Naked, blind ambition personified by an Oscar-worthy Gyllenhaal.

Rating: 9/10 (14 November 2014)

NIGHTCRAWLER (2014) ***1/2 Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton, Riz Ahmed, Kevin Rahm, Ann Cusasck. Gyllenhaal gives an Oscar worthy turn as an ambitious entrepreneur wannabe who stumbles into becoming a news videographer who scrounges LA in the dark hours for the more lurid feeds that will lead to bigger deals and more faster cash than he can imagine in spite of his own sociopathic tendencies which are clearly aligned with his slightly Macchieavealean deal with the local TV station's news managing producer (a very strong Russo channeling her inner Faye Dunaway) who strongly follows the 'if it bleeds it leads' POV in what the media feeds its viewers. A damning black comedy and transfixing indictment of what blind ambition can lead to from filmmaker Dan Gilroy (his big-screen directorial debut who also penned the poisonous screenplay) who employs the nitty, gritty after hours cinematography by Robert Elswit with dank aplomb. Gyllenhaal, with his slick backed hair and saucer eyes, makes his antihero, Louis Bloom, an equal to the pantheon of Robert De Niro's Travis Bickle in TAXI DRIVER and his Rupert Pupkin in THE KING OF COMEDY and succeeds in a career high with laser focus and scary good committal to what could have been an odious portrait of moral bankruptcy.