Nightcrawler (2014)
Certified: 15
Duration: 117 minutes
Directed by: Dan Gilroy
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed, Bill Paxton, Ann Cusack, Kevin Rahm, Kathleen York, Eric Lange, Jonny Coyne, Michael Hyatt, Michael Papajohn
KRS Releasing Ltd

Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is down on his luck and is looking for some kind of job. When he happens on a car accident, he notices Joe Loder (Bill Paxton), a freelance video journalist who is shooting the scene and whose work finally ends up being bought and shown on the news.

That is when he realises that this could be the job he could be doing. In order to do this he manages to obtain, through illicit means, a video camera and a police scanner.

He starts to sell the footage he gets to Nina (Rene Russo), the director at KWLA, who is in charge of the early morning news and the night shift. This leads him into a competition with Joe and others.

Gyllenhaal brings an over-the-top cockiness that is almost contagious

When he sees that Joe has his own crew of helpers, he starts to recruit and brings in Rick (Riz Ahmed) who is homeless and in desperate need of an income.

This leads to better footage and an even better relationship with Nina which goes beyond journalism. At one point, when Lou arrives on a home invasion scene before the arrival of the police, he takes some actions which break a lot of rules and leads to Detective Fronteiri (Michael Hyatt) to start suspecting Lou, his actions and the information that he has.

With Nightcrawler Dan Gilroy has brought a gem of a movie as it transcends its genre and becomes almost a study of evil in its different permutations.

This is the sort of film that will crawl under your defences and convert you slowly as it unpeels and dissects into the darkness that lies under one’s skin and in the glittering vestiges of society.

This is a film that will reel you in effortlessly and grips your attention strongly, making it one of the best action movies of this year.

This is what Oliver Stone would have been directing if he was starting his career in this day and age and in today’s Hollywood.

Nightcrawler marks the directorial debut of Tony Gilroy who has broken his chops as a screenwriter on such works as The Bourne Legacy and Real Steel.

In the character of Lou Bloom he has brought out a hungry man, a man who lives by night and who is seemingly always looking for the next buck and yet also wants to make something out of his life.

The film follows Lou slowly and obsessively we are brought into his psyche as we see him obsess over the subject matter.

This is a dark world that we are living in and Lou has the power to find the darkest of the dark, film it and bring it to the attention of all concerned just as they are waking up and they will gobble it up with their morning breakfast.

Jake Gyllenhaal delivers a performance that makes his on-screen characterisation very unlikeable. That is how it should be.

His Louis Bloom should not be a person we sympathise with. We know and feel how corrupt he is and his desperation will drive him even more into the abyss.

Yet as an audience we will appreciate the man, the fallibility of him and even more so his deranged drive as madness starts to become a normal essence of the night’s duties.

Gyllenhaal brings an over-the-top cockiness that is almost contagious.

Gyllenhaal as an actor seems to evolve into his character and all throughout the film we discover more and more dark corners within him.

Gilroy builds the film’s suspense slowly and with tangible tension. Rene Russo delivers a captivating performance that is perfect for this picture. All throughout, the film piles on the suspense and yet it never does the expected.

Instead Gilroy delivers an unexpected turn after another. Even in its climactic drive to the end you get the feeling that you are treading new territory as a viewer.

James Newton Howard delivers a musical score that is another driving-force element in this movie’s exploration about darkness.