Nightcrawler Will Get Your Blood Rushing

Jake Gyllenhaal gives us an inside look at a sociopath and he’s shockingly good. 

“If it bleeds, it leads.” Every broadcaster and journalist knows this sentence in the media world, but Lou Bloom (Gyllenhaal) takes this sentence to heart and then some. First time writer and director Dan Gilroy gives us an eerie story of broadcasting gone mad. Yes, it’s media satire but that’s what makes this film so compelling. It draws you in slowing and never lets you go. Bloom is a freelance TV news cameraman who takes pleasure in other people’s nightmare. Bloom has no morals and doesn’t care who it is or how badly they’re hurt. He just wants to get the ‘perfect shot’ to tell the L.A. audience a powerful story. He'll do what ever it takes to get to the top of the newsroom and that’s what makes him so morbid. 

The fact is, throughout the film we never know how far Bloom will push to get what he wants. He’ll move bodies for better camera angles or go into crime scenes before the police get there just to film someone bleeding out. It’s scary, intelligent and couldn’t have been done with out a provocative performance from Gyllenhaal. From the moment Bloom puts his hair up into a man bun and slimes down to the L.A. nightlife of bloody car wrecks/shootouts, you're hooked. Gyllenhaal’s sociopathic performance will also creep the hell out of you big-time. His eerie acting reminded me of other star-struck sociopath’s on film like Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) in Taxi Driver. 

In addition, there are other great performances by an ethically corrupt Rene Russo (Bloom’s news director) and a skittish Riz Ahmed (Bloom’s camera assistant). Nightcrawler is sleek, thought-provoking and will have you grappling on the edge of your seat throughout the film. The film also sheds light to the brilliant side of broadcasting lingo, film junkies will eat it up. Gilroy displays his potential as a first time director and Gyllenhaal rises to the occasion in a potent performance. It’s truly a breakthrough in acting for him. In the media world how far would you go to push your agenda and throw ethics out the window? Lou Bloom showed us how far he’d go in the end and it’s definitely haunting.