Jake Gyllenhaal delivers a show-stopping performance in this creepy neo-noir debut from screenwriter Dan Gilroy.
Veteran screenwriter
Dan Gilroy demonstrated a hypnotizing sense of style and flash in his directorial debut
Nightcrawler (one of my favorite movies of 2014). It’s a well-paced, menacing neo-noir thriller, and a scathing critique of the news media’s exploitation of real-life violence and fearmongering as a selling point - as well as the public’s morbid consumption of it - turning human suffering into profit. The visual aesthetic of
Nightcrawler matches its dark subject matter, yet the film really pops, thanks in large part to
Robert Elswit’s utilization of the never-ending glow of Los Angeles to create color accents that cut through the night, revealing the skittering nocturnal creatures underneath.
Jake Gyllenhaal’s Louis Bloom - a nobody who becomes a somebody by selling footage from grisly accidents and violent attacks to a local news station - is one of those skittering creatures, a twisted metamorphosis of the
American Dream and hustle culture. I really don’t think Gyllenhaal gets enough credit for his transformation into the gaunt and leering psychopath Louis Bloom, a demented opportunist who’s willing to grind his way to the top, no matter who or what stands in his way.
He looks and acts like some type of humanoid rodent that clawed its way out of an abandoned sewer system after decades of learning how to imitate human behavior from watching motivational business videos and observing the seediest parts of L.A. nightlife. His wide, unblinking eyes are simultaneously blank and scheming; his empathy is clinical, layered with ominous threats; and his controlled restraint projects a transparency that hides his true nature of volatile unpredictability. The character is terrifying, the performance is magnetic, and Gilroy’s message that our institutions not only support this type of behavior, but allow it to flourish, is downright disturbing.
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