Nightcrawler Review

Rating: 9/10 (24 September 2018)

Nightcrawler is a dramatic, crime thriller directed by Dan Gilroy. The film follows Lou Bloom (played by Jake Gyllenhaal), a man desperate for work, as he enters into the business of filming crime scenes for money.
Nightcrawler's director Dan Gilroy does a fantastic job at both creating a unique character, Lou Bloom, and then showing this character off to the audience. It becomes abundantly clear in the first 20 minutes of the film what kind of person Lou Bloom is and how he's going to carry himself throughout the rest of the film. The film strongly emphasizes the manipulative, sociopathic qualities of Lou Bloom. This clear characterization of Lou Bloom is what makes Nightcrawler so entertaining to watch.
Transparency is a clear theme to this film. Dan Gilroy wants the audience to see the characters, setting, and mood of his film for what the really are. There is no confusion about the character's motives or personality, the setting, and mood of the film. A lot of the characters themselves reinforce this theme. Lou Bloom is clear about his objective and will not sugarcoat anything.
The story captures and holds the attention of the audience from the very start of the film to the ending credits sequence. Two of the most apparent ways that Gilroy has created this interesting story have been through action. There is both a mixture of physical and psychological action. There is a duality of action throughout Nightcrawler. The physical action scenes compliment Lou Bloom's psychological changes. Bloom progressively does more and more risky things to get more money. Through his physical actions it can be seen that he is also changing psychologically.
Dan Gilroy also employs suspense to maintain the maintain the audience's interest in the film. The story portrays Lou Bloom as a risk taker. What separates this story's risk taker from other risk takers is how quickly Bloom's risks escalate. His risks exponentially become even riskier to the point where a viewer is wondering "What will he do next?" This risk taking nature of the film adds a ton of suspense as Bloom arrives at each crime. "What will he do this time to make more money?" are the questions that come across a viewer's mind throughout the whole film. His risks reflect his apparent lack of morality, which allow him to not care about his well-being or the well-being of others.

The film has a clear structure which makes for a more enjoyable viewing experience. The film follows a linear approach to telling a story. The three acts which are: exposition, complication, and climax, are very apparent in the film. The first act, exposition, introduces Lou, the main character, and the people he works with. Their characters personalities and motives are clear. The film does great job of putting these characters, along with their traits, in positions that make sense to the audience. The next act, complication, introduces a conflict and grows that conflict. The conflict is clear and so is its importance to the story. The final act, climax, is the highest point of emotional action in the film. At this point, the story's tension, mainly regarding the conflict, are so high that the audience can feel it. The viewers know that something big is going to happen, but they don't know what. This brings suspense back into the film.
Overall Nightcrawler does a great job at holding the attention of the viewer and it provides an very interesting and unique story. Jake Gyllenhaal did an amazing job at becoming a character that is almost villainous but like-able at the same time. This movie is a much watch for those who are into films that are suspenseful and dramatic.