Nightcrawler – Movie Review

Nightcrawler – R
Release Date: Fri 31 Oct 2014

Nightcrawler is a tense crime thriller about a man named Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal). Bloom is out looking for work when he comes across an accident scene being filmed by a freelance crew led by Joe Loder (Bill Paxton) and gets the idea to start doing the same thing, selling his grisly footage to a hungry news producer (Rene Russo.) Before long, he starts finding ways to enhance his footage by doing some ethically questionable things at active crime scenes.

Writer/Director Dan Gilroy’s movie is polished with a sense of Los Angeles in eternal darkness. He writes Bloom as an almost satirical believer in the American Dream. The character is completely fascinating as he is not only a borderline sociopath, but also extremely intelligent, manipulative and charming.

Gyllenhaal’s performance is spellbinding with his gaunt, expressive face telling us everything about what he’s thinking. His character in Nightcrawler reminds me of actors in standout roles like Christian Bale in American Psycho and Tom Cruise in Magnolia. Rene Russo is also great as a demanding yet vulnerable woman at a dead end in her career. Her character needs Bloom, and while she may find him a little frightening she also has a real admiration for him. Riz Ahmed as Rick, Bloom’s “intern” employee works wonders as an audience surrogate asking the questions we want addressed. “Shouldn’t we call 911?”

This is an excellent crime thriller that is not to be missed. The tension and the stakes keep increasing until the final moments. I highly recommend it.

Aaron, Cal and I saw it in the theater and had a discussion afterward in the car: