Year: 2014
Director: Dan Gilroy
Writer: Dan Gilroy
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill
Paxton, Riz Ahmed, Kevin Rahm
In “Nightcrawler”
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Lou Bloom - a socially awkward loner, desperately looking
for a job with the ambition to make a successful career. He almost accidentally
starts a career as a “nightcrawler” – gathering morally questionable footage
from accidents and crime scenes. The movie is written and directed by Dan
Gilroy – writer for “The Bourne Legacy”, “The fall” and others. “Nightcrawler” is his debut as a
director and he did an amazing job in character building, pacing and visual
style.
Robert
Elswit is the cinematographer for the movie and you can clearly tell that it’s
done by someone with great experience and talent. (He worked on “Magnolia”,”
Good Night, and Good Luck”, “There Will Be Blood”, “Mission Impossible”, “Boogie
Nights” etc.). The movie just looks gorgeous - Gyllenhaal’s magnetic presence
and the camera work are enough to make you stare at the screen for hours even
if nothing’s happening. Well, I would do it. The details, light, camera angles –
everything is great. For example, there’s a scene when one of Lou’s rivals gets
in an accident and there’s a great dramatic shot from his point of view looking
up to the camera shoved in his face. I also absolutely loved the sharp, rocking
soundtrack by James Newton Howard. It shines with its energy, rich drums, a central
guitar riff and haunting electronic elements.
The “Nightcrawler”
starts off with an eerie, but beautiful opening shot of L.A. that quickly gives
us the feeling of isolation and lets us know that the hero lives on the fringes
of life. From the very first moment you hear him talk, you can feel that he
reeks of weirdness and although he’s genuinely creepy you can’t take your eyes
off of him. I literally watched the first few minutes of the movie with my mouth
open, because I truly haven’t seen so fascinating character in a very long
time. Everything he says is strange and enthralling, although sometimes
absolutely hilarious. That’s another thing I loved so much about the film – the
dark humor. In many ways “Nightcrawler” is a terrific black comedy.
All actors
in the movie are outstanding – both Riz Ahmed and Rene Russo give powerful
performances. But Jake Gyllenhaal is the most amazing thing in the film and not
just because he’s the protagonist, he’s simply captivating - you can hardly
believe that’s even him. Of course, he lost a lot of weight, but his performance
by itself is something that I haven’t seen from him before, he is like a completely
different person.
And Lou
is amazing character to play – he’s polite and a little bit childish in a bizarre
way. Everything he says is calculated to get him closer to what he wants,
although you can clearly see that he took lots of online courses and read too
many self-help, “young entrepreneur” type of books. As he puts it: “You can
find almost everything if you look hard enough.” Makes you think about the role
of internet in our lives, doesn't it?
Despite
the fact that Lou turns out to be a complete sociopath with no moral restrains,
you somehow understand where he’s coming from and at times you’re really
excited for him to get his work done well. He is ambitious and smart, meticulous
in his work, analytical and procedural. In a way he is the product and embodiment
of the capitalistic society, in which success must be achieved at any cost. He lives
in an oppressing environment with absurdly high social expectations and problematic
priorities. Gyllenhaal himself said that he sees this move as a success story. In
this way “Nightcrawler” goes beyond the crime thriller and becomes a very
modern social satire. It also heavily explores the mainstream media, the “ethic”
of journalists and how media executives decide what “the story” is by manipulating
information to appeal or scare the public. By the end of the movie we realize
that the news runners might be just as ruthless and psychotic as our
protagonist.
As
pacing the movie is perfect. There’s a lot of suspense and very, very well-done
car chase sequence. You more or less know where the things are going, but when
certain things happen, you still go: “That’s so messed up.” And Gyllenhaal’s
character is just so intriguing, that I could easily spend at least 1 or 2 more
hours in the cinema just observing him do his job. So, I have absolutely no
complains and I am excited to see the movie again.
The
movie has 8,4 on IMDB - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2872718/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
8,3
from users and 76 from critics on MetaCritic - http://www.metacritic.com/movie/nightcrawler
94% on
RottenTomatoes - http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nightcrawler/
Trailer:
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