An Interesting Look at the News Business

Rating: 7/10 (31 October 2014)

I saw "Nightcrawler", starring Jake Gyllenhaal-End of Watch, Brokeback Mountain; Rene Russo-Frigga in the Thor movies, Lethal Weapon 3&4; Bill Paxton-Edge of Tomorrow, Haywire and Riz Ahmed-Closed Circuit, Day of the Falcon.
When I first heard the name of this movie-before I saw the trailer-I thought it was about the X-man. It's not. This is an interesting look at the news business. FYI: The name nightcrawler refers to a person that spends his nights looking for things to film, such as crimes or murder, and sells the footage to a news station. Jake plays an out of work opportunist. He will steal things-it can be anything from copper wire to a bicycle-and then turn around and sell it. It's like he has no moral sense that what he is doing is wrong. He is without a real purpose in his life but he is a fast learner and a go-getter. One day, while driving home, he comes across a traffic accident and sees Bill filming the scene. Bill informs Jake that he can sell the footage to a TV station to make a living and Jake decides that he now has a new career. Jake starts researching everything he needs to know on his computer and then hires Riz as his assistant. They then spend their nights , driving around, looking for something to film. Rene plays the head of a news station that Jake sells his videos to. What Jake does to get news stories is what is interesting here because, as I mentioned earlier, Jake is not a good person and it makes you wonder how much of this movie could be true. It's rated "R" for violence, graphic images and language and has a running time of 1 hour & 57 minutes. It kept my interest enough that I would probably buy it on DVD.