Analog Life In A Digital World

Rating: 8/10 (23 December 2014)

Yes Jake Gyllenhaal does an excellent job of playing the sociopath thief turned morbid local TV nightcrawler Louis Bloom, but the movie also shows how things haven't changed as much as we think they have over the last two or three decades.
Not only does the movie highlight that people still watch and rely on an "old medium" (local TV news), it also shows that despite having the world at your fingertips on your phone or computer, you still need someone to go out there and get, or sometimes in Lou's case - make, the content.
You rarely see much of the modern technology we're accustomed to in the movie. Lou doesn't get the latest and greatest gadgets, and even at one point shuns them when offered. He doesn't need them, as he's found his calling. To be as good as he is, you have to lack what others have: a moral conscience.
The excellent retro 80's inspired soundtrack from James Newton Howard makes heavy use of distorted reverb guitar and synth, which continues to blur the lines between decades.
The story itself is one that borrows from stories we've seen. Louis Bloom is a sociopath similar to Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. While he knows what sounds good, and even what people want to hear, he has a hard time initially convincing people to do his bidding.
Nina(Rene Russo) is the cutthroat TV producer(ala Faye Dunaway's Diana Christensen), who herself is likely fighting for her own internal relevancy as she ages, as well as that of the TV station she runs. Her willingness to push boundaries and manipulate news to succeed handily parallels Louis' motivations. The two have more in common at the end of the film than differences, even if the romance between the two is a forced farce.
Overall the movie keeps things fresh enough and moves the story along without getting stale. While we've yet to see quite the levels of extremes on a regular basis that Nightcrawler presents, perhaps this stylized pseudo-retro-modern look at local TV news is really foreshadowing what's to come.