Jake Gyllenhaal excels as a sociopathic freelance cameraman

Rating: 9/10 (7 May 2017)

Louis Bloom is a low level thief in Los Angeles until one day he stops because of a car crash. Here he sees a freelance cameraman filming the aftermath. Louis asks why he is filming such a thing and is told that local news stations pay top dollar for such footage the grizzlier the better. He sells some stolen property to buy a cheap video camera and police scanner. At the first potential story he attends the police tell him to leave because he is getting to close; but he has the footage and sells it to a local TV station. News director Nina Romina tells him that she is impressed by his work and that he should bring any more stories to her. Soon his footage is appearing on screen regularly; as time passes he buys better equipment and takes on an assistant, who he pays a pittance. He frequently goes too far; entering properties and even moving a body at a car crash to get a better shot but that is only the start. What he is prepared to do to get a story escalates till one day he hears a message about a home invasion in a well-to-do area; he is minutes away and not only gets there before the police arrive but also before the criminals have left; he films the villains as they flee then enters the house and films the victims; three dead people. The footage in the house is aired but he holds back footage that shows the killers he wants to make sure that he has their arrest on camera; preferably in a public place.
This is a darkly comic film with a protagonist who is clearly a sociopath; he may not be as obviously psychotic as American Psycho's Patrick Bateman but he is clearly cut from the same cloth. Jake Gyllenhaal is on brilliant form as Bloom; he makes the character entirely believable in a world where violence dominates the news; not foreign wars but murder and accidents in affluent Los Angeles it is made clear early on that poor, non-white victims barely count in this macabre ratings war. He is ably supported by Rene Russo who plays Nina, a character who is more than willing to sacrifice morals for ratings and Riz Ahmed, who plays Bloom's assistant Rick; the closest the film has to a moral character. While this isn't really an action film there are still exciting moments; most notably a really good car chase in the film's closing scenes as Bloom and Rick film the police chasing after the killers as high speed. Given the sort of footage Bloom is after it is of no surprise that there are some fairly gory moments as we see the aftermath of violent events. Overall I'd recommend this although I would point out that it certainly won't be for everybody thanks to its amoral protagonist and the subject matter.