Donnie's Drive

Rating: 8/10 (30 November 2014)

Dan Gilroy is a man who is famous for writing films that are both surreal and strong from Hollywood, but now he has made the choice to direct as well as write. Will this be the beginning of his (Bourne) Legacy or just the start of Gilroy's Fall? Jake Gyllenhaal is an odd fish. He seems to be a man who specializes in playing oddities. Nightcrawler is the panicle of that. Nightcrawler is a film that totally embraces it's bizarre feeling and runs with it.
Nightcrawler is one of those films that isn't really about a subject as it is about a single man within that subject. He is an abnormality, he is something of the strange; he is Louis Bloom. This is our main character and the role Jake Gyllenhaal portrays. From it's opening scene Bloom is noting less than a sociopath. Nightcrawler doesn't waste it's limited screen time on giving you false hope, Bloom is a man who is breaks bad from the start. In the opening sequence Bloom violently beats a man without hesitation for literally a wristwatch. This is how the film approaches. It wants to make us uneasy from the start, keeping us on the edge of our seats throughout.
How can I describe Bloom? He is like a new variation on Patrick Bateman to be one of those cult icons, he's deliberately like he is so that from American Psycho. Bloom is psychotic and driven in equal measure, he is a man who's ends always justifies his means. Bloom is carved out people will like him more for it, and somehow it works. We are given one of these about once every 2 or 3 years, Bloom is just the latest. He is man without the need for morals or empathy. He is like a black hole moving in the world.
Gilroy is a director who wants us to react to his product, he doesn't care if it's positive or negative, he just wants us to react. That's how the entire film is carved out, with the intention of our reactions.
Nightcrawler doesn't have any hero's, so each of the characters are as vacuous as the last. However I think it is how Bloom prays on the depravity of those around him that makes him the central character; he is poison for the people he meets as he drags each of them down into his world, the world of a Nightcrawler.
I think that to give credit for Nightcrawler to Gyllenhaal alone would be foolish, It is as much the people around him that contribute to Nightcrawlers success, Riz Ahmed for example is a man who has truly come a long way since his days in Four Lions. This film is a team effort.
Nightcrawler has enough going for it to be successful, but lacks something to make it the indie classic it craves to be.