2014 | Dir. Dan Gilroy | 117 Minutes
"If you want to win the lottery, you have to make the money to buy a ticket."
Conman and all-around sociopath Lou Bloom happens upon the scene of a traffic accident on the highway one night. Inspired by a seasoned cameraman recording footage of the crash, Lou acquires a camcorder and a police scanner, and becomes a freelance cameraman for the local news station. Using his morally bankrupt methods to record candid footage at crime scenes, Lou works to further his career by any and all means.
Writer/director Dan Gilroy's Nightcrawler pulls no punches in its biting commentary of TV journalism. Implying that the business is run by heartless con artists, valuing sensationalism over moral integrity for the sake of ratings, the picture shows that Lou not only obstructs justice but actively creates situations with deadly results in order to have something profitable to shoot. By the time the credits role, Lou has successfully started his own business, without ever having to answer for any of his actions.
Articulate and deceptively soft spoken, Jake Gyllenhaal brings a frightening intensity to the role of Lou. Spouting thinly veiled threats with a smile, quick with demands, and haggling with relentless efficiency, Gyllenhaal's performance is both repulsive and captivating. Riz Ahmed plays Rick's inexperienced assistant, giving a convincing performance as a naive and wide-eyed young man, not realizing Bloom has served him a raw deal until far too late. As television news producer Nina Romina, Rene Russo does a fine job exuding chilly pragmatism, a woman who cares only about what the station can legally air for higher ratings with no moral reservations, truly as much of a monster as Lou. In a bit role as Joe Loder, a cameraman running a rival freelance operation, character actor Bill Paxton is at his smarmiest, doing what he does best.
Nightcrawler is a slick film, smartly written, featuring an amazing performance from Jake Gyllenhaal. Although it takes its message to the extreme, it encourages its audience examine and question the way news is covered on television.
FRAGMENTS
- Jake Gyllenhaal has come a long way since Donnie Darko
- I'd pair this with Michael Mann's Collateral for a nocturnal double bill featuring the streets of Los Angeles
MCU CONNECTIONS
- Rene Russo (Frigga in Thor, Thor: The Dark World, and Avengers: Endgame)
