The
scariest thing about the Jake Gyllenhaal film, “Nightcrawler,” is Jake Gyllenhaal.
His sunken in eyes, skeleton pale skin, and obsessive demeanor tie together in
an unnerving cocktail that is the gritty nocturnal thriller,
“Nightcrawler.” Jake Gyllenhaal stars as
the perfect creep, an extremely high functioning petty thief with apparent
sociopathic tendencies named Lou Bloom, the film’s leading role. Lou doesn’t
really get people nor like them, but he knows how to use them, leverage them,
and creep them the hell out.
Written and directed by Dan Gilroy,
“Nightcrawler” is a drama, mystery, and suspense thriller set in the nocturnal
underbelly of Los Angeles about a freelance videographer who records violent events late
at night and sells the footage to a local television news station. The film scored an overall rating of
ninety-five percent on Rotten Tomatoes and casts Gyllenhaal along with Rene
Russo who stars as ‘Nina,’ and Bill Paxton as ‘Joe,’ Bloom’s competition. The
movie starts with Gyllenhaal lurking around in the darkness of industrial Los
Angeles looting for scrap metal. The film only gets grittier and more disconcerting
from there and viewer discretion is advised, just like the gruesome recordings
of car crash and homicide victims that Bloom sells to news director, ‘Nina,’ at
KW2 News. The relationship they have is somewhat grotesque and the date they go
on about halfway through the movie has you either cringing or feeling a mix of
sorry and scared for Nina, Bloom’s collegue and crush who is blackmailed into
sleeping with him. At one point in the movie we see the two having a heated,
almost romantic moment after Lou shows Nina his most disturbing and bloody
video footage yet. As a viewer, the scene pisses you off or confuses you but
also adds to the overall strangeness and power of the film. The film has a
sense of Film Noir and the progressive evolution of the debauchery of Lou Bloom
escalates rapidly, starting from looting scrap metal yards and progressing towards
moving around dead bodies at accident scenes for better camera angles before
the cops arrive. Gyllenhaal’s performance is as powerful as the overall
creepiness he exerts into the film that would be characterized as somewhere in
the middle between intoxicating and fearsome. You just don’t know when this guy
Lou is going to snap or what he’s going to do next but man, does he make it
interesting to watch.
Film Noir fans or those looking to
watch something on the darker side of film will enjoy watching the nail-biting
performance that Gyllenhaal delivers and the feeling of uneasiness that comes
along with it. “Nightcrawler” is an excellent choice for thrill seekers,
suspense lovers, and even action fans as it involves car chases and gun fights.
It is bloody and leaves you with no idea what will happen next and I liked it,
especially for Gyllenhaal’s performance which left me equally captivated and
disgusted. The film’s soundtrack does leave room for improvement as much of the
music is redundant and not exactly common tracks you would hear in a suspense
film, often sounding upbeat or energetic. Yet aside from the lacking sound
track and the relationship between Lou and Nina that confuses many and
heightens the anxiety levels of most, “Nightcrawler” will not disappoint the viewer
as a thrill-seeking, suspenseful movie about an enticingly creepy man and his
new found, obsessive line of work in the underworld of nocturnal Los Angeles.
Gyllenhaal as Lou Bloom in "Nightcrawler"
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