Nightcrawler

Directed by Dan Gilroy

Starring

Jake Gyllenhaal – Louis Bloom

Riz Ahmed – Rick

Rene Russo – Nina Romina

Bill Paxton – Joe Loder

Louis Bloom is a go getter with the intelligence and perseverance that will ensure his success and if at first he doesn’t succeed he will overstep the ethical means to get the results. Jake Gyllenhaal has never been better and if you thought he played a creepy character in Donnie Darko, Louis Bloom is on a whole other level. There is still a likability to Louis and you want him to succeed in his endeavours, but a darkness that steers forth from time to time holds you back and question whether you like him or you dislike him. Louis begins as a petty thief from stealing copper wire to bicycles while looking for a legitimate job. After he comes across a road accident he sees a camera crew reporting on an accident and sets his sights on being a freelance cameraman for a news broadcast station. Louis gets cringe worthy footage and the barriers he is willing to cross will make you feel uneasy and tense as we see there is nothing he won’t do.

Nightcrawler is completely dramatised, but the insight you get behind the scenes of a general news broadcast will forever change the way you can watch primetime news. It can be cutthroat with each competing station trying to get a viewership by making a narrative from a crime scene that is one thing, but edited in a way to make you feel unsafe in your own community.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance in this film is so good that a majority of critics think he was snubbed from an oscar nomination last year, and personally I think he was the best performance out of all the nominees. The performances from the entire cast are great, they are just overshadowed, and I would almost say that it was the best performance we’ve seen from Ahmed, Russo, and Paxton to date as well. Nightcrawler is a must watch and what I believe to be the best film of last year.

4.5/5 – Stars for Nightcrawler

Robert Ring