On the news

Rating: 7/10 (9 July 2017)

Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) stars in this startling and satirical look at freelance video journalists stalking the streets of Los Angeles searching for disaster footage that he can sell to news stations.
Bloom may not have educational qualifications but he is a quick learner, a sociopath with his own code of business and moral ethics. When he observes veteran cameraman Joe Loder (Bill Paxton) who is first on the scene to shoot footage of a car wreck he decides to become a nightcrawler himself.
Buying a police scanner and a camcorder, Bloom learns fast and soon hires Rick (Riz Ahmed) a homeless man in need of money to be his driver.
Bloom and Rick quickly find footage of accidents and murders, Bloom even cynically manipulates crime scenes and television news producer Nina Romina (Rene Russo) laps the footage up with no questions asked.
Gyllenhaal gives an intense performance as Bloom, a plausible personality but really a cynical liar to enrich himself. Ahmed matches him as the nervous Rick, the more humane one knowing he is being manipulated by Bloom.
There is some wonderful night photography, the director Dan Gilroy delivers a cynical take on the news media but it really is a character piece than a movie. The storyline leading to the climax was hard to take and felt tagged on to give the film a conclusion.
All that speeding about the streets of LA and no police are present are a big much to take as well as disturbing the crime scene and the police take no action.