Way creepier than your average "scary" movie

Rating: 7/10 (26 June 2015)

Give it to Jake Gyllenhaal for pulling a copy of the DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual version 5) and looking up the characteristics of a sociopath. He lack of empathy and blinking, the muscle car, the sudden outbursts, he just nails the real sociopaths who wander the streets around you every day. While slow to develop, the movie excels at asking some difficult questions about sanity, social mores and The American Way. Both Gyllenhaal (Lou) and female lead Rene Rousso's (Nina) characters succeed largely by being will to go farther than their competition. Certainly for Bloom he crosses the line into deliberate murder but Nina's morality is trickier. She gives herself completely to Bloom to get ahead at the television station where she runs overnight news. She manipulates the truth and enable's the initially small- time criminal Lou's unlawful behavior while showing no remorse or concern. So is just a career woman trying to get ahead by whatever means necessary and can't be held responsible for Lou's actions? Or is she guilty by association? The movie also raises questions about sanity. Certainly Lou's view of his "business" (Video Production News) as an organized professional firm is at first fraudulent and self-deluded. Or is it? Don't we celebrate people who built people who build major businesses based on some self-deception and that of others? Or does Bloom really see himself at the center of a thriving organization that just hasn't coalesced in the physical reality around him yet? The decided lack of morale to the story at the end of the film strongly recalls a 1992 Tim Robbins movie about the film industry called "The Player". In this busy as well (all businesses?) the dirtiest player who doesn't get caught wins. "Nightcrawler" delivers these starkly discomforting lessons in a slow-burn, too-real-to-life story. In short, if you want real scares, see this movie and realize these type of people are all around.