Jake Gyllenhaal stars in this psychological thriller set in the heart of Los Angeles

Rating: 9/10 (15 May 2015)

https://freeglader.wordpress.com/2015/05/05/nightcrawler/
Nightcrawler is director Dan Gilroy's debut on the big screen, and he's made quite an entrance. It tells the story of Louis, acted by Jake Gyllenhaal, a former thief who becomes a crime journalist, or more accurately, chases crimes to film the gory aftermath – selling whatever he gets to a local news station. As someone who seemed initially lost in direction, Louis takes to this with concerning vigour and manages to quickly rise in reputation among both the newscasters and his peers, seeking larger and deadlier crimes. As it goes, this would be a fairly interesting synopsis for any film, but it is Gyllenhaal's masterful performance as Louis that pushes this film one notch up – his blank, placid stare, his unnatural interaction, and almost inhuman amorality together create a creepy atmosphere, consistently unsettling throughout.
This psychotic performance is supported well by Rene Russo and Riz Ahmed, who play Nina and Rick respectively, the former a morning news director at the news station and the latter Louis' assistant. Both manage to showcase different elements of Louis' character, revealing that beyond the very thin veil of humanity there lies a very dangerous man, but he enchants them both with his strange skills and the promise of more, with a fair bit of manipulation on the side. In one particular scene, Louis is telling Nina how he loved to learn from the internet, and as the conversation plays out it seems more and more that even his most basic interactions are learnt from somewhere artificial – that he lacks something innately human, and Russo's very organic acting creates a tenable contrast between the two.
Perhaps the most impressive feature of the movie is its neo-noir aesthetic, beautifully framing Los Angeles in day and night, and complimenting the themes and feel of the film efficiently without fail. This, too, is augmented by James Newton Howard's soundtrack, its ambient guitars and spacey tones setting and reinforcing the mood on screen. Though it dips and wavers, at its best it could be considered one of Howard's more interesting soundtracks, and even if the various soundscapes work more as accompaniment than standalone musical pieces, noticing a soundtrack mid-film without being distracted by it is often the note of its strength (a la Drive).
Overall, Nightcrawler is a thrilling, if alarming, story that retains a strong pace and constantly ups the ante, resulting in a fantastic sequence towards the end which could almost belong in a Bourne movie (and I mean this as positively as I can), and yet even then does not compromise the constant sense of being on edge whenever Louis is on screen. If Drive was the former benchmark for the neo-noir genre, Nightcrawler is definitely the new one.