If you loved Taxi Driver, the Dirty Harry movies or even the movie Drive or 15 Minutes, you going to love Nightcrawler.
Nightcrawler really reminded me a lot of the Martin Scorcese classic
Taxi Driver; Jake Gyllenhaal like Robert De Niro then, both play extremely skinny psychopaths who are oblivious of their misfit natures. It is what Nightcrawler says about the media and especially TV news that is truly scary. Let's dig in.
Gyllenhaal really takes a huge chunky bite into his role - he's back on
Donnie Darko territory performance wise. Very slow, very deliberate and even his tone of voice is different. He's menacing - not in a Hail Hitler kind of way or "I've got a muscle I can beat you up with," but the corporate shark with no morals menacing. The
American Psycho - i-am-driven-have-ambition-and-know-my-strategic-objectives-from-managing-expectations kind of way.
The man who, in the 21
st century loves; who will do anything to be successful. Gyllenhaal's character Lou Mou is a scary version of what all this ambition, fudging of ethics and morals can produce in our success driven age.
Then we have Rene Russo, who has been AWOL on our screen for a while now - another case which proves that Hollywood has a problem with women who age and show off their age. Fortunately for her, the director is her husband, so Russo plays opposite Jake.
She represents the corporate America that is only interested in breaking stories and ratings. “If it bleeds, it leads” is taken to some other level here. It's this dodgy corporate culture of greed,
narcissism and zero integrity that gives a psycho like Luo the perfect ground to thrive as a freelance cameraman.
Riz Ahmed completes the trio as the bleeding heart as Rick - a role that would normally be played by Jared Leto who's the only character who is somewhat human - he's an emotional barometer as the audience.
Through these three characters we have our movie. Plus some excellent supporting roles by Bill Paxton yet Nightcrawler is not about the plot - although one kicks in half way - but more a character study about a society that loves and abhors violence, the people who bring it into your lounge every day via the idiot box aka the television and the lengths they go to to do such.
There’s a lot to make one go "Mmmmh," in this film. I believe it's going to be a cult classic. The pace and story may not be for everyone but those looking for character instead of just another shoot em up will appreciate it.
Dan Gilroy comes from a family that's slowly carving a name for themselves in Hollywood. Brothers Tony Gilroy gave us the superb
Michael Clayton and the dud Bourne Legacy (but, in his defense he wrote all the other superb Bourne movies).
The other brother (his fraternal twin) John Gilroy is a profilic editor. Really creates a work of art on film that has levels and can be unpacked for days. Maybe after Birdman and Nightcrawler the era of the anti-hero is coming back... I wonder what that says about our society.
Rating *****
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index
* Junk **Almost bearable ***Now we cooking **** Almost perfect ***** Classic
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