The Killer of 2023 Is Just You and Me with a Sense of Nothingness

ChillJane, November 14 2023

CJ Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

As early as when it was screened at the Venice Film Festival, "The Killer" received critiques saying it’s a perfunctory assignment for Netflix by director David Fincher. When it dropped its online release last Friday (November 10), a wave of negative reviews flooded in, to the point where it has become the means of expressing regret for some of these once adored directors of Hollywood. The whole cinema vs. streaming shakeup due to the epidemic in the past few years has really hit them hard.

However, what I want to say is that even if David Fincher’s work appears less original, it is still beyond the reach of many creators. Let's say "The Killer" is still good and people just don't understand the hidden intention. It is a metaphor about you and me.

True to David Fincher's style, he flips between genres and anti-genres with ease, turning what would be a clichéd killer story into something jam-packed with novelties and surprises. As for the story itself, he could somehow tap into the emotions and mindsets of the middle class - the majority of people in this era. If you see the killer in the eponymous film as one of them, you’re spot on. He is offered to us an ordinary worker, a member of all commonfolk.

There are many typical and old-fashioned killer narratives on the table for Fincher. For example, a hitman receives the highest-paid order ever, and through the mission risks and dangers appear one after another. Or, an aloof loner has no way but team up with a troublesome guy and the two form a delightful duo going through adventurous tasks. Then there are those who intend to turn over a new leaf after one last mission, a perilous one which could nearly cost them their lives…

Yet none above represents David Fincher’s plate. He chooses instead to start with a fatal mistake during a mission. About twenty minutes presenting how well-trained and skilled this killer is, the film follows with a few seconds of how he shoots the wrong person with his sniper rifle. Wow. The film did not try to move in the direction of how The Killer try to make amends for the mission but rather showing him being immediately expelled from the organization because of this mistake; more so ever, his wife is almost killed. So, he decides to seek revenge on the person pulling the strings. Again, wow. Almost all within the framework of the genre, yet time to time it creates deviations that surprises us. This precisely controlled flexibility between genre narratives and that of anti-genre is just like David Fincher's film language - strictly restricted frame and fine-tuned focus - a display of professionalism and perfectionism.

David Fincher's atypical approach is also evident in that he somehow deconstructs traditionally perceived image of killers. The killer in this film is no longer mysterious or god-like. On the contrary, he is just like you and me, an everyday man who works hard but gradually burns out. Maybe he starts off with some motivation, seeking meaning, but it wears off with each task day by day. Outside of work, he retreats to a cozy private space of a mansion hidden in the jungle in the Dominican Republic much like us corporate slaves who retreat to a warm home after a long day at work (This is completely different from James Bond in the 007 series, where work is his life). If this last safe haven is invaded, the killer can no longer compromise. However, he never intends to overthrow the entire organization or defeat the entire dark industrial chain, but only to take revenge on the person who hurt his wife, a simple tit for tat.

David Fincher's Killer really exdues modern day vibes, a sheer reflection young people like me. Living in this world (system), we are familiar with its rules and utilizes them as we live our daily lives. Once we lose control or are suppressed, we will act like a bug in the system, causing some slight damages to it (as do the killer who would have been removed from the world by killing his supervisor), but we never think about destroying the entire system and make an outright difference to the world. "The Killer", arguably, bears neither the heroism commonly seen in killer movies, in which killers are determined to eliminate violence and believe that justice and public order are all what they are living for, nor another common idea: cynicism and the desire hidden behind to change the world. In "Taxi Driver" (1976), for instance, Travis decides to assassinate a presidential candidate, targeting at whoever it is on the top of the system. In "The Killer" no such notion exists. The killer in it works only to get paid and would sometimes make mistakes like everyone else. He does not want to destroy the world at all but retreat to a safe place, leaving nothing to the world except for nothingness.

A sense of nothingness - this is the shared mental state of the general public in this era captured by "The Killer".

From this perspective, David Fincher is right to choose Michael Fassbender to play the killer. Fassbender's precise, meticulous, and almost perfect performance attitude and method present a sense of ridicule, absurdity, and meaninglessness in David Fincher's settings and narratives that sometimes deviate from conventional settings. Just like the killer himself, he is so professional yet so talkative that he even missed the bullet.

How does David Fincher capture this sense of nothingness? Has he gradually realized that the same is true for his career as a director for more than thirty years? When he was making "The Killer," did he think this was the bullet that missed?