High-Octane Entertainment and Thought Provoking; Fantastic Movie

Rating: 9/10 (25 October 2014)

I was lucky enough to see an early screening of this movie in Boston that Jake Gyllenhaal made a brief appearance at to introduce it. I got some pictures with Jake (he's a really cool guy in person) and then sat back for what I expected to be a simple, entertaining movie and was very pleasantly surprised by a film that delivered so much more.
Simply based on entertainment value, the movie is fantastic. The acting across the board is fantastic. Jake Gyllenhaal's performance is like Jack Nicholson's in "The Shining"--so terrifying that it puts a grin on your face. The tension is built masterfully and it explodes onto screen in the form of car-chases, shootouts, and heart-pounding, breath-holding scenes of lurking danger. And visually it's pleasing as well. The city streets of LA look fantastic at night, especially when they're scattered with fiery wrecks, and the eerie glow that comes from the protagonist's camera-mounted light makes some of the more gruesome scenes really shine.
All of this I expected. What surprised me was its ability as a satire. GYllenhaal's character basically embodies the sociopathic tendencies of modern news production, so as the movie delves more and more into his disturbingly twisted mind it also establishes a very interesting social commentary. It's highly entertaining and thought-provoking at the same time and isn't that what we go to the movies to see? When this film hits wide release, I hope it gets the success that it deserves.