Thursday, March 28, 2024

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Review // Nightcrawler

First Published:

[projekktor id=’15938′]

Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler is the film Jake Gyllenhaal has been waiting for. Though the actor has been turning out fantastic performances for years now, he has yet to have a film that puts his talents on show in such a way that even his detractors have to concede that this guy can act. Nightcrawler is that film. Transforming himself into the gaunt, wild-eyed Lou Bloom, Gyllenhaal doesn’t just get your attention, he crawls into your skull and makes a bed of your brains.

Lou Bloom may be the scariest character put to screen this year. With dark, unblinking eyes and lupine intensity Lou seems like a wild creature who has stumbled into the world of man. Manically regurgitating power-business catchphrases and dime store self-help philosophy, he’s a big bad wolf of the information age. When we first meet him he’s a petty thief, clipping away a chain link fence to sell as scrap metal. However, as soon as he opens his mouth we realize that Lou has higher ideas for himself. A quick altercation with a security guard (largely off screen) shows us that he is not someone you want to be alone with; and after an impromptu job application with a construction foreman it’s very clear that despite his gift of gab, there is something not quite right about this Lou Bloom.

Nightcrawler is the directorial debut of director Dan Gilroy – best known as a screenwriter on such films as The Bourne Legacy and Real Steel – and with his first film he sets his sights on the strange world of independent news videographers. “Nightcrawlers” or “stringers” are pale, bleary-eyed men who drive through the nocturnal Los Angeles streets trying to videotape death and carnage to sell to news stations.  After happening upon a fiery car crash Lou meets Joe Loader (Bill Paxton) a veteran stringer who provides him with the mantra of the business: “if it bleeds, it leads”. It’s the perfect fit for the prowling Lou and soon he’s pawned a stolen bike for a video camera and a police scanner.

Providing a counterpoint to shows like The Newsroom where journalists have highfalutin debates over integrity and ethics, the television station in Nightcrawler would air an ISIS beheading without batting an eye, then wonder if there’s a second angle.

In a business that requires lax ethical standards to begin with, Lou distinguishes himself for being particularly shameless, pushing through first responders and walking into open crime scenes to catch the blood and gore. He soon finds a kinder spirit in Nina (Rene Russo), a news director at a struggling cable channel which she encourages Lou to think of as “a screaming woman, running down the street with her throat cut.” Nina has no problem with Lou’s morally murky practices as long as his footage promotes the fear-mongering ideas that sell news; mainly that violent urban crime is seeping into the suburbs.

Thanks to his ruthless tactics and his exclusive relationship with Nina, Lou’s business soon takes off, allowing him to exchange his old beater for a blood-red Mustang, and hire an intern named Rick (Riz Ahmed). However when Lou and his reluctant protege beat the police to a home invasion they capture not just the aftermath of a violent crime, but footage of it’s perpetrators escaping the scene. Soon his desire for the perfect shot – and increased pressure from Nina – leads Lou beyond simple observation and into active participation in the violence he records.

Nightcrawler is certainly a critique of the shock and awe approach to news journalism. Providing a counterpoint to shows like The Newsroom where journalists have highfalutin debates over integrity and ethics, the television station in Nightcrawler would air an ISIS beheading without batting an eye, then wonder if there’s a second angle. But the film is also about the constant consumption of information. In an age where amateur iPhone video makes it on to the news on a regular basis, Lou represents the dangers of citizen journalism taken to the extreme; to a place where real stories and the darker curiosities of humanity are catered to indiscriminately.

Nightcrawler tests your nerve and because of that it won’t be for everyone. Gilroy wants to make you squirm, and audiences heading to the theatres looking for mindless entertainment should beware, Nightcrawler has all the carefree escapism of a snuff film. This is not a flick that simply hints at a dirty underbelly before returning you to the comforts of the everyday, this is a film that gleefully rolls through the muck. However, a tightly written script, beautiful photography from Robert Elswit, a wicked car chase and a top-notch performance from Gyllenhaal make this a can’t-miss thriller for moviegoers unafraid of a little darkness.

Reviewed by Evan Arppe.

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