Nightcrawler Review

Release Year: 2014

Director: Dan Gilroy

Runtime: 117 minutes

From interest… to fixation… to obsession. Nightcrawler chronicles this dark journey, traveled by protagonist Lou Bloom, and every step feels hauntingly realistic. Even as a well-paced downward spiral, Lou’s actions are constantly unpredictable (pardon the paradox). One of the best movies of 2014 and surely of the decade as well, every part, big or small, of this darkly masterful film cooperates excellently.

In the first few minutes, Jake Gyllenhaal gives a startlingly convincing performance, and the film’s natural characterization is already kicked off. The audience is dealing with a “subtly” self-righteous man whose respect is embarrassingly scarce. He develops an interest in “nightcrawling,” or covering nighttime debacles for news coverage. No matter how gruesome a tragedy Lou finds, his focus (his only focus) is recording it for the news. His indifference to the horrors he finds and ends up chasing is one of the most disturbing aspects of the film. Nightcrawler does not want to make the viewer comfortable, that is for sure.

The cinematography is ironically well laid out though. Some of the most interesting shots I’ve seen in film come from this movie, which uses contrast, framing, and focus to produce a very well-filmed work. This is what I mean when I say the film’s parts cooperate: they all work with the purpose of making it more coherent, from enhancing the setting to reinforcing characters’ motivations. LA is the dark landscape where the cringe-inducing brutality of the story unfolds, and Dan Gilroy proves that an unpleasant subject does not have to make for an unpleasant film.

I have appreciated Riz Ahmed’s work for a while now, and I was extremely happy when he showed up as the desperate but competent enough Rick, a potential partner for Lou. Seeing how poorly Lou treats people really creates an interesting dynamic and conflict for this partnership: the sick nightcrawler who is anything but a people person now has to spend time with someone and let him in on his obsession. Rick really needs a job, which is lucky for Lou, and the newsworthy accidents of LA attract the pair for Lou’s apathetic greed and Rick’s loyal desperation. The story unfolds with unpredictability and one meaningful scene after the next: none of them are out of place, and all of them are intriguing… even for shocking reasons. The film quickly gains that can’t-look-away x-factor possessed by all the subjects of Lou’s nightcrawling.

These subjects are extremely graphic and realistic, and so the movie is not for the faint of heart, but I think this is the point. Gilroy wants to reveal to the viewer the actual reality that occurs behind soulless headlines and addictively perpetual newsfeed. It is an unexpectedly good thing to be unsettled or even disgusted by the plausible events the film depicts, as this is the proper response to such horrific occurrences, and is the opposite of the more common insensitive or tantalized reactions that today’s news induces. I greatly appreciate that this film is willing to sensitize its audience, rather than using gruesome details as a plot device or entertainment subject. This topic is tackled the whole time, as the audience is shown the process that Lou and the superiors of his freelance work undergo to present and even modify their news in a way that will get the channel high ratings. There is strong, significant truth in this dramatization, convicting the audience and news networks in general for this inhumane attitude.

What I like most about Nightcrawler is that it tells hard truth. It challenges the viewer to think about its many subjects which include but are not limited to the following: the line between fixation and obsession, one’s limits regarding desperation for money, how insensitive is too insensitive, and of course the difference between the real and the fake. I have not been so disturbed, yet convicted, yet somewhat inspired by a film quite like I have by Nightcrawler: disturbed by the ease of simplifying reality, convicted of my perception of the truth, and inspired to cling to the truth more tightly.