Nightcrawler (2014) Review

Louis Bloom a man who is very driven and looking for work, ends up getting himself into recording crime scenes and selling them for TV news.

This film is very strange, I honestly have to start with that. Jake Gyllenhaal puts a fantastically creepy performance in as Louis Bloom, a very odd individual but we eventually begin to realise he has to be a sociopath. The things he does when capturing the news are very sadistic and get worse as time goes on and he makes even more money. He sees it as a competition and that he must be the best and first to get to each scene.

Bloom just loves talking and sounds extremely intelligent, we found out that he has in fact taught himself using the internet. He outwits and uses people constantly giving them no choice at all than to believe him and do whatever he wants. It is a pretty haunting performance from Gyllenhaal, days later I am still thinking about this film and how messed up his character was!

The film will make you think about your job or career and how ruthless you have been and are towards it. Do you want more out of your life and can you easily make it better for yourself? As Bloom really shows what you can do with a lot of commitment (yes he’s psycho, but I don’t mean you have to go that far). But it will make you assess your life and situations.

Rene Russo has not aged very well, I didn’t even realise it was her until writing this review up! Honestly she looks very rough in this, although I will say that is part of her character I hope anyway, trying to be a bit kinder about her now.

It did annoy me at times and I was nervous laughing at how odd some of the scenes were, as well as looking at my friend with quite a lot of confusion. I wasn’t entirely sure what the film was about before heading to see it on Sunday afternoon. I had heard it was receiving good reviews and seemed a much better option than the mindless horror films released around Halloween.

I am therefore unsure to whether I would recommend this film to anyone as it is not really a film to massively love in my opinion with it being just so damn strange overall. So see it if you dare? But be prepared for a very strange ride!

7 thoughts on “Nightcrawler (2014) Review

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  1. Nightcrawler seems like a satire to modern television news about how they choose their leads or often seek for more ratings by entertaining their viewers rather than aim straightly to the facts. But there is a much interesting story beneath here and that is the main character, Louis Bloom. The guy that easily manipulates people with his sinister tricks of persuasion. Everything else may just be the natural world of crime and accidents, but in the eyes of this character, the experience is made far stranger and oddly fascinating. This provides a compellingly menacing and provoking piece of commentary which results to such engrossing film.

    What the plot mostly does is to fully absorb the viewers into the character of Bloom by studying his sociopathic behavior and the words coming out from his mouth. He is a charming young man with a dark intention hidden behind his grins. He pushes the limits of the law and his own safety, only to accomplish on what he must do in the job, even if it risks many people’s lives. The actions of this antihero is ought to feel terrifying on how it affects to both the business he’s working on and the society he is watching. The media’s side however is more of a picture of cynicism on how they broadcast the scariest stories of the city, giving the people fear so they could earn more viewers out of the concern. It just breaks down on how the evil of their success is disguised as their own ethics.

    The filmmaking perfectly captures their night’s work. You couldn’t clearly see the scenario they shoot unless you watch them on a video footage. The violence and peril they witness are shown without any hint of sympathy, since they only use them for the news show. The horror of these gritty scenes once again belongs to the nightcrawler. Jake Gyllenhaal is one of the biggest highlights here. His character obviously has the personality of a psychotic villain; he is mostly bluffing, and by the dashing enthusiasm he shows to the people around him, you probably may not know when his inner total madness will burst out from his frightening eyeballs, and that provides more tension than you expect. This is one of the Gyllenhaal performances that will be remembered for his career.

    Out of common sense, this story may lead its main character to a moral about how much he is taking this job too far, probably destroying his humanity. But no, this guy is relentless, almost inhumane, and his style in fact helps his career grow bigger, which turns out we are actually rooting for a villain. And that probably pictures to some oppressive ambitious beings out there behind some system. This is where things go in the end, bringing an outcome to a social satire. You can spot a lot of relevance even when some of the situations get a little out of hand. Nightcrawler is something else than a sentiment, what we must focus here is Lou Bloom: a new, possibly iconic, movie vigilante, except the only skin he is purposely saving is himself and his career.

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