Nightcrawler

Nightcrawler (2014)

95% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 186 reviews)

Runtime: 117 minutes

Directed by: Dan Gilroy

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed, Bill Paxton

From: Open Road/Bold Films

Yesterday I went out and saw this film. It was a wise decision on my part. The Letterboxd review is below and I will return tomorrow night with... something or another.

After all the strong reviews I've heard I finally decided to watch this on the big screen yesterday afternoon, and as I was the only person in the auditorium it was a de facto private screening, which worked for me. I am not a loner like Lou Bloom but I am not always a fan of human beings either.

The vast amounts of praise I heard for this film was correct, and I was glad I saw it on the big screen, even if it made me uncomfortable at times; that is not a slight. Rather it's a statement of how effective this dark thriller is at being unnerving as you follow Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal delivering an incredible performance, looking gaunt and to echo what multiple people have told me, he just looks creepy as hell in the film), a friendless man who lives in Los Angeles & is charismatic, well-spoken, is intelligent, when he's motivated he's incredibly driven... and he's also a psychopath who does more than one appalling act during the course of the movie.

He is inspired to be a stringer (a person who freelances and finds crimes to film and sells the footage to local news stations) and soon shows a lot of zest and even though he needs an assistant-who he treats rather poorly-he is singularly determined to be the best as that field and he is willing to manipulate, abuse, lie, and do anything else to succeed. The other main characters include an established rival (Bill Paxton) and a news director at an LA TV station (Rene Russo).

From what I had heard this was going to be a dark movie, and even I was surprised at how black it got. Lou Bloom is a morally bankrupt person who does many appalling acts and yet he's such a fascinating character due to his charisma and his gift of gab and I always wanted to see what would happen next and if he would be punished for his acts. Again, old Jake did a tremendous job with this role. He looked disturbing and his portrayal of such an evil character was top-notch.

To think that this was the directorial debut of Dan Gilroy, a screenwriter who has written such “cinematic classics” as Real Steel and Freejack. You wouldn't know it as he also wrote this movie and the script here is better than the films I listed, needless to say. He also does a nice job directing it, and as many have noted already, the cinematography from Robert Elswit makes Los Angeles look quite lovely; much of it is at night and the city looks pretty colorful but in a dark way and not just literally.

Aside from the lead character and his craziness, much satire is directed at television news and that is a target worthy of scorn. I haven't watched it in years and I sure as heck don't get information from there. As the movie makes clear, TV news seems to be focused on the negative and material that causes panic for the viewers instead of being informative and positive. Also, ratings are above everything else (something Russo says often and stresses about as the last part of the film takes place during “sweeps month”) so the more lurid and sensational the story, the better, integrity and class be damned.

As I said I am glad I got to see this on the big screen. As the movie tells you, if you want to win the lottery you've got to make money to get a ticket.