The Subject Was Poses

Rating: 8/10 (17 May 2017)

Dan Gilroy, who wrote and directed Nightcrawler, is the son of Frank D. Gilroy, who enjoyed a hit on Broadway in 1965 with his play The Subject Was Roses, and adapted it for the screen successfully in 1968. That's about the only link between the two properties but Dan Gilroy is to be commended for writing and directing an original in his first At Bat. Jake Gyllenhaal is excellent as the seriously weird character who starts as a con man and morphs into a freelance ghoul who, armed with a movie camera, car and a police scanner, makes a handsome living cruising Los Angeles in search of muggings, robberies and other assorted crimes, the gorier the better, which he films as they are happening and then sells the footage to a TV station. Gilroy's wife, Rene Russo, is equally compelling as the TV producer who encourages Gyllenhaal to become more vulturelike by the day. A brilliant but soiled film.