A Real Masterpiece For Our Time, Jake G At His Best

Rating: 9/10 (13 January 2015)

Nightcrawler is undeniably one of the best movies ever made. Doesn't matter if it's from the point of the cast, or direction or the plot. The movie is led by a sturdy, cold and dark titular character, the ambitious and sociopathic Lou Bloom played by The Academy Award Nominee Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko, Brokeback Mountain, End of Watch) in his careers best performance, a strong supportive role by Rene Russo and Riz Ahmed. Directed and written by Dan Gilroy. The movie narrates the story of stringers who preys on news in the city of Los Angeles.
The movie draws its focus onto the night crawlers (a euphemism for the stringers) and the competitive mass media. The news waits for no one. It's all about the agility. The stringers pry on the police radio frequency, compute the route to the crime scene on GPS, and hit the gas. In the busy city the night is an ally to all sorts of accidents, crimes from assault and battery to murder mayhem. Each news worthwhile and "if it bleeds, it leads". The stringers negotiate their price to the news corporate and make their living.
Lou Bloom is an ambitious and eccentric character who by chance discovers and come into freelance journalism. In a city where there is no shortage to bleeding news, Lou Bloom makes his way to the top with his coyote-esque character. Gyllenhaal lost around 30pounds (10kg) for the role and jettisoned his charming boyfriend attitude and typical lopsided smile for a utterly grotesque and disturbingly creepy look accompanied by a smart and flawless delivery of well- crafted dialogue and body language.
Lou Blooms survival politics is his focus and passion to the profession. The sociopathic behavior comes to his advantage to follow the bloody path with discretion and survive and flourish in an equally challenging draconian atmosphere. Gyllenhaal portrays one of the most sophisticated sociopath in movie history whose one and only aim is the call of duty. He neither desires fame, promotion nor seeks a fortune out of his work. A whiz-kid; he is twisted, he is self-centric, he is self-made. And he won't hesitate to jettison those who jeopardize his mission. Like a predator preying to hunt down its prey he waits patiently listening to the police frequency for good news and won't mind to go a bit extra mile to decorate an accident to create a better TV experience.
Nightcrawler has an original script written by Gilroy. It explores the media ethics and morals, the attitudes of humans in a challenging world, the measures people advertently or inadvertently takes, and their selfishness.
Nightcrawler is a high octane crime thriller set in the dark suburbs of Los Angeles. A powerful and electric, simultaneously creepy and driven performance from Gyllenhaal. Jake G is the epitome of a sociopath as the character Lou Bloom. This is a performance one doesn't want to dare miss by any chance. A magnum opus without any doubt.