Bloom is a morally repugnant character

Rating: 9/10 (3 June 2020)

The production of this film is flawless, the script is tight & Jake Gyllenhaal's performance lingers long after the end titles.
A skeletal stature, Bloom's eyes bulge from the sockets as he rarely blinks, delivering his lines in a clinical manner, always a slight deviant glint in his eye & his smile. From the beginning there's just something lurking under the surface that doesn't feel right about Bloom, and it's slowly peeled back during the film to reveal him as a sociopath. Manipulative; arrogant, sleazy, egotistical & most certainly callous - his lack of empathy for human life is astounding. Jake Gyllenhaal is absolutely superb throughout, creating a character that is so morally repugnant it's hard to forget him.
In the beginning of the film, I definitely empathised with Louis' character.
Having to resort to petty crimes for income, due to unemployment, his persistence to better his circumstances (even if he has to work from the bottom up) is admirable. My opinion quickly changed when he became more and more obsessive with building a repertoire of grisly crime scene footage; each one more risquÃ© than the next, exploiting a homeless man to become part of his news footage 'crew' and essentially staging murders to boost his career.
The film is not a satire, but a scathing social commentary about the media & the content they air to boost ratings (victims need to be white & affluent, injured at the hands of the poor/minority & must be gory). Statements delivered in the film such as - "if it bleeds it leads", is deeply disturbing though reigns true; and we as viewers are equally complicit - our integrity questioned by our gluttony for blood.
The relationship Bloom strikes with Nina is troublesome on many levels. Firstly his coercion of her to be submissive to his demands professionally and sexually & that she finds his murderous ways inspiring.
Likes:
-The music was calculating (like the cogs inside Bloom's brain)
-Morning news segments
-Rick's "interview" scene
-Bloom testing his camera