Jake Gyllenhaal
Rene Russo
Riz Ahmed
Bill Paxton

Dan Gilroy

117 mins.
Crime, Thriller
October 31, 2014

Rated R for violence including graphic images, and for language. (MPAA)

Dan Gilroy’s “Nightcrawler” isn’t about the Marvel comic book superhero. No, it’s about a man named Louis “Lou” Bloom, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. And make no mistake: This is Gyllenhaal’s film.

Lou is desperate to find a job. As he encounters people, he asks them about their jobs in the hopes of finding a fit. He’s a loquacious and weirdly knowledgeable fellow (“I’m a very fast learner.”) and an opportunist. Before he finds a fit, he steals and sells his loot for as much money as he can. When Lou happens upon a car wreck, he notices that a couple of freelance video journalists scramble to get some footage of the scene. The one in charge, played by Bill Paxton, tells Lou how the job works, but he doesn’t want to hire him. Lou politely thanks him for the explanation and subsequently figures out how to break into the world of freelance video journalism. He becomes a nightcrawler. He sells his first bit of footage to one of Los Angeles’s local morning (vampire-shift early morning) news directors, played by a fittingly matter-of-fact Rene Russo (Gilroy’s wife).

The question is: Who is this guy? He lives alone and doesn’t turn on the lights. He’s constantly on the prowl: mostly at night, but also during the day. We can’t even be sure his name is Lou.

Gyllenhaal lost a lot of weight to play this character, and that helps him look like a guy who’s not quite right. He doesn’t look threatening, but there’s something unstable about him that you can’t quite place. He’s not a safe sort of person – he knocks out the security guard of a construction site, at the beginning of the film, in order to steal the guard’s watch and some copper from the site – but he would ensure you that he is.

Gyllenhaal really shines when his character shifts from looking for work to pretending to be a hotshot employer. He finds an audience in an “apprentice,” played by Riz Ahmed, and relishes the opportunity to talk to someone who has to pay attention to him. His ambition grows and grows from that point on. But where will it end? And who will be left standing?

This film relies on acting, writing, and pacing – what a shock! The supporting actors (Paxton, Russo, and Ahmed) are professional and appropriately avoid flashiness. They just get to work. They do just what they’re supposed to do: support Gyllenhaal. After all, he’s the main reason why this film works, along with the urgency that Gilroy appropriately infuses into the film; the score follows suit.

The wisdom of Gilroy’s script, by the way, reveals itself gradually as the film progresses. And what a directorial debut! This isn’t like “The Machinist,” which took its time in order to allow Christian Bale’s titular character to completely weird you out. No, this film has a steady, insistent pulse – even when Lou isn’t speeding through L.A. in pursuit of a lead. You feel like you’re going somewhere, but you’re not sure of where. You also know that when you finally get there, you probably won’t like it. On the surface, things seem OK; but what lies beneath?

Verdict: Very, Very Good

About: (Source: nightcrawler)

NightcrawlerIs a pulse-pounding thriller – set in the nocturnal underbelly ofcontemporary Los Angeles. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Lou Bloom, a driven young man desperate for work who discovers the high-speed world of L.A. crime. Finding a group of freelance camera crews who film crashes, fires, murder and other mayhem, Lou muscles into the cut-throat, dangerous realm of nightcrawling–Where each police siren wail equals a possible windfall and victims are converted into dollars. Aided by Rene Russo as Nina, a veteran of the blood-sport that is local TV news, Lou blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story.