It gets very dark, at night, on the streets of the asphalt jungle.

Rating: Null/10 (3 November 2014)

Jake Gyllenhaal plays a sharp-minded, amoral, small-time criminal and hustler, who aspires to something more. This happens, through a chance encounter, which brings him into contact with TV news.
Jake Gyllenhaal was born in LA, and is the brother of actress Miss Maggie Gyllenhaal. Mr Gyllenhaal has appeared in a couple of really exciting films in recent years; the time-travel SF film 'Source Code' (2011), and the LA-based cop drama 'End of Watch' (2012). In both of those films Mr Gyllenhaal played, with much poignancy, a sympathetic, and somewhat tortured, character. This film is equally exciting, but Mr Gyllenhaal's character in this film is different. Always intense, in this film, Mr Gyllenhaal lost 20lbs in reality, to give himself a hungry-look.
Rene Russo co-stars in 'Nightcrawler', she plays a news-executive at a TV station. Thus her role is somewhat like that of Faye Dunaway in 'Network' (1976), and the two films are somewhat alike as they expose the seedy underbelly of the morality of TV news gathering. This thus, is a serious role for Miss Russo. This film is made in the shadow of Hollywood, but it is a world away from the glitzy Hollywood portrayed in 'Get Shorty' (1995), a comic film-making gangster-caper, in which Miss Russo played the romantic love-interest. This is of course not to say that Miss Russo cannot do serious. That same year of 1995, she gave a tremendous performance in 'Outbreak', followed up the next year by her equally well acted role in 'Ransom'.
In real-life, Miss Russo, is married to Dan Gilroy, the writer and director of 'Nightcrawler'. This is the debut film of Mr Gilroy and he should be applauded for his creation. The story is good and the filming too. All 'news-footage' had an authentic look to it, similar to the found-footage of 'End of Watch'. It should be noted that Mr Gyllenhaal is a producer of 'Nightcrawler'. Thus both films have Mr Gyllenhaal's character filming in the film, and both films are LA-based too. Actors Bill Paxton and Rick Garcia in the supporting cast, also give strong performances.
The only thing wrong with this film was the trailer run to promote it. The recent 'A Most Wanted Man' was partially ruined by it's trailer. Here too, some severe editing of the trailer, by Jake Gyllenhaal's film character, would not have gone amiss in this regard.
Ultimately, this film is a depressing look at the cynicism and immorality of TV news-gathering.
Exciting and tense. 9/10.