Film and gig review: The Killer, dir David Fincher. 9/10 ; DEADLETTER and Sun King, The Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh

Michael Fassbender is a tremendous physical actor. In Prometheus and Steve Jobs his physicality and ability to mimic were arguably as integral to his performance as verbal delivery. This is again the case in David Fincher’s excellent, bleak The Killer. Fassbender’s contract assassin, never named, spends the first twenty minutes of the film killing time rather than targets, cooped up in a Parisian rent-an-office that affords a line of sight to his next target. The tedious passage of time is broken up as Fassbender cracks bones, adopts yoga positions and generally ensures through physical activity that his mind and body are sharp and prepared when the moment of opportunity/assassination does finally present itself. Accompanying these actions is an internal monotonic monologue of sorts from Fassbender, as throughout the film he explains and rationalises his actions with mantras such as “Never empathise, it makes you weak” and “Stick to the plan. Anticipate, don’t improvise.” Thus the viewer learns of the assassin’s appreciation of the slow, silent, breaking dawn in Paris — certainly, he notes, compared to Damascus and Tokyo. Additional words of wisdom concern obtaining ten grams of protein for one euro at McDo(nald’s, to give it its full American name), and why he adopts the disguise of a German tourist (because the French, indeed people from anywhere, are highly disinclined to speak with them). <a href="https://medium.com/@phineasfinn/film-and-gig-review-the-killer-dir-david-fincher-e3c64130462d">Read More</a>