Sociopath on the rise

Rating: 10/10 (11 January 2015)

Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a fast-learning young man striving to find his niche. If this involves theft, well, then he steals. He does what he needs to do to survive in this world red in tooth and claw. And he will claw his way up and out like an alien beast hellbent on smashing through the barriers that are blocking his existence.
I must comment on Gyllenhaal's appearance in this movie. For this role he dropped a little weight and gave Bloom one of the leanest and hungriest looks I've ever seen with searching raygun eyes bulging out of their sockets ready to pounce on anything even faintly smelling of an opportunity to be grabbed and swallowed whole.
At the beginning we catch him in the dead of night clipping off chunks from a chainlink fence with heavy weight pruning shears. Confronted by a security guard he at first claims to be lost, but then without warning he lashes out like a coiled serpent and strikes the man down. In the next scene we see him driving away admiring the man's wristwatch, which is now on his own wrist. At a scrapmetal company, he attempts to peddle the metal scrap he's stolen. Regurgitating a non-stop ratatat spiel, he frantically tries to cajole the scrapyard's owner to hire him. The owner cases him over carefully with a wary eye and snarls, "I don't hire thieves." Bloom gives him a wry smile and mutely walks out the door. He must claw harder.
Chastised and frustrated Bloom leaves dejected, driving off into the dark night. Cruising along one of the interminable LA freeways trying to figure out what to try next, by sheer chance he spots a car that has overturned at the side of the freeway. By sheer instinct he pulls over and gets out. A woman is trapped inside the car, which threatens to burst into flames at any minute. Two policemen are desperately trying to pull her out before the car flames up. A man, not a cop, is there frantically taking videos of the entire scene with hand-held camcorder. Bloom becomes instantly intrigued. He hears the man as he's calling to sell his tape to the highest bidding TV station as a stunner to open the early morning newscast. Bloom can feel the rush of adrenaline and excitement in this kind of work. He's hooked.
At Venice beach he steals an expensive bicycle and trades it to a pawn dealer for a camcorder and police scanner. Armed with these he tries out this new game for himself and discovers he likes it. Likes it a lot as it turns out. Soon he's off making his own nocturnal forays across the city seeking out horrific accidents and shocking crimes, turning them into videos and hustling them to TV studios as blood-splashing openers for the morning news. Very quickly he lands on a particular TV studio to sell his wares to and obsequiously schmoozes up to the morning news director, Nina Romina (Rene Russo), a woman who herself has clawed her way to the top. She recognizes another clawer in Louis Bloom at first glance.
At first Nina's in control but as Bloom's business picks up, he hires a down-and-out as his assistant, Rick (Riz Ahmed), and pretty soon he's turned the tables on her. He starts calling the shots and demanding more and more privileges and recognition. He's the master of the videos-for-hot-news game. But then he experiences a few setbacks. Nina shouts at him and berates him. He desperately needs a big story to sell the station on. And he lucks out. He gets a blasting hot one. Two thugs shoot a man, his wife, and their housemaid in their plush suburban mansion in Granada Hills. Bloom catches it all on his video recorder, including the license plate of the SUV the murderers flee in, all before the police arrive at the scene. The police are furious at him and want his footage.
Perusing his video Bloom realizes he had the license plate of the SUV, which he excises from the film so that the police can't see it. He wants to get even more bang from his video. And this leads to the denouement when Bloom's true colors come out in a shocking revelation. To enhance his business and career he's willing to create a shootout setup to film leading-edge video coverage for the morning news. Rick (recently promoted to Executive Vice President of Bloom's business in an attempt to satisfy him) is aghast. At this point Bloom says to him, "What if I told you I really don't like people." Rick doesn't want to have any part of it but finally Bloom gets him to take footage. But Rick pays dearly for his insubordination. And in the end Bloom's video news business blooms.
Bloom exhibits a sociopathic personality. A person who uses other human beings as rungs to climb to the top, whatever that top happens to be. Or if you will, fodder for their success. Like Rick. And I've heard several psychologists claim sociopaths are much more common than one would image. Many of them will do drastic things to you if you cross them. Like Bloom.
The acting's outstanding. I've seen Gyllenhaal in several movies and he always turns in a great performance. And his lead characters aren't always flattering. Like Louis Bloom. I don't purposefully see a movie because a particular actor's in it but I find myself seeing a bunch of movies with a particular actor in them because that actor's plainly superb. Like the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. Or Gyllenhaal. The supporting actors are good too. Especially so Rene Russo and Riz Ahmed. Kent Shocknek has a cameo role as a male news anchor at the TV station. Not a difficult role for him to play I would imagine. The directing and cinematography are good, and the movie moves along well.
10/10