently with a sniper. And it also speaks to the guy who’s got a spreadsheet for every big purchase or a decision. What others might consider boring nerdiness, The Killer considers essential. And it’s not afraid to repeat it to us, like an expert meditator trying to get you to see past the reflection in the window. It goes without saying that the direction is flawless. Especially when you consider the uniqueness of the source material.
This is something that’s going to come up again and again. We will never learn our protagonist’s name nor anything about his past. The story is very contained, spanning across just several locations and days. And yet, you will realize this only toward the end of the movie. I think I first noticed it when our eponymous killer started talking to The Expert, played by Tilda Swinton. Wow, I can’t believe I went this far without mentioning Michael Fassbender. He’s the driving force behind The Killer as he appears in every scene and bears the brunt of the effort. His performance was simply stellar, reminiscent of the one he gave in Prometheus.
The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts. This is what happens when you have a guy who’s been trying to make this movie for 20 years (Fincher) find the right guy for the lead role. Simply put, The Killer is an intelligent and gripping neo-noir tale featuring excellent production values and even better action scenes. There won’t be too many of them, sadly. However, the ones we’ll have the opportunity to witness will me mesmerizing. I especially liked the fight between our hitman and the guy in Florida. It was kinetic, realistic, and above everything else, entertaining.
Speaking of realism, The Killer uses a lot of very familiar services and brands. I’m talking about companies like Amazon, ACE Hardware, Hertz, and others. We actually find our protagonist in Paris, in a seemingly abandoned WeWork offices. Although this might be just space under development as we could see in Apple+ television show WeCrashed starring Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway. All of this further immerses you into the story and makes it feel authentic, like something that could be happening right now. Just to get back to those locations I mentioned, we will be visiting just a few of them but all of them will be exquisitely well-defined and stereotypical.
From the passionate and life-affirming Paris over exotic Dominican Republic, to hot and humid New Orleans and Florida, each of them was visually appealing. It’s interesting to note that all of these scenes have a lot of low-key CGI in them. Something you’ll hardly notice but if you want to investigate further, you can do that over on YouTube. I also want to talk about The Killer soundtrack. At first, I wasn’t noticing it that much as The Smiths were the perfect background music. And then the song How Soon is Now and it simply blew me away. I spent the next seven days listening it on repeat.
Fincher himself mentions it by saying: “I always knew that I wanted to use ‘How Soon is Now?’ because I love the guitar. And I love the idea of somebody going, ‘what Johnny Marr is doing here is my meditation.’ I just thought it was amusing.” This whole “guy listening to a specific soundtrack while on the job” thing reminded me of Baby Driver. Finally, if we’re talking about movies like The Killer, I want to mention Atomic Blonde, Drive, and Collateral. While Nightcrawler has the same aesthetic, The Bourne Trilogy is a better fit when it comes to the story and action.
Director: David Fincher
Writers: Alexis Nolent, Luc Jacamon, Andrew Kevin Walker
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Tilda Swinton, Charles Parnell, Arliss Howard, Kerry O’Malley, Sala Baker
Fun Facts: Back in 2008, Fincher thought about giving the lead role to Brat Pitt but ultimately decided against thinking the subject matter was “too nihilistic” for Brad.
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IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1136617/
