Lightning Review: Nightcrawler

Synopsis
Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) gets himself into the world of street crime journalism. He considers himself a hard-working businessman and will do anything to get the story, and a paycheck.

Review
Before I saw Nightcrawler, I had only seen the trailer a short time beforehand. At first I had just wrote it off but I was persuaded into going to see it (it didn’t take much convincing to get me to the theater). Most of the reviews have been very positive. I don’t want to be “that guy,” but I didn’t particularly care for this movie. I’ll get the good out of the way first. Mad props to Jake Gyllenhaal because his performance was phenomenal. He completely got into the mindset of the deranged Lou Bloom. His delivery, his mannerisms, everything he did on screen was electric. I also liked how the cast was very small, allowing it to become intimate (if that is a good way to describe this kind of film). It spends adequate amount of time with each of the characters, both Gyllenhaal and the supporting cast, and never felt packed. This was a story about Lou Bloom and everything and everyone present was to further his story.

Now for a thriller, I didn’t find myself thinking “What’s going to happen next?” I was drawn to Gyllenhaal’s character, and was interested to see what his next move would be, but I didn’t find myself much interested in anyone else. Like I said, every character was used to advance Lou Bloom’s story. I felt no sense of urgency or that edge-of-my-seat feeling throughout the majority of the film. For his directorial debut, Dan Gilroy wrote a fantastic character piece, but unfortunately I couldn’t get into it. I will give Nightcrawler this: it really makes you think about today’s media and how they portray events.

Rating
3.5/5

Trailer

Cast & Crew
Dan Gilroy – Director/Writer
James Newton Howard – Composer

Jake Gyllenhaal – Louis Bloom
Rene Russo – Nina Romina
Riz Ahmed – Rick
Bill Paxton – Joe Loder
Ann Cusack – Linda
Kevin Rahm – Frank Kruse
Eric Lange – Cameraman