Michael Fassbender

The Killer

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  • Title: The Killer
  • IMDb: link

The Killer

Movies about assassins almost always fall into the forgettable B-movie action-thriller variety, however there are some exceptions. Michael Fassbender stars in this slow burn thriller as a skilled assassin who fails an assignment. The first 20 minutes of the film show Fassbender waiting patiently for events to line up to take out his latest target focusing on both the methodical routine and readiness he sticks to and the large amount of downtime, boredom, and waiting involved. When the hit goes wrong, out killer flees the scene and makes his escape only to discover his employers have decided to take precautions and remove him as well.

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Assassin’s Creed

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  • Title: Assassin’s Creed
  • IMDb: link

Assassin's Creed movie reviewStop when this gets too silly for you. For hundreds of years a creed (which is the franchise’s term for ill-defined shadowy group) of assassins has been in a secret war with the Knights Templar over control of a divine object know as the Apple that has to power to remove free will from all humankind. The Templars wish to use it to subjugate the human race. To find the lost artifact, the Templars steal a career criminal (Michael Fassbender) from his execution and hook him up to a machine which reads genetic memories from his code so he can relive his ancestor’s experiences while jumping around tied to a giant metal arm with those experiences manifested around him as ghostly visages.

Still with me? In charge of the project is a die-hard believer (Jeremy Irons) and his daughter the scientist (Marion Cotillard) who needs a blood descendant of the last person to have the Apple to lead the Templars to it (on the assumption that no one could have possilby found and/or moved it in more than half a millennium). The only way to find the Apple is to have these decedents of various assassins relive the experiences (gaining knowledge, purpose, and murderous skills which, of course, will eventually backfire on the evil corporation).

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12 Years a Slave

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  • Title: 12 Years a Slave
  • IMDB: link

12 Years a SlaveBased on the memoirs of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free New England man kidnapped and forced into slavery for 12 years while visiting Washington, D.C., the historical drama from director Steve McQueen and screenwriter John Ridley is an accounting of those experiences and the long road Northup takes to make it home to his wife and children. It’s often not an easy film to watch but it is an example of exceptional filmmaking that mark it as one of the best films of 2013.

Any discussion of the film must begin with Chiwetel Ejiofor, a longtime favorite of mine. Ejiofor’s terrific performance of a man caught-up in events and circumstances far beyond his control, struggling with loosing hope or ever seeing his family again while doing what he must to survive, is a brilliant piece of acting. Against the harshness of the events which surround his character, Ejiofor’s humanity shines through as a witness to the sin of slavery. Without what he’s able to bring to the role the stark honesty of McQueen’s film would be difficult to endure.

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A Dangerous Method

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  • Title: A Dangerous Method
  • IMDB: link

a-dangerous-method-posterA slow moving drama centered around the science of psychology may initially seem an odd choice for director David Cronenberg‘s latest project, but A Dangerous Method proves to be an engaging study of the minds and hearts of three individuals, each of whom finds themselves at the mercy of their uncontrollable passions and foibles.

Based on the play by Christopher Hampton and the book by John Kerr, Cronenberg and screenwriter Christopher Hampton deliver a character study centered around three people central to the birth of psychoanalysis. Michael Fassbender stars as Carl Jung, a doctor who in the early 20th Century would expand on the ideas of Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) to create analytical psychology.

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Shame

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  • Title: Shame
  • IMDb: link

shame-poster

Brandon Sullivan (Michael Fassbender) is an intensely unhappy man. He spends his days in his searching for porn on his office computer and nights with a bevy of women (Elizabeth Masucci, Calamity Chang, DeeDee Luxe, Hannah Ware, Charisse Merman) he picks up in bars and clubs, or pays for (either in person or online).

Brandon is addicted to sex to such an extent that he’s unable to emotionally deal with any woman he might have something more than physical relationship with, including an alluring co-worker (Nicole Beharie). His only real friend is his boss who goes out with him at night as his wingman, looking for women to cheat on his wife with.

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