Pretty good.

Rating: 7/10 (3 January 2016)

Scene number one tells us that the protagonist (Lou) is a ruthless killer, for nothing more than a expensive watch. We can only guesstimate what he has been up to all his life, but it does look like we have a serial killer on our hands. It instantly reminds of a film such as 'Henry: portrait of a serial killer' (1986), but unlike that monumental film, this only partly develops into a character study. The story, or how Lou finally finds his true passion ánd talent and runs with it, is also very important here. Unfortunately, there seem to be some holes here and there. How is it that Joe survives his crash, but does not put the police onto Lou? Why wasn't that crash investigated at all, even? Why does the female detective not confiscate Lou's material? It shouldn't be too hard to convince a judge rapidly to issue a search warrant for his things and apartment, especially when there's murdered policemen involved? I found it all to be a bit too coincidental and contrived.
But 'Nightcrawler' has some terrific writing to offer, as well. How Lou manages to corrupt and manipulate Nina and Rick, for instance. And how Gyllenhaal portrays Lou is a job well done (the rest of the cast do admirable work as well), although I am not entirely blown away, like some. His 'Droopy walk' when he leaves the police station in the end, for instance, seems a little too much - reminding me of the ending of 'The usual suspects' (1995), by the way. The whole film has a little of that retro '80s and '90s vibe going on, anyway. Not a bad thing.
The direction is more than adequate, but the unclear focus of the whole (which is it; a character study or a suspenseful thriller and will the director make up his mind up about it already?) did not work terrifically for me.
Certainly not a bad film though. A good 7 out of 10.