Relentless and mesmerizing, with a feverish and ferocious Gyllenhaal

Rating: Null/10 (30 November 2014)

Maybe not totally what i expected. I expected something more abstract, less accessible. Not saying this in a bad way at all, but it definitely surprised me. I think it's one of the most purely entertaining films of the year, mostly because it does such a great job at setting up the main character. For those who've seen it, what did you think of them showing us that Lou is a murderer from the opening scene? I'm still not sure. It sets him up well, but maybe the lengths he goes to to get what he wants throughout the film would've made more impact had we never seen what he was capable of from the start? It would've made the fact that he's a psycho more unique to the situation he finds himself in as the film goes on? Either way, Gyllenhaal is absolutely amazing. He's sort of shown he was capable of this sort of thing in Donnie Darko, although obviously not to this extent. Here, he's mesmerizing, simultaneously terrifying and funny, that sort of feverish can't-look-away work only achieved very rarely in an actor's career. I've been a big fan of Jake for a while now even if I had never thought he was absolutely flat-out brilliant, he had just always been really great and dependable. Here, he gets a role that gives him more to work with and does wonders with it. The film is really great, completely relentless in its pacing with a really manic style, even if it's not afraid to linger in the moments that count. I had never seen Riz Ahmed before this, and he's a natural. He provides the film with so many awkward laughs along with Jake that really do highlight its satirical quality more, and both make such a great pair. If there's one complaint, it's that the film doesn't seem to know where to end. The final scene is great, but the few minutes before that sort of seem to wander aimlessly, only working as ways to show us how loose ends were tied up.
I'd seen many comparisons to Drive, but outside of some beautiful LA shots, I think that this is more accessible and it relies a lot more on the script, as well as making its themes more obvious, whereas Drive was a film entirely dependent on its aesthetic and direction.