Film Review | Nightcrawler

How far would you go?

Director: Dan Gilroy

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Bill Paxton, Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed

Genre: Crime/Thriller

Release Date: October 2014

2014 ended with a succession of interesting and imaginative films hitting both the cinema and TV screens, but none were quite as powerful as a neo-noir crime thriller, Nightcrawler.

Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler tells the story of Lou Bloom, a thief that jumps from career to career in the hope of finding success, no matter the consequences, finally discovering his calling, by documenting some more murky aspects of Los Angeles life, be it car crashes, murders and shootings, before selling it to a local news agency.

The film has many strong points, but by far the most compelling is the strength of Gyllenhaal’s performance when you reach the halfway point. And you forget that you’re watching Jake Gyllenhaal, instead, it has become so that you’re watching Lou, the unhinged yet highly motivated psychotic, as he goes from producing poor quality videos that pale in comparison to his rivals, to eclipse all others, with footage that borders on the illegal and insensitive.

But it’s not just Jake that makes the film such an interesting film to watch, the supporting cast boasting Rene Russo, the no-nonsense TV producer, Bill Paxton, Lou’s early inspiration & main rival and Riz Ahmed, the practically homeless sidekick of Lou, all of which hold their own throughout, while the director Dan Gilroy did his best to make a beautiful yet gritty film, that falls somewhere between Bullet, Taxi Driver and Drive.

So if an unsettling yet well written/acted and produced a film about a psychopath that finds his calling exploiting the suffering in the world for financial gain, then this film is right up your street, if not? Watch it anyway, you’ll come around.