NIGHTCRAWLER is a satirical black comedy thriller, JG for Oscar!

Rating: 9/10 (27 November 2014)

NIGHTCRAWLER – JUST WOW – WHAT A MOVIE. Jake Gyllenhaal is my pick for Best Male Actor Oscar this year and the movie deserves a nomination, as does first time director, Dan Gilroy. In the words of Lou Bloom "A friend is a gift you give yourself" – this movie is your friend!
Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a loner, a dedicated and passionately driven loner. He has absolutely no friends and spends his time by himself, learning a vast amount of skills on the internet or stealing items to sell. He desperately wants love (or his idea of love) and a job with a steady income. His social skills are based on what he has learned online, as such, he has no social graces or knowledge. He speaks like a text book and is void of emotion and a path to live on. He tries asking for jobs and selling himself to various places but he has no luck, until he sees a fascinating and bloody piece of inspiration. He could become someone who works for himself and gets a reward if he does the job well, that of a nightcrawler, overnight freelance trash journalism. The stuff that trash TV news wants a piece of, the darkest of society at its worse. You all love seeing a train wreck, you know you shouldn't watch but you can't take your eyes off it. Lou films it and sells it to TV for you to watch over your morning breakfast. But as a freelancing job there are other freelancers and if you want your item sold you need to have the best footage, what would you, or in this case, Lou do to get the best sellable footage?
Lou is a vampire, a manipulative murderous vampire, he is terrifying in his matter of fact speak, unpredictable and unstoppable, could it turn into a serial killer movie? Lou is another train wreck you can't take your eyes off, while his delivery is humorous his belief in himself and the world is beyond freakish, the worst part, people like him probably exist.
Lou meets KLWA night news editor, ruthless, trash TV editor, Nina Romina (Rene Russo), who he sells his footage to exclusively. Romina is at the end of her career tether and knows that train wrecks will sell and get people viewing. In Nina Romina's own words describing the ideal footage "a screaming woman, running down the street with her throat cut," she says, and Lou is willing to go the extra distance to get it for her. It's a match made in television hell.
At the start Nina views Lou as a simple determined guy, the new kid on the block who may have some good footage. But their relationship grows into much more.
Russo's husband, writer/ director Dan Gilroy has delivered a fresh and nuanced screenplay and delivered it on a golden platter with his debut movie. The unintentional wit and candour of Lou is reminiscent of Norman Bates and Frank. Gyllenhaal provides a dedicated tour de force with his performance. He was so dedicated to the role, he worked out eight hours a day and rode his cycle to set to lose weight as he wanted to be a "hungry coyote," he also was so involved in the "mirror" scene he ended up in hospital getting his hand stitched, he then came straight back to set.
The supporting cast of Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed and Bill Paxton is the icing on the cake for this movie, they were all perfectly cast and perfectly delivered their characters. All of these characters have a small but pivotal piece on Lou's chessboard and it all comes through on screen, there is never too much nor too little delivered. That being said I always want more Paxton on screen, he plays such a great character in this, he could have his own movie. And Russo is still one woman I would turn for, ever since LETHAL WEAPON 3 I have crushed on her, I never thought she could do a trashy and desperate look, an aging and needy power woman, and she does, while slowly falling into Lou's world of insanity.
Academy Award Winner Robert Elswit's cinematography is the cherry on top of that icing on this glorious cake of a movie. It has a definite Scorcese look and feel to it. The seedy undertones and dark moodiness of Los Angeles created by Elswit have never felt so unappealing, it literally is a hunting ground for Lou. At the same time the colours are all striking, to match the increased sight by Lou's large "all-seeing" eyes, eyes that Gyllenhaal rarely blinks - he did the same thing in DONNIE DARKO.
NIGHTCRAWLERS' satirical dark comedic thrilling look at paparazzi styled freelance guerrilla journalism is at times hilarious and at others terrifying. This is the closest film to Scorcese's BRINGING OUT THE DEAD I have seen. It is an amazing piece of cinema for film lovers, this is not for the family or date night. Gyllenhall for Oscar!
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