Direct, creepy, surreal, and entertaining. Nighcrawler leaves us with more questions than answers.

Rating: 8/10 (2 November 2014)

Jake Gyllenhaal is only as good as his material. In Nightcrawler he is excellent. His character, Louis Bloom, is like the accidents he films; he shocks us, but we can't turn away. Los Angeles is the perfect backdrop for the soulless art of the freelance news stringer. They are ambulance chasers with cameras; they scavenge off the body of human suffering. They look for the worst, most sensational, tragedies and sell pain to the highest bidder at the local news stations.
Direct and writer Dan Gilroy lets the story speak for itself. There are moments of camera theatrics that match the drama of the story, but the only camera work we notice is that of Bloom and his competitors. Bloom films the gutter and goes into the gutter to get his stories, sometimes seeding the gutter to have get a scoop. Bloom does whatever it takes and has at best a twisted sense of morality. Like the ignominious photographers that let famine victims starve to not interfere with the story and to get their award winning photo, Bloom will do what it takes to have the best footage to sell.
The relationships Bloom creates lack a real quality. In a surreal film such as Nightcrawler, that is a plus. In fact, functional relationships is the last thing we expect from Bloom. Renee Russo as the late-night news director Nina Romina is twisted and charming like Bloom. Nina puts on the trappings of social normality even if her work is morally questionable as well. Bloom's "employee" is cowed into work due to his desperate conditions. For all of Bloom's lack of news experience, he knows how to play people and take advantage of their vulnerabilities. He's a charming sociopath much like large hedge-fund managers on Wall Street.
Rating: Pay Full Price
The movie is direct, creepy, anxiety producing and entertaining. It has all the elements of a good horror movie in a drama. It's a critique of the media and news, and it highlights our individual isolation as Taxi Driver did for us nearly 40 years ago. Most of all, Nightcrawler entertains while making the audience very uncomfortable. It leaves us with more questions than answers without preaching to us.
Peace, Tex Shelters