Brilliant drama

Rating: 9/10 (11 April 2015)

A brilliant drama.
The story of a pretty thief who seizes and opportunity to become a freelance TV news footage gatherer. Shows how he moves from being an observer and recorder (and a reasonably bad one, initially), to participant, to manufacturer of news. A great indictment on the evil, underhanded industry that is the media.
Jake Gyllenhaal is scary-good, and just plain scary, in the lead role. There cannot be too many more convincing portrayals of psychopath/sociopaths out there. Incredibly intense, and very convincing.
Good support from Rene Russo and Riz Ahmed, but it is really the Jake Gyllenhaal Show - he is in every scene. How he did not get a Best Actor Oscar nomination, I do not know.
More broadly, how this movie got only one Oscar nomination (for Best Original Screenplay), I don't know.
Only negative aspects of the movie is that it is a bit too neat, the way things pan out. Plus, there is no subtlety, or shades of grey. It is pretty much a sledgehammer, black-and-white approach.