John Wick (2014)

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Nothing bores me more than a story about a hitman. It’s a tired trope, and one that has a curious, potentially unhealthy appeal to audiences — particularly young men who need no further encouragement to embrace their anger and tickle their violent impulses. But here we have another one. Keanu Reeves plays a retired hitman who reenters the killing scene after a trio of young men break into his house, beat him up, kill his dog, and steal his car. The rest of the movie is Reeves tracking these people down and putting bullets in their heads.

On one hand, I appreciate that most of the characters here have history with one another. There’s a code of conduct they all subscribe to that makes their interactions more sophisticated than your run-of-the-mill made-for-video action revenge tale. Michael Nyqvist gives a commendable, measured performance as the big baddie and the cinematography is often striking, especially inside a lengthy pair of nightclub sequences. The whole film is well paced, though the final act feels somewhat detached and gratuitous.

This was a hard movie for me to watch, though. The film establishes an entire underworld of hitman behavior. They have their own hotel and bars, and they all seem to acknowledge each other in public — even though they could easily be contracted to kill each other at any time. How many assassins does one city need, and why? I’m uncomfortable with a movie that presents violence as a complete, fully fleshed out, alternate reality — a world transposed upon our own. And it’s presented as an option to the audience. John Wick seems to be saying to its young male audience, if someone robs you or kills your dog, you have the option of killing everyone around you. And today’s young men, already sociopaths warped by the internet, video games, accusations of toxic masculinity, and a deep lack of social skills, do not need this kind of inspiration.

At one point in the movie, a disturbing Marilyn Manson song refrains the lyric, “We’re killing strangers so we don’t kill the ones we love.” I fear this may be a self-diagnosis from John Wick‘s troubled target audience. To that end, John Wick terrified me more than any horror movie.

With Alfie Allen (Game of Thrones), Ian McShane, John Leguizamo, and a wasteful usage of Willem Dafoe. Directed by Chad Stahelski.