A relentless, resonant arc; a searing satire

Rating: 8/10 (25 December 2014)

Unique and specific as this film is, it has strong echoes of a number of others. The character's warped ambition and unapologetic viciousness is reminiscent of Travis Bickle; his relentlessness and the efficiency of his violence of Gosling's character in "Drive"; his slightly robotic, homicidal clarity of Cruise's in "Collateral". Other echoes are more literary and will be less familiar to the standard film- goer. He is in many ways very close to the perfume- obsessed psychopath in "Perfume", Süskind's unique novel set in eighteenth century France; substitute video production for perfume and you have a similar cold purity of inhuman intent. As it happens, a movie WAS made in 2012 of Maupassant's novel "Bel Ami", an expert portrait of an amoral arriviste in nineteenth century Paris. For the rare person who knows the novel or film, a strong argument could be made that this is a stream-lined, modern retelling of that Machiavellian tale of how to advance in the media of one's time. Which, as shown in both works, is already amoral enough. One strong theme here is how readily the low-life outsider using unscrupulous methods readily finds allies in more established, "reputable" media. (The film is at its least subtle when we are told that crime really doesn't matter if it affects minorities and the underprivileged; the "good" stories are about their problems seeping into the lives of the more privileged). Here the film's resonances include "Network" and other works which satirize or dissect how far people are willing to go to get good ratings. (While I doubt Harvey Levin's arc was anything like this one, it would have been fun to watch his reactions to what is largely a portrayal of TMZ's style of journalism.) As for the acting, Gyllenhaal has been compelling since "Donnie Darko" and just gets more so, especially with his under- weight look here, drawing the bones out in his face. Russo readily makes you forget she was once one of the world's top models and shows a combination of predatory ambition and resigned awareness of being an older (and over-made-up) woman that adds a surprisingly erotic tone to scenes which on the surface are about anything but sex. (With one notable and fleetingly crude exception.) Riz Ahmed brings multiple unspoken layers to a deceptively simple character. Overall, a strong, pure and uncompromising film and, almost incidentally, a searing satire of today's media.