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Execution is everything Teaser (1m38s) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs1epO_zLG8 Trailer (2m15s) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S7FR_HCg9g Premiere Sep 3, 2023 - Venice International Film Festival Limited Theatrical Release Date Oct 27, 2023 Netflix Release Date Nov 10, 2023 Plot Summary (Wikipedia) The Killer is a 2023 American neo-noir crime thriller based on the French graphic novel series of the same name. Its plot follows the titular assassin who gets embroiled in an international manhunt after a hit goes wrong. Crew
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Oct 28, 2023 22:23
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saw this last night in LA and went in with super high expectations since Fincher is my favorite director. he has some big swing-and-miss movies for me, but when he hits, he tends to knock it out of the park. my expectations were, kinda sorta met but not really. basically, the movie works on a moment to moment cadence; each scene is gripping and i felt myself getting lost in the moment very often. but when the narrative takes a step back to remind you that there's an overarching point to it all, i'm reminded that there doesn't feel like there's a whole lot to grab onto when looked at from a wide angle. i have a lot to say about this and i don't want to do random spoiler blocks, so i'll just spoil the entire rest of the post. don't read it unless you don't care about ending details, nitpicks, and specific praise. the female romantic interest character is introduced but only barely. she's a plot device to provide the killer with motivation to go kill some "bad" people. we're never told why they're bad or why they are responsible for what happened. we're told by the killer that he has a strict set of rules he lives by in order to be the best at what he does, and part of that includes not taking anything personally and not trusting anyone. meanwhile the entire movie's plot hinges on him seeking out revenge for taking something personally bc he screwed up the job he's supposed to be so good at. it's disjointed thinking about it from an overview perspective. each time the chapter changes and the killer is in a new city hunting down a new person, i found myself wrapped up in his craft and commitment and eagerly waiting to see how he would carry out his work. but then in between chapters i'm left thinking "why is he doing this?" even though i know why he's doing it, but i just don't feel the draw narratively. the thing i keep bouncing around in my mind is something like: the killer is supposed to be meticulous and perfect, but we see him botch the mark in the beginning. then he goes out and gets revenge on all the people responsible for the attack on his love interest, and he proves that he's actually capable of doing the things he talked about. in the end, he spares the client. why? was all of this some ploy/excuse to get rid of the people in the organization that would come after him if he just wanted to quit regularly? was all of this some setup and part of his perfect plan all along? either that or he supposedly found empathy in the end? the latter feels less probably than the former, but the movie doesn't put any work into giving us a good idea of which (or neither) it might be. as for a filmmaking perspective, the sound design is good, but there's one part where the killer is in a car and scratches his chin. it's really just a trivial detail but the foley sound is so loud compared to the quiet of everything else going on it felt like huge overkill. mostly, it's very good otherwise. ever since trent and and ross worked with fincher on the social network, i've been waiting for them to raise the bar on that soundtrack, but here the music is subdued and not that noticeable. it definitely adds to the atmosphere, but it doesn't ever really amplify or take center stage like it did in TSN. i would love it if they experimented a bit more, but it's good/serviceable anyway. last thing i guess are the weird choices like showing a floating screen of the killer searching for key fob copiers in the last act, and showing a screen of google maps a bit earlier. these are used effectively but they seem out of place when only done these two times. it probably might have been overkill if they did it more often, but i feel like it should have been an all or nothing commitment. they could have done it with the gym check-in screen, maybe some of his logins with various aliases at hotels and car rentals, etc. if you're gonna use a gimmick, use it. the fight scene in florida is top notch, and i loved the single shot cuts that went from day to night and vice versa showing a single image but, like, 12 hours elapsed. that really sold the process.
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Oct 28, 2023 22:41
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I saw a 2:30pm Saturday show at the Hollywood Theater. I didn't think David Fincher was ballsy enough to remake a John Woo classic, and I wasn't sure Michael Fassbender could replicate the magic that was Chow Yun Fat's Ah Jong.  At least the pizza was good.
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Oct 29, 2023 00:53
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Still liking it on second viewing, and still think it's just a very straightforward but well done assassin movie, with no major twists or reveals which people might expect from a Fincher film. Could enjoy the score and sound design more as well this time, much better acoustics in the screen I watched it on. Along with all the sitcom character names, was that supposed to be Urkel sat behind him on the last or penultimate flight he took?
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Oct 29, 2023 15:31
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It looks incredibly, absurdly generic to the point where I would expect this to be a late career pre-diagnosis Bruce Willis joint also starring Michael Madsen and maybe Tom Berenger.
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Oct 29, 2023 18:08
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The movie reminded me of the 2nd half of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo where we watch Lisbeth methodically loving poo poo up in an incredibly efficient manner. In a weird way I was reminded of Michael Mann films where they have immaculate professionals doing their thing. Difference is Mann makes sure to have characterization so you care about what's going on. Either way I'll be tracking down the French graphic novel this movie is based on.
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Oct 29, 2023 18:52
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Android Apocalypse posted:I saw a 2:30pm Saturday show at the Hollywood Theater. John Woo's The Killer *is* actually being remade, if you didn't know: https://screencrush.com/the-killer-remake/
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Oct 30, 2023 16:35
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I'm usually up for a flincher flick but the trailer for this didn't grab me
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Oct 30, 2023 22:52
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the fact that fincher was teaming up again with the writer of se7en got my expectations sky high. even if this wound up being better than it is, there's no way it could have been as good as i was hoping.
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Oct 30, 2023 23:50
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Fincher is definitely washed, in his making boring netflix movies era, you hate to see it
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Oct 31, 2023 14:24
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I got tickets to see this tomorrow morning. My expectations are now super low after reading some of your impressions here.
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Nov 3, 2023 23:01
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I don’t know why people are down/lukewarm on this movie ITT, I loved it from literally the first second of the title sequence right through to the cut-to-credits. But then, I absolutely love media about stoic hitmen going about their preparations and processes, so this movie was pretty much laser-targeted to appeal to me. I went in with sky-high expectations, and the movie delivered exactly what I wanted. What I wasn’t expecting, but greatly enjoyed was the (subtext alert) satire on late-late capitalism, rentier businesses, and the gig economy. I’d need to see it again to construct a proper analysis, but it’s definitely there, from the way The Killer uses apps, free trials, and automated kiosks at every opportunity to facilitate his emotionally detached work, to his underlying fear of “not making it”, and being one of the “normies”. Matinee fucked around with this message at 10:44 on Nov 6, 2023 |
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Nov 6, 2023 10:41
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Matinee posted:I don’t know why people are down/lukewarm on this movie ITT, I loved it from literally the first second of the title sequence right through to the cut-to-credits. I did enjoy those parts & if anything I appreciate that this was a pretty straightforward story. Like I said earlier, I feel that this movie has something akin to a Michael Mann film where the lead is a professional working at the top of their game. Hopefully people will remember like in Fight Club the protagonist in The Killer is not a good person and worth modelling themselves after.
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Nov 6, 2023 19:50
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It's out on Netflix now. Interesting Rolling Stone interview with Fincher which matches up some thoughts I had about the film.quote:It’s one of the few arch touches in what is otherwise a lean, mean throwback to the glory days of real pulp fiction. Because despite the A-list star, the A-plus soundtrack, and the ace supporting cast (notably Tilda Swinton, who does more in her late-act guest appearance than many performers do in decades’ worth of screen time), The Killer is really just a modern version of a vintage B movie. Mention this to Fincher and Walker, and both will agree that that’s exactly what they were going for. The director recalls going to Netflix before they began production and telling them, “I’m going to do it stripped-down. This is a Don Siegel movie. It’s a loving Michael Winner movie. It’s Charley Varrick, Get Carter, The Mechanic. This is meant to be ballistic.” Even the rapid-fire credits sequence that opens the film was meant to evoke the tough-guy procedurals of yesteryear. “The style can be described as: a Quinn-Martin production,” he says, bursting into laughter. “It’s Mannix chic.”
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Nov 10, 2023 23:00
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there are a few things on netflix i feel like watching so i might resub for a month to check this out again and see a few other things before canceling again. it'll be interesting to watch it at home with a new lens and different expectations
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Nov 11, 2023 00:50
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The best thing I can say about this movie is that it reminded me of a very bland version of The Thief, so I watched The Thief immediately afterwards and enjoyed one good movie tonight.
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Nov 11, 2023 01:07
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This was awful. I'm almost impressed at being able to write a character with absolutely zero charisma. I would probably enjoy this more if he would just shut the gently caress up and be actually silent and stoic, but his constant inner monologueing was like being forced to share the inside of someone's rear end with a person who has their head firmly up their own rear end and desperately wants to share their rear end with you. I have seen plenty of assassin movies and have never cared less about what was going on. Also yeah the plot was very by-the-numbers, and nowhere close to as brilliant as it thinks it is. If someone want's to claim it's satire or something, fine, but sucking ironically is still sucking. Tilda Swinton was thoroughly wasted. I would say everyone was phoning it in, but that might be giving too much credit to people who might have been actually trying to act.
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Nov 11, 2023 03:31
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Man on Fire by way of Thief. I thought this was going to be a lot more of a Hitchcock film during the first act. Music was very background. A lot of similar framing to Fight Club. Better than Mank but that's about it.
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Nov 11, 2023 03:49
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I thought this was pretty sweet, saw it in theater. The theater quality sound really added kinetic punch to a lot of scenes that I feel home viewers might miss out on.ShoogaSlim posted:
The richer the victim, the more resources poured into the investigation. As ever, it was pure tactics, not emotion.
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Nov 11, 2023 05:49
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In the opening section in paris he talks about the numbers of people being born and dying every minute or second in relation to him being an assassin. I could have sworn I have heard that in another film?
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Nov 11, 2023 08:48
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I liked it and think its his best Game/Panic Room mid tier film. But also I hate Button and Fight Club the same way people seem to hate this so I totally get peoples reactions. He's a film maker where if his decisions rub you the wrong way they really annoy you because he's so surgical.
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Nov 11, 2023 13:05
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The Paris sequence was fun, and the sound effects of the Brute fight were great. Fassbender is always good, but its just kind of… forgettable, I guess? I don’t feel like I was robbed 2 hours for watching this though. Stick to the plan, chums.
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Nov 11, 2023 13:29
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drat, this movie was really boring.
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Nov 11, 2023 15:30
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Thoroughly enjoyed this and would've happily watched another two hours. Really felt the tension and I'm a sucker for a good prep sequence, of which this movie has many.
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Nov 11, 2023 15:33
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it was tough for me to rewatch at home and wound up stopping about 30 min in. i liked it ok enough in the theater but maybe was hoping for something more to come out of it. on a rewatch at home, knowing what i know about the writing and overall end result of the plot, it's hard to sit through for just the vibes alone. at least with a movie like the game you can rewatch and look for little misdirection clues or something. here, there's not really anything you didn't get on the first viewing. for a thriller, that's not very compelling.
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Nov 11, 2023 17:08
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If I listened to The Smiths all the time I'd probably kill people too.
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Nov 11, 2023 18:31
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Carpet posted:It's out on Netflix now. Interesting Rolling Stone interview with Fincher which matches up some thoughts I had about the film. The opening scene was definitely riffing on The Mechanic (great movie) but if instead of Charles Bronson moving in silence it was Michael Fassbender doing the worst voiceover narration you’ve ever heard.
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Nov 11, 2023 19:16
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magiccarpet posted:Man on Fire by way of Thief. I thought this was going to be a lot more of a Hitchcock film during the first act. Music was very background. A lot of similar framing to Fight Club. Better than Mank but that's about it. It reminded me a lot of The American from 2010 starring George Clooney. A slow burn going into the routines of a hitman getting involved in a messy double cross.
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Nov 11, 2023 22:07
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This was fine, which makes it disappointing on the Fincher grading scale. As people above said, the parts where he's planning each hit got me invested, and Tilda Swinton was great in her appearance, but really would not have guessed this was a Fincher if I hadn't gone in knowing it. It did get me to finally watch Mank though, which I hadn't seen. It was not at all what I expecting, in a good way, and I enjoyed it a lot more than The Killer. I haven't seen The Game but even so I would put The Killer pretty low on my ranking of Fincher movies. Probably below Alien 3, honestly, though I also don't hate Alien 3 like most people.
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Nov 11, 2023 22:20
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You should really watch The Game
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Nov 12, 2023 00:46
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I think I would've liked this quite a bit without the inner monologue. The story is so straightforward and simple that you could easily do away with most of the dialogue as well, and it'd be better for it.
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Nov 12, 2023 00:54
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Really liked this as a hitman film, as a Hitman film, and as a commentary piece on how Mank was received by fans (not me, I liked it). The abruptness (and "cleanliness" I guess I'd call it) of the ending is a big reason I'm not going as far to say I loved it though That Brute fight ruled  holy poo poo
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Nov 12, 2023 01:20
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anatomi posted:I think I would've liked this quite a bit without the inner monologue. The story is so straightforward and simple that you could easily do away with most of the dialogue as well, and it'd be better for it. this is something i noticed heavily on a rewatch. the first chunk depends entirely on it which feels lazy, especially considering he talks about his process so much but misses the first shot we see him take. random thought i had as a way to potentially enhance the narrative through visuals would be to lean into fincher's signature cgi slow motion stuff and show the first bullet flying through the air and make it a slower, more dramatic reveal that it misses its intended target. another thought i had that could have been cool (again, playing monday morning quarterback) is if we would have gotten a quick flashback cut right after the first shot trigger pull but before it hits. something to show us maybe the killer's first job, or some other memorable moment, maybe another time where he misses? it bothered me on my first watch and it killed me on a partial rewatch. WHY the gently caress does the movie go out of its way to play up his skill only to have the only contracted kill we actually witness be one where he screws up with basically zero explanation. and then the rest of the movie he pulls off all this cool slick poo poo to get revenge with basically no hiccups at all. it feels like there's absolutely no reason for the screw up in the beginning except to have a reason to hurt his nameless(?) girlfriend so he could go on a revenge mission. makes me feel crazy. anyway i feel like anyone posting here has already seen it so im not gonna cherry pick spoilers anymore for something that happens in the first 10 minutes and is basically given away in the plot synopsis but i just wanted to be cordial to anyone who hasn't seen it and doesn't want that reveal spoiled.
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Nov 12, 2023 01:26
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I thought it was alright, it kept my attention. Especially since hardly anything happened in the first 16 minutes but it still feels like it goes by very quickly. I've heard some people say that its a really funny movie, because of the disconnect between how the character sees himself/his internal monologue, and how badly he fucks up throughout the movie. But I didn't really feel that because while he made one mistake at the start, and a minor mistake during the later missions, he was mostly very competent.
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Nov 12, 2023 01:38
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ShoogaSlim posted:WHY the gently caress does the movie go out of its way to play up his skill only to have the only contracted kill we actually witness be one where he screws up with basically zero explanation. and then the rest of the movie he pulls off all this cool slick poo poo to get revenge with basically no hiccups at all. I'd argue that's the point (and part of Fincher's meta-commentary) It's more normal than we want to believe that we over-focus on the times things don't go according to plan or aren't received entirely the way we expect, rare as they may be. You didn't get a promotion you fought for, Fassbender pulled the trigger at the wrong time, Fincher read a reddit comment that his last (imo good) film sucked; none of these are the end of the world, except to the individual specifically dealing with it Even the girlfriend was like "I'm alive, that's what counts". I knew the risks, and I knew not to make it worse. We don't have to do this forever if we don't want to, we can walk away while we can walk But when you make hits for a living, can you really if your last shot was perceived as a miss? Tilda outright says as much in the dinner conversation. The ego won't allow it. Batting .999 the rest of the way, before and since, doesn't matter if all you remember is the other, the last, .001 He missed one kill all film. And it was the first one. After talking so much poo poo for the first like 10 minutes about it never happening before. He only brings it up in monologue again for three seconds the rest of the film ("well, this is new"), but that's fine; there's more than enough context clues to know it eats away at him the rest of the film, just as much as the violence the Brute dishes out to him lingers visually the rest of the film after their altercation. He doesn't have to say it for us to know, with or without Tilda pointing it out subtly And this paragraph I feel also addresses Ccs' post; it's not the only funny part of the film, but it's the funniest/most blatant (I also liked the over-reliance on tech right up until the last resort of just saying gently caress it and buying something from Amazon)
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Nov 12, 2023 02:01
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Chris James 2 posted:I'd argue that's the point (and part of Fincher's meta-commentary) good post. what does it say about me that i also hyperfocused on it as a viewer?? probably that i'm too much of a fanboy which is not news to me but interesting to think about in this context.
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Nov 12, 2023 03:57
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I really enjoyed this. It was a bit frustrating to not have an option to see it in theaters because it would've looked nice there. I watched The Game recently having not seen it in probably 20+ years and on paper it's a movie I should really like but I just think it's fine. While watching The Game I kept feeling compelled to go grab my phone and scroll a bit, with The Killer, I was engaged the entire time. This reminded me of the Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake) Parker books a little bit. Parker is more of a commanding presence while The Killer just stands there quietly and lets the other person talk until he hears what he wants to hear.
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Nov 12, 2023 04:19
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This movie ripped. Enjoyed it thoroughly. Maybe Fincher's funniest movie. My big take away from this movie was that it was about the illusion of control. Fassbender's inner monologue was all about perfection and control, but then he keeps loving up. He's still good at what he does of course, but all the rules and mantras he keeps repeating are more to convince himself of his own control over circumstances than convincing us the audience. He keeps repeating to himself not to improvise, but routinely has to make poo poo up as he goes to paper over flaws or missing bits in his plans. Like how the lawyer is totally going to give him the information he needs while taking 6 or 7 minutes to bleed out, but instead the dude dies within 15 seconds. Or how he knows the lawyer has information in that very office about the other cleaners, but that turns out to be bullshit and he has to drag the secretary to a second location to find what he needs. Fassbender internally talks a big game like the cliche super assassin, but he mostly just scrapes by while making clear errors. Yet the inner monologue refuses to recognize this. I also loved how Fassbender was a man of few words in character, but was an absolute chatty Kathy in his own head. To the point where it almost feels like he is distracting himself. At multiple points in the movie his inner monologue is interrupted, like when the brute in Florida gets the jump on him. He refuses to shut the gently caress up about sticking to the plan, to his own detriment. There are a lot of thoughts bouncing around my head. I need to watch this again. But the last thing that really sticks with me is his claims of not allowing empathy, but again keeps violating this. The secretary asks him to not disappear her so her family can get her life insurance money, and he acquiesces to her request. Or how most of the movie is a knee jerk revenge over his girlfriend being attacked. This last bit is interesting because of how it connects with Fassbender's desire for control. I honestly don't think he is going after the lawyer and the cleaners out of revenge for his girlfriend in and of herself, but because her being attacked is a direct violation of his self-styled control. That is why he insists it won't happen again to her brother. Because that violation of his control is the worst thing anyone could ever do to him. Edit: And that's not even getting into what Fincher is trying to say about himself and his process with this movie. I don't think it's a coincidence that a filmmaker whose entire schtick is perfectionism and being a control freak made a film about a hitman who clearly views himself as a perfectionist and control freak. fishing with the fam fucked around with this message at 06:16 on Nov 12, 2023 |
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Nov 12, 2023 06:14
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This was the most violent ASMR video I’ve ever seen. I liked it.
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Nov 12, 2023 08:56
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When they showed his second alias I joked he’d use George Jefferson and Bart Simpson too and was disappointed I only got one of them.
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Nov 12, 2023 10:06
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