Gyllenhaal's crazy eyes steal the show

Rating: 8/10 (16 November 2014)

Screw this movie! Nightcrawler wasn't blue, didn't have a tail, Professor Xavier didn't show up ONCE, and Jake Gyllenhaal never even teleported! What the hell is this? Worst X-Men movie of all time... period.
Just kidding. As awesome as a standalone Nightcrawler film would be, the actual film Nightcrawler starring Jake Gyllenhaal is a wickedly twisted social commentary that boasts, what I think, is the performance of Gyllenhaal's career. He plays Louis Bloom, the most polite sociopath you will ever meet. Hungry for work, Louis finds himself a lucrative career in what is known as nightcrawling. Nightcrawling, which has nothing to do with mutants or Charlie and Frank's nighttime shenanigans (for all you It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia fans), consists of driving around late at night looking for car crashes, robberies, murders, or anywhere blood is being spilled, and then capturing it on camera first hand as it happens. The candidly grotesque footage is then sold to news outlets for their broadcasts. Louis Bloom quickly finds out that there is a career to be made out of this strange and unorthodox activity, and he will stop at literally nothing to be the best nightcrawler out there. And, of course, stop at nothing means exactly what you think it means. It's been a while since I've seen a film that succeeds on so many levels. Everything about Nightcrawler is fantastic from the darkly compelling story line, to the expertly crafted dialogue performed by a slew of excellent actors, to Robert Elswitt's stunning cinematography that combines dark and brooding tones with beautiful color saturation that sucks us into Louis Bloom's comically twisted reality. From start to finish Nightcrawler is a brilliantly crafted film that snatches you up and menacingly drags you along through it's disturbing twists and turns, some of which are almost too devilish to handle in such a frighteningly realistic setting. When it's all said and done the person who probably deserves the most credit for Nightcrawler is the film's star, Mr. Jake Gyllenhaal. The character of Louis Bloom is one of the most well written characters I have had the pleasure of meeting on the big screen in a long time, but Gyllenhaal takes the character to a whole other level. On the physical side Gyllenhaal lost a significant amount of weight to give Bloom a lanky ghostly look that adds to the manic determination of his character. But it's the nuances in his character's eyes and face that are so telling of what this character is scheming or thinking. Yet at the same time it's never too much, always keeping the audience in the dark as to what exactly this unpredictable son of a bitch is going to do next. Then at the same time Bloom presents himself as this highly professional, highly determined young man with strong convictions and verbose explanation of his actions and goals that make it hard not to side with him or understand him, as much as you know you shouldn't. It's hard to put into words just how great of a performance this is, which is why I urge everyone to it see for themselves.
I really loved Nightcrawler right up until the end. The story was paced excellently, the characters grew in a believable and compelling way, and the climax was nothing short of awesome. But when the credits started to roll I immediately wanted more. Maybe it's just me being greedy, but I felt like where the credits came in should have been the start of the third act. We're left on such an open note that hardly feels like an ending, but perhaps that's the point? Needless to say, I'm ready to watch Nightcrawler again.