Nightcrawler
Dan Gilroy’s “Nightcrawler” does more than stalk the night in Los Angeles, it crawls under our skin in truly unnerving ways. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Lou Bloom, a bright, resourceful individual who is struggling for work, and eager to learn if there’s an opportunity; when we first meet him, he’s selling stolen copper wiring. (I didn’t say he was a good person.) He’s driving one night, and he comes across a one-car accident, where the police are helping pull a woman out of the car. He then sees a news van pull up, where a couple of cameramen come out, get some footage, and then leave; they are freelance cameramen, who pull up, get some footage, then sell it to a local news station willing to pay for it. That puts an idea in Lou’s head, and sets him on a path that we will follow through the rest of the film.
Lou Bloom is not a nice person– far from it, in fact. He’s got a remarkably charismatic personality, as is evident from the first frame we see him, one which will serve him well when he’s selling his footage to Nina (Rene Russo, terrific in her best role in years), a news director who works the graveyard shift on a low-rated morning show. The two hit it off, although Lou is blunt about wanting more from Nina. That’s just one of the morally-dubious things Bloom does as he gets his career off the ground, as his “intern,” Rick (a homeless guy Lou takes advantage of played superbly by Riz Ahmed) learns the more time he spends with Lou. This is a seedy tale of ambition that sheds a disturbing light on what news media has become over the years. Though not based on a true story, it feels very true to the sensationalistic ways news has morphed into a pissing contest with regards to who can get the most viewers by racing to the bottom of society for stories. Leading us there in this film is Gilroy, who has a sharp eye and ear for the material, and Gyllenhaal, who’s never been scarier, or better, as he is in this role. They take us down the rabbit hole, and the results are something we can’t look away from, or get out of our heads.
