Alternate Best Actor 2023: Michael Fassbender in The Killer

Michael Fassbender did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying the titular character of The Killer. 

The Killer follows the exploits of, well the killer, who seeks revenge after retribution for a botched job.

Writing a review for Michael Fassbender as the Killer takes time, persistence and a Netflix subscription...or perhaps a borrowed subscription if one pays it back with an HBO MAX subscription. I have already written the requisite of Fassbender's lack of a nomination and brief synopsis, perhaps should be known already, but one does have to stick to their plan, not improvise, well except the review itself is written as I'm writing but regardless, as I review this, I must remember my review of Bradley Cooper's Oscar nomination this year and remember that empathy is weakness. I need to stick to my plan and write this review, but I keep narrating to myself instead which can really get in your way. I haven't had my required protein for the day, perhaps I should follow the Killer's advice and get a McDonald's breakfast sandwich, however the additional ingredients of dirt from the employees poor hygiene and extra ounces of grease tend to cause a miserable pain to my digestive system. Although perhaps the killer's less than stellar taste in fast food choices speaks to my realization against the common idea that "Films about hitmen are cool" it's not Jean Pierre-Melville but it should be. But it's the language of The Killer though in fact is being subverted by the language of the Killer. As I've noticed some have believed the film engages in the nihilism that Fassbender's killer espouses, so I have to ask "Based on what exactly". It is true as I'm doing now we hear the Killer's thoughts spoken in a calm if not even dulcet tone by Michael Fassbender, who seems like someone who will play the cool killer, who is the expert at all things, but the one thing you need to remember about the Killer is "HE...IS...FULL...OF...SHIT" Shit, gave away the main point of my review too early, best just press on. 

After all I need to remind any reader that the first person the killer quotes is Popeye the sailor man, not known to be the greatest philosophers, personally I prefer Bluto, who has been known to be so mean that he beat himself up, although that was only in the infamous Robert Altman film and may not in fact hold up to scrutiny. Much as the hitman's own philosophizing which includes another quote where Fassbender stares blankly and a "duhhhh" coming out of his mouth wouldn't exactly be out of place on his vacant face as he fails to properly cite his source much like a Wikipedia article written in the early 2000's. And in the man's voice every word is about the meticulousness of his planning, yet he almost immediately gets caught and looks upon Fassbender's face which is of a man who is very much concerned about being found out. He glances looking around his perch from where he is going to kill his proposed target, and what is his performance exactly. Well Fassbender is presenting curiosity not precision, and despite everything being built for the kill in the Killer's calm claims, I must ask again "Based on what exactly?". The Killer's own buildup to his first attempted kill is all of a man gearing up for the kill. Fassbender's expression of a man pumping himself up for it and we have two completely disparate moments in a singular scene around performance. As we first hear that the killer "DON'T...GIVE...A...FUCK" which Fassbender delivers with the utmost confidence and pride, against his "fuck" after immediately missing his kill he prepared so much for, with the face of a man who screwed up royally that gets funnier the more you think about it.

I should take a moment though to immaculately clean my computer before I keep typing, as there can be a minute build up of dust over weeks and months, however one must keep their computer relatively dust free in order to complete a review. A review here I'll freely admit my bias towards captivating silent physical performance, that has much to do with presence, but the presence must be there. Michael Fassbender, despite seemingly indirectly killing ("wocka wocka" - Fozzy Bear) the talent of many formerly talented directors in his last few films, this time David Fincher thankfully was spared and we have an ideal match up with the cold calculation of the director being matched by the cold calculation of a performer. And I will make no bones about it, it is compelling just to watch Fassbender do the rigmarole of his tasks as he goes about his various methods of preparing his kills and body disposals. He shows in his physical work just the precise manner of the man who believes he's "sticking to the plan" again and again. Although that may break my thesis of his incompetence, I never said incompetence, he's just full of it, and isn't *as* good as he thinks but more so isn't as anything as he thinks, to explain, which of course I'm going to explain, this is my review after all, he's also not *as* heartless as he claims he is, though Fassbender plays this on the margins, effectively so. In the opening escape, he is genuinely fearing for his life in Fassbender's furious breathing and concerned eyes, though trying to hold it together. When other hitmen try to attack his girlfriend, Fassbender's performance shows that the Killer does care about her and his whole home away from killing, even if he wants to so desperately suggest otherwise. Everything in Fassbender's performance suggests he does care, he's holding back as much as he can, but the degree of which he's expressing his concern shows this to be a wounding event, and also explaining why he then goes about his revenge tour shortly afterwards. 

Now do I have to note that we see the cold killer, of course, but what we see with Fassbender though very much is the projecting of this trait, almost as someone who saw Le Samourai, and said "that's literally me" without watching the ending of that film...or more likely with the Killer saw the trailer one time and it was directed by a former French resistance fighter...what was his name again? As what Fassbender does on the edge of moments suggests the truth, as when he kills the cabbie who drove the hitmen to his house, there is a brief glimpse of vicious anger before he shoots him even though his head up to that had been the heartless killer. His vocal performance additionally is frequently at odds with what he is doing, as his voice is one of my favorite narrations in recent years because it is so falsely true to what he actually is doing most of the time. As every narration conversation it is with that confidence of the man who has outlined every kill with the precision of the genius, yet probably might need a few letters spotted as well for spelling antidisestablishmentarianism, that's for all you Honeymooners fans out there...is that just me, well you know as the Killer says I DON'T GIVE A , eh forget it. Anyway, frequently you get the punchline from the narration, to the action, to the performance. As take it when he kills his old mentor and job liaison, where he calmly uses a nail gun on him, positions an option for survival then calculates his survival time so specifically in his head, only for the man to immediately choke on his own blood, and Fassbender's befuddled realization of his failure is pure darkly comic gold. 

He says "forgo empathy" but he does stage his mentor's secretary's death as an accident as a way to honor her last wish. He prepares to carefully murder the brute hitman who attacked his girlfriend, by carefully disabling his Pitbull through drugs then maneuvering in the house, only to get his ass kicked, for the lack of a better description, where Fassbender's many "oh shit" reactions subvert the "cool" presence beautifully as does his "ah come on" when finding only a cheese grater in a kitchen draw and frankly Fassbender's face is hilarious. As is the fact that he didn't fully disable the dog, needing to high tail it out of there, and even his narration gets impacted this time, where Fassbender's voice changes briefly from the calm control as though the beating was so bad even that front has to take a breather. His later sleeping on the plane to his next target is of any exhausted man, whose worked too hard the past few days, and there's nothing remotely cool about it. And my review of this performance wouldn't be complete if I didn't mention the quote as he goes about stalking the expert hit person (Tilda Swinton) "It’s common knowledge when a female is found slain, the prime suspect is always the husband or boyfriend. Especially if she hasn’t been sexually assaulted." spoken with a return to the cold calculation and we get one more subversion even in his narration for Fassbender's hilarious line delivery (frankly one of my favorites of 2023) "Well, maybe not common knowledge." which he says a quick correction as though he's just realized how ludicrous his previous statement sounded. The one time we do see the pure Killer routine not shake for a moment is confronting the final target, where his demeanor is purely that of the cold blooded killer...and even this is a subversion because the target (Arliss Howard) happens to be just a bit of idiot who has too much money, and the killer when most able to present himself as he believes him to be...he doesn't kill. Now did I write this review just to do it in part in the style of the Killer's own narration partially, no in fact I didn't come up with that until I started writing the review and just seemed the easiest way into the performance. But one does have to ask the need to feel secure in one's opinion. It's a slippery slope. Opinions are a placebo. The only review path, is the one you just wrote (as long as it ends with clear rating at the end of the review as rating and paragraph counts are everything). If, you can't accept this opinion of loving Fassbender's work as wonderful dark comedy, well maybe you're not one of the few. Maybe you're just like me. One of the many....whatever that's supposed to mean...not sure that part made sense.