"Think of our newscast as a screaming woman running down the street with her throat cut."

Rating: 8/10 (28 April 2016)

Jake Gyllenhaal is aces in this provocative thriller that has some pretty potent things to say about the cutthroat, sensationalistic nature of the entire news business. Jake plays Lou Bloom, an intense and ambitious young man. He's also entirely self serving and seemingly without scruples of any kind. Therefore, he's a natural for the business of "nightcrawling": functioning as an independent operator who will show up at crime scenes, accident scenes, etc. and film the most lurid stuff possible to sell to local TV networks. Lou continues to up his game as the sordid story plays out, and finds something of a kindred spirit in Nina Romina (Rene Russo), a weary and hardened veteran of the news business.
It's all too easy to be cynical in this day and age. The idea of characters such as Lou, who value self gain more than human life, and profit from the suffering of others, is absolutely believable to this viewer. While it may be tough for some people to stick with, given the nature of this guy that Jake is playing, he manages to be interesting and compelling BECAUSE of his deeply flawed personality. You may despise the guy, more and more as the story goes on, but you're always curious as to what depths he will sink. After all, this is a man who thinks nothing of rearranging a corpse at an accident scene for the sake of a better picture. Functioning as a counterpoint and something of a moral centre is Lou's assistant, Rick (the appealing Riz Ahmed), who is often taken aback by his unethical boss. And representing the seen-it-all extreme cynicism that experience provides are people like Nina, who realizes just how desperately her station will need to rely on Lou, and veteran nightcrawler Joe Loder (Bill Paxton, doing a solid job in a fairly small role).
Jake is wonderful in what is one of the best performances that this viewer has seen in movies of the last few years. He truly is a talent to watch. And it's nice to see writer / director Dan Gilroy and the production give Russo what amounts to one of her best parts in ages.
Slickly shot, entirely on location in Los Angeles. "Nightcrawler" is fairly long, at just under two hours, but it's so riveting at times that the time moves along quicker than one would think.
Gyllenhaal was also one of the producers.
Eight out of 10.