Draws a Moral Line in the Sand-and then Crosses It

Rating: 7/10 (2 July 2015)

"Louis Bloom" (Jake Gyllenhaal) is an unemployed and narcissistic person who has resorted to stealing in the short term just to pay his bills. One night he comes across a grisly automobile accident scene and watches with stunned admiration at the way news cameraman "Joe Loder" (Bill Paxton) films the sight. He then goes to a pawn shop and trades his stolen ten-speed for a video camcorder and becomes a freelance news cameraman himself. This in turn leads him to a television news producer named "Nina Romina" (Rene Russo) who buys one of his clips and encourages him to continue in his new-found profession. He then becomes enamored with Nina and sets about becoming the best news photographer in Los Angeles in order to increase his wealth and to have her. Now rather than say anything more and risk ruining this film for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was a very well-made movie which seeks to draw a moral line in the sand when it comes to how far a news camera crew is willing to go to get a shot on tape. Needless to say, Louis shows no hesitation in crossing it. At any rate, although there are some scenes which seem to be a bit slow the ending more than makes up for it and because of that I rate this movie as above average.