Movie review: ‘Nightcrawler’ depicts an amoral, spine-chilling map to success

"What if my problem isn't that I don't understand people, but that I don't like them?"

 

“Nightcrawler” probably isn’t a film that everyone would appreciate; however, it’s a film that everyone should watch.

 

While the plot focuses on the nightly rounds of the brilliantly sociopathic Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal)—a desperate man driven by his single-minded quest to become the most important freelance crime journalist in Los Angeles, no matter how many moral and legal boundaries he has to cross—there is no true hero in “Nightcrawler.”

From the moment the audience is introduced to the character, the mood is established, viewers’ minds are conditioned, and expectations are set for the entirety of the film’s violent 117-minute run. Fortunately, there are enough twists, turns, and downright gruesome events in “Nightcrawler” to keep the audience on their toes.

 

There’s something strangely compelling about the cold and amoral Lou. Somehow, despite the illegality and absolute lack of morality and compassion in Lou’s methods, one cannot help but morbidly root for him to succeed. While we’d all like to wish that (for the good of society) our personal roads to career success would end up looking nothing like Lou’s, the film fills you with a twisted, evil sort of excitement every time Lou and his assistant Rick (Riz Ahmed) find themselves staring at yet another crime scene through the lens of a camera.

 

Lou’s depraved charm—from his shameless disregard for police protocol to his wide, untrustworthy grin—is in no small part a result of Gyllenhaal’s frighteningly effective portrayal. Gyllenhaal’s Louis Bloom is criminally charismatic: a shifty opportunist who knows exactly how to push people’s buttons and manipulate them into obeying his every whim. Lou is also not above resorting to every single dirty trick in the book to get the edge over the competition—a character trait highlighted by his rivalry with fellow nightcrawler and crime-scene-invading scumbag Joe (Bill Paxton). If there’s one rule in Louis Bloom’s world that “Nightcrawler” makes abundantly clear, it’s that the quickest path to success is one ruled by cold logic, ruthlessness, and the complete absence of empathy.

 

The film also paints a disturbing (and certainly exaggerated) picture of crime journalism: eagerness triumphs over experience, craftiness trumps compliance with the law, and all regard for human life gets swiftly thrown out the window in the name of a good scoop and a shot at leading the morning news.

Unsurprisingly, the majority of “Nightcrawler” was shot at night, further adding to the film’s already dark and thrilling quality. There is nary a dull moment in this film; one particularly hair-raising scene in the latter half will leave your jaw wide open and your heart racing, and even the silent sequences are filled to the brim with tension and unease.

 

It's the fear of the unknown that drives many away from the darkness; the very same darkness that Lou perceives as a limitless source of opportunities to make a quick buck at the cost of the dignity of the wronged.

 

Combining excellent cinematography with sharp dialogue and a gripping story, director Dan Gilroy’s “Nightcrawler” is both a technical and storytelling masterpiece, and is easily one of this year's best crime thrillers: a film that narrates, in gory detail, the life of a man pursuing the path to success while guided not by a moral compass, but by a police radio, a trail of blood, and the blinding light of a camcorder. — VC, GMA News