Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed and Bill Paxton
Directed By: Dan Gilroy
Rated: R
Running Time: 117 minutes
Open Road Films
Our Score: 5 out of 5 stars
Lou Bloom (Gyllenhaal) is a mad man, but not in the traditional sense. He’s recognizable at every pawn shop and scrap metal recycling yard in Los Angeles. They know the items aren’t his and they know that he most likely stole it. But he’s astute, blunt, sharp, a quick learner and talks his way out of any circumstance. He has a tongue the devil wishes he could tell lies with, and someone with his intelligence and drive could easily be the next criminal racketeer or late night serial killer. Instead he’s found an outlet that satisfies both appetites.
Bloom quickly becomes enticed by the world of nightcrawlers. These are supposed journalists, more like human garbage, which creep along the city streets, waiting for the police scanners to squawk out the latest offering of death and suffering because “if it bleeds it leads”. Bloom seems to relish in the fact that you can get as close to a victim choking on their own blood as long as you’re holding a camera and he becomes even more enamored knowing that news stations shell out big bucks for this kind of footage.
“Nightcrawler” in one hand is a sick, yet painfully funny evaluation of our news industry, while in the other hand it kneads a subtle critique of how the latest headline is being manufactured and manipulated by a corporatocracy. “Nightcrawler” is well-made on nearly every, but the real centerpiece is Gyllenhaal. He thrills as Lou and puts on an Oscar worthy performance that will hopefully garnish the acting attention he deserves. Everyone else in the movie is spot on as they have to bounce their own talents off the dominant performance by Gyllenhaal.
Bloom is such a complicated work to play. You keep waiting in fear because of how much of a sociopath he is, but on the other hand, he’s eerily charming. He could teach a course on pleasant banters, but he uses his false, engaging personality to get what he wants. That’s where a lot of the dark jokes come from and it’ll elicit a nervous or guilty laugh out of you. But you’ll go back to waiting with baited breath because you know he’s just one move away from filming the story to becoming the story.
People who get in his path or finally catch on to his sadistic ways don’t last long. Nina (Russo) is the news director who buys his increasingly violent footage, never actually questioning how he got it because his videos are her job security. Rick (Ahmed) is an unfortunate, homeless schmuck, who gets pulled in with an “internship”. Lou fills Rick’s head with the golden dream of a future career and money. Lou plays Rick and Nina like puppets knowing that he has what they want. If and when you do finally catch on to game, he has an exit strategy to dispose of you, but he’s at least courteous enough to threaten you beforehand. Lou is a mastermind that uses corporate jargon and fallacious business promises that we as a society have come to accept, “If you want to win the lottery, you have to make the money to buy a ticket.”
“Nightcrawler” is sadistic, cruel, exhilarating, and I loved every minute of it. “Nightcrawler” has echoes of a horror and glimpses of a bleak comedy, but overall it’s a thought provoking thriller with a lot of messages, but not too many to overcrowd its overall theme. t simply asks how far have we gone to attain the American dream? “Nightcrawler” is like any award winning news piece, you simply can’t look away.
