Editing reality

Rating: 8/10 (11 November 2014)

Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), a desperate Los Angeles man, thrusts himself into the work of crime journalism, filming crime scenes and accidents to sell out to local news stations. After acquiring a sidekick, Lou's success and business partnership with a local news director (Rene Russo) afford him a level of personal success, but the extent to which he's willing to go for his work edges into an increasingly moral grey area.
Going into "Nightcrawler" with a minimal knowledge of what the film was about, I was really surprised at its content; the entire profession of "night crawling" was something I'd never even thought about, so the film was fascinating just on a logistical level for that reason alone. Throw in a perfectly illustrated sociopathic antihero and top notch performances, and my expectations were far exceeded.
While the film toys with the darker social mechanics of morality and journalism, there's a consistent undertone of dark humor that pervades throughout Gyllenhaal's performance, bubbling up in idiosyncrasies and one-liners, but "Nightcrawler" never allows itself to enter the territory of camp or silliness. There's a very sour core to the film, which is embellished with a sweet surface of slick cinematography and editing, and the smarminess of Gyllenhaal's disturbed and borderline translucent character is a large part of this. Rene Russo's performance as an equally desperate news director is on par with Gyllenhaal, and the role provides her not only a respectable platform for her return to the screen, but plenty of space to show just how great of an actress she is. Support from Riz Ahmed and Bill Paxton is all solid as well.
Overall, "Nightcrawler" is as befuddling as it is engaging. I left the theater with an unpleasant feeling, and therefore take it that the film was effective at at least one thing. Though it is a slow burn with marginal payoff by Hollywood standards, it is an engaging and incredibly well acted film that deserves an audience for those reasons alone. Social commentary or not, it's a glossy and subtly disturbing venture into the art of unease. 8/10.