Nightcrawler

Director: Dan Gilroy

Year: 2014

Nightcrawler is a dark, society-charging, character-driven film that will land Jake Gyllenhaal a well-deserved Oscar nomination. With shades of Robert DeNiro’s Rupert Pupkin in “The King of Comedy”, Gyllenhaal’s performance is a chilling reflection of the opportunist in our information-starved society, rolling business platitudes and half-baked ideas off his tongue that allow him to rationalize his sordid behavior to himself and, shockingly, others with varying degrees of success.

Louis Bloom (Gyllenhaal) is a common thief in search of a job, a life an identity he can latch on to. His leach-like desire is palpable from the first moment we see him. He is calm, too calm, for what he’s doing and the authority he’s facing. His coolness continues to give him what some might write off as beginner’s luck. But there’s more than that at play with him – he’s fearless. He has nothing to lose and a handful of self-taught, internet-based knowledge that gives him just enough credibility to make you cock your head sideways and think “Is this guy for real?”

When he stumbles upon his first accident where Joe Loder’s (Bill Paxton) “independent news crew” (to be clear, this is a couple of the muckiest muckrakers you can imagine combing for “if it bleeds it leads” footage to peddle on the quick to the highest news outlet bidder) is present, he asks questions simply and naturally. He immediately displays the necessary detached mannerism for the grisly work of accident/crime video shooter. Once he discovers the market (money) and feels the validation (identity) from the ultimate source, television, in particular the News Director, Nina (Rene Russo), he’s hooked. He goes into overdrive, hiring an assistant, buying a new camera and even a race car to get to the scenes first. When that’s not enough and he loses out to Loder’s expanding crew, he rigs the competition.

Bloom’s win-at-all costs attitude and ability to manipulate those around him to his way of thinking, exploiting their own weaknesses for his gain, is terrifying because of how real it feels. And it’s not just those he touches immediately, because of the way he forces himself onto platform of television, he is impacting society at large with his viewpoint of terror in society. Television news, for all of its antiquity, still has tremendous reach and power in shaping the mindset of its community. Without strong gatekeepers to keep the Blooms of the world off the screen and out of the minds of those watching, news can make the damnable transition from a public service to a terrorism device.   

There were several places in Nightcrawler where I felt Director, writer Dan Gilroy missed opportunity to heighten action or strengthen the story by allowing his supporting cast to do more than just react to Bloom. In particular, Rick (Riz Ahmed) seems to act as a distant audience protest voice, pushing back against Bloom in several places. Because of his passivity, though, and lack of growth or change as a character, its hard to feel as much for him as I would have liked. Several of his lines, especially during heightened action sequences, are so on the nose that his saying them at serves as a distraction.  

Resonance Rating: 4 out of 5