Nightcrawler Review

Dan Gilroy’s directorial debut in Hollywood  has attracted Oscar buzz within the first week of its box office debut. Earning a 94/100 on Rotten Tomatoes, this thriller/drama flick has grossed $21.5 million over a two week period. The thriller film based on news and the ugly side of journalism, shows an emotional experience that evokes pity toward the characters and still keeps to its thriller genre.

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Lou Bloom, a thief seeking a job, who is inspired to film violent crimes in prosperous neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area after seeing a film crew sell a tape of a car accident to a Local TV station. Gyllenhaal plays an intelligent, quick-learning, sly man who will do anything to capture an event on camera. His role includes creepy dialogue and odd motivational quotes concerning his business plan to his assistant, Rick. Gyllenhaal’s performance is quite similar to Christian Bale’s portrayal of Patrick Bateman in the 2000 film, American Psycho.

Besides Gyllenhaal’s character, the supporting members of the cast did a phenomenal job. Actor Riz Ahmed does a fantastic job in the film by portraying the Gyllenhaal character’s assistant who is trying to make fiduciary gains in the same way as Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhaal twists Ahmed’s will in order to get a better shot or to do something entirely his way. However, I did have one problem with the movie. Actress Rene Russo’s, who plays the Local TV Station’s production manager, acting was sub-par. Russo’s acting doesn’t even deserve to be labeled as acting. With absolutely no emotion in her words, Russo was the only down side to this modern classic.

Nightcrawler is a slow-moving thriller that includes many features of character development and in some cases, unethical choices to get a shot of a crime scene. In my opinion, the thriller genre has not had a bigger cinematic success since Se7en. Nightcrawler’s twisted plot and talented actors put the film on the top of best movies list in 2014.