Nightcrawler
Director: Dan Gilroy
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton
117 mins; Class 15;
KRS Releasing Ltd
From his impressive performance in 2001’s Donnie Darko to date, Jake Gyllenhaal has built a solid reputation in a number of excellent movies, easily straddling the line between independent and mainstream fare. As Lou Bloom in Nightcrawler, Gyllenhaal offers possibly his best work to date.
An aimless drifter wandering the dark LA streets at night, Bloom stumbles across the world of ‘Nightcrawlers’ – people armed with video cameras and police scanners aiming for scenes of crime, crashes and death in a no-holds-barred race to supply exclusive footage to TV networks.
Bloom sees in this the start of a new career, and he discovers an aptitude for it – he secures the ne-cessary equipment and uses his sharp intelligence and complete lack of morals to make himself the best of the lot.
His aim is to dethrone the king of the Nightcrawlers himself, Joe Loder (Bill Paxton) to the extent that the rivalry between them soon takes a deadly turn.
He is completely abhorrent
With his deep penetrating eyes, gaunt figure, greasy hair and complete lack of emotion, the socially-awkward Bloom cuts a frightening figure as he latches onto his new career.
Befriending network executive Nina Romina (Rene Russo, embodying to a tee the ruthless media prototype), who sees in him a viable asset, Lou’s forays onto accident and crime scenes become more daring as his obsession with his tasks grows stronger and darker.
His appalling treatment of his new assistant Rick (a sympathetic Riz Ahmed), is just one hint of Bloom’s completely debased character.
He is someone completely abhorrent, yet so mesmerising is Gyllenhaal’s performance he draws you in and you can’t help but grudgingly admire his gall. Kudos to the actor for eschewing the temptation to inject some form of humanity into the character instead almost proudly wearing his corrupt nature on his sleeve.
Many critics have compared the film and its protagonist to Taxi Driver and Robert De Niro’s seminal character Travis Bickle and there is much to be said to compare the two. They are two psychopaths pounding the streets at night driven by their respective obsessions.
However Lou Bloom is certainly a 21st-century creation. He embodies all that is bad about traditional media outlets today that, in their frenzy to keep up with the inexorable rise of social media and citizen journalism, will do anything to be first with the story; facts, victims and any modicum of taste be damned.