Nightcrawler Reviews

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this movie, I was really eager to check it out. Well, eventually, it really deserved its solid reputation and it has been a while since I saw such a strong thriller. Indeed, it was basically a fascinating character study about a massive sociopath living  in a dark and nihilistic world. Eventually, the scariest thing was not Louis Bloom himself but the fact that the whole thing was just so damned realistic. Indeed, I was worried that, at some point, the main character would go even further and would kill someone just to get a good story but, fortunately, they never made this mistake. The interesting thing is that many people thought that Bloom was despicable but, to be honest, the guy didn't really bother me so much. Basically, he just did his job and nobody forced the TV station to buy his videos and nobody forced the audience to watch them afterwards. His job was however despicable, that's for sure, and our world, apparently craving for these kind of images, is pretty sick and it is definitely one of the reasons why I barely watch the news nowadays. Of course, I shouldn't forget to mention that Jake Gyllenhaal was once again really impressive in this movie. To conclude, it was a terrific directing debut for Dan Gilroy and the damned thing is definitely worth a look.

Il mio motto è "vuoi vincere la lotteria? Trova i soldi per comprare il biglietto"
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Remember when I said that when it comes to the Oscars the most daring nominations tend to come from the screenplay categories? Well, that certainly holds true for Nightcrawler, the story of a man who becomes an amateur crime scene recorder who begin to blur the lines between observing these horrific crimes and participating in, possible even engineering, them.

This is a film for which words like deranged or dark fail to truly grasp just how demented this thing is. Does the film judge him? I don’t know, it borrows from and feels a lot like Network, a film in which bad people don’t exactly lose out in the end. His schemes to become the top dog in his field, which is already populated with questionable people, and his actions are frequently dirty, we feel no remorse or sympathy with him, yet we still watch in a curious, transfixed state wondering what this terrible person will do next.

After questionable choices in films like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Love & Other Drugs, it’s nice to see Jake Gyllenhaal back in his element, namely playing dark, twisted characters. He doesn’t have the looks or energy to believably play a romantic comedy’s leading man or wholesomeness to lead a mega-blockbuster, no, he’s much better at strange character parts. His work in films like The Good Girl, Donnie Darko, and Zodiac have always shown that he has a knack for inhabiting obsessive characters veering toward un-likability. It’s a similar thing that happened with a young Johnny Depp, they seem to be much happy subverting their good looks and playing as far away from bland matinee idol as they possibly can.

Here Gyllenhaal is a gaunt wrath stalking the Los Angeles streets at the darkest hours of the night. A creature like this couldn’t exist in the daytime where his soulless nature would be too jarring. Gyllenhaal’s large eyes can express deep love and devotion like in Brokeback Mountain, or they can appear like the hollow pits of a sociopath like they are here, seemingly using the same muscles. This is another performance that demanded at spot at this year’s Oscars, but the disturbing and gross aftertaste of the character and performance, a testament to what Gyllenhaal achieves here, probably scared away too many voters.

A similar thing probably happened with Rene Russo’s solid work here. Maybe they thought she was too similar to Faye Dunaway in Network, and her character does feel like the prodigal daughter, but that didn’t stop them from rewarding Sandra Bullock for a performance similar to Julia Roberts’ winning role. Russo’s character is just as desperate as Gyllenhaal’s for success, but Russo’s still has some semblance of her humanity intact. She makes a deal with the devil to keep her job, and the film’s flirtations with American greed and succeeding in the modern era are hammered home.

Granted, parts of Nightcrawler work a little better than the rest, namely the two central performances, and the cinematography from Robert Elswit are operating at a more consistent level than some of the story’s twists and turns. This didn’t detract from me. Nightcrawler has a lot of ideas buzzing around in its skull, and if it stumbles a few times trying to reach its great climax, so be it. It’s a promising debut from Dan Gilroy as a director. I hope he re-teams with Gyllenhaal and gives us another surprising and rich piece of work.

Could have been called Nightcreeper. Totally dislikable character played by Gyllenhaal, but what an awesome performance. His character is extremely well-written. Not a fan of Gyllenhaal, but if there's one movie to watch him in, I'd say this is it.

Great character and great acting by Gyllenhall. There´s something unpretentious, ordinary noir, not too specchy critic on media sensationalism, tha I like. Rene Russo is excellent in her rapports with Jake.

Brilliant,twisted and superb.
Jake Gyllenhaal's performance is absolutely stunning .
The shift of his character is amazing .
brilliant plot with great direction.
overall rating 8.5/10

I just got done watching this and I have to say it was much more interesting than the trailer I saw gives it credit for. I have to say Jake Gyllenhaal is a master of strange characters. The character of Louis Bloom is one disturbed and creepy fellow who doesn't take no for an answer. I loved Riz Ahmed in this as he is pretty much the only likeable character in this whole thing. I do think Bill Paxton's role and talent were slightly underused. The build up through the film is messed up, but in a totally intriguing and well done way. It's hard to talk about this film without spoiling it for others. So go check this out and I promise you will enjoy it.

Side Note: It's interesting to see that the director is married to main actress Rene Russo and that he wrote two other movies I enjoyed (Real Steel) and (The Bourne Legacy.