Nightcrawler

Jake Gyllenhaal may hate people, but we love him 

Meet Louis Bloom, a young man desperate to find work and so money hungry he will resort to anything to get it. Luckily, on his way home from his most recent endeavor he happens upon an accident. A freelance film crew rushes to capture the carnage, and sell the footage to the highest bidder. This gives Louis the idea of getting a camera and police scanner to try his hand at this line of work. As he goes deeper into the industry we find out how truly dirty the news business is, and what lengths Louis will go to for a pay day.

Wow. Just wow. This movie was nothing but impressive from start to finish. There is a message hidden in here somewhere, but it sneaks in (as it should) between the intelligent dialogue and brilliant character development. The message is two fold, commenting on the lengths people are forced into when living through a recession, and the world of news journalism. The character in this is a stroke of genius, being a person with no real moral compass, hardwired for professionalism but no real people skills besides. The rest of this movie is spectacular; but really, there is no greater victory than breathing life into a character we can hate, while not being able to help feeling compassion for. The writer/director not only spun a good yarn, but did so while capturing every moment beautifully.

It is unreal that this movie was Dan Gilroy's first directorial credit, because this movie was shot with such a vivacious texture it brings the city in which it was shot to life. It is also very surprising that he wrote such a deep, and compelling movie when his past credits for writing left a lot to be desired. Most of his past writing was hackney, garbled up, appeal to the masses crap that only saw the light of day because it would make the movie company a couple of bucks. Now we are given an interesting, thought provoking, clever, story line, with meaningful characters and an amazing setting. Adding in the fact that this his first time directing a movie when you would think he has been doing this for years, and we have someone who could possibly be on the road to the pantheon of great directors. The streets in this movie are thick with garbage or debris, very few things in this movie seem clean, and the things that do seem clean are shot elegantly to define the carnage even more. It was like seeing a master at work, and it leaves me awestruck that this was his first time (obviously, since I can't stop saying it).

The only thing more impressive than the direction here was the acting. I'm pretty sure we all know Jake Gyllenhaal to be an outstanding actor, he picks his work carefully enough that he very rarely ends up in a shitty movie (Source Code and Prince of Persia withstanding). This movie may be his Magnum Opus, because he gives (quite possibly) the best performance of his career. Sure there are other actors in here worth noting, but I so rarely get to compliment the lead actor on giving the best performance in the movie. Bill Paxton was great but didn't really do anything to wow me. He just acted like he did in almost every other movie he has done. Riz Ahmed gave a great performance but was completely out done by Jake, to the point I was wondering why they made him the partner in this. If I had anything negative to say about this movie, it is that the acting seems unbalanced; but that is not enough for me to throw this movie down in grade.

Final Verdict: Buy it My highest honor, that I so very rarely get to bestow on a movie. It is about the time in the year where more great movies are going to be coming up (Oscar bait), so you will probably see this a lot. Buy this movie, and see it in theaters, you will not be disappointed.