A hit man who's strong to the finish
Time|November 20, 2023
If you've been watching movies for a while, David Fincher's The Killer-which arrives Nov. 10 on Netflix-might be your 100th movie about a contract killer, or even your 500th. It's a genre that springs eternal, yet modern directors often think they need to make these stories elaborate and convoluted to keep an audience engaged, when maybe the opposite is true.
By Stephanie Zacharek
A hit man who's strong to the finish

That's what makes Fincher's movie a cut above. Instead of overloading his story with fussy layers, he pares everything back to the genre's essence. What we're left with is a killer and his conscience, or whatever he's got that might pass for one. In Fincher's hands, that narrowed focus expands the genre's possibilities rather than shrinking them-especially with an actor like Michael Fassbender at the center of it all, playing a radiantly ruthless killer with no name and no shame.

This story is from the November 20, 2023 edition of Time.

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This story is from the November 20, 2023 edition of Time.

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