“Nightcrawler” stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a freelance cameraman for an unscrupulous TV news station.
Gyllenhaal plays Lou Bloom, a struggling cat burglar who stumbles across a freelance camera crew at a fatal car-crash. Lou is fascinated by the drama so he adopts the career for himself and finds almost immediate success. He is also a raging psychopath so he’s willing to cross lines other cameramen wouldn’t consider. He finds a News Director who tells him “if it bleeds, it leads” and before long, Lou is MAKING the news himself.
It’s pretty clear from the start where this story is going but it takes a painfully long time to get there. It’s also interesting that a film about the world’s preoccupation with gory news chooses to gloss over most of Lou’s work.
The highlight of “Nightcrawler” though is Jake Gyllenahaal, who has mastered that dead-behind-the-eyes look. He takes this automaton who has NO redeeming qualities and actually makes us root for him. Gaunt and overly enthusiastic, he’s never a sympathetic character but there’s a great deal of humor in his lack of tact.
The second half of the movie picks up the pace until the audience finds itself breathless. My favorite thing about this film is that by the last half hour, you have absolutely NO IDEA what’s going to happen NEXT and that’s why I’m giving “Nightcrawler” a B+.
Gyllenhaal isn’t working his sex appeal in this one, and it might have been the best decision he’s made so far.
