Even if ‘The Killer’ isn’t an extended metaphor about its own director, David Fincher, it’s a uniquely unsentimental approach to a familiar setup
Adam Nayman
November 7, 2023
The Ringer
David Fincher’s new thriller, The Killer, concerns a man who’s grown comfortable—if not lazy—working as a cog in a murderous machine. The titular character is a freelance assassin who spends his time perched in a series of ad hoc hunting blinds, waiting for targets to wander blithely into his crosshairs. His is not to question why, or who—the victims are somebody else’s problem, or at least they were before he took the job. “Fight only the battle you’re paid to fight,” he tells himself as part of the running interior monologue that makes up the majority of the movie’s script, delivered by Michael Fassbender with the same anodyne implacability as his synthetic David in the last two Alien-verse films. “Ask yourself, ‘What’s in it for me?’”
In a year when many returned to theaters, plenty of movies—from ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ to ‘Afire’ to ‘May December’—met those audiences on the right wavelengths.
Adam Nayman
December 5, 2023
The Ringer
From ‘Barbie’ to ‘Oppenheimer’ to ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ this year featured shots of clarity, beauty, and complexity.
Adam Nayman
December 13, 2023
The Ringer
The Fincher Analyst 