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#91 - Nightcrawler
Dan Gilroy, 2014
An aimless low-life decides to become a "nightcrawler", a person who drives around filming crimes and accidents in order to sell the footage to television networks.
Right from the moment that the first sharp night-time images appear on-screen, I knew Nightcrawler was going to be rather impressive. Jake Gyllenhaal manages to deliver an astonishingly great performance as Louis, a clearly disturbed individual whose messed-up nature makes him the perfect fit for an occupation as callous as that of a nightcrawler. The other characters of any significance are generally not much better than he is - there's Bill Paxton as Louis' much more experienced rival, Rene Russo as the TV executive that he sells his footage to and Riz Ahmed as his extremely earnest yet desperate "intern". There is a strong ensemble at work here, but it's Gyllenhaal who makes every scene his own as a gaunt-faced, dead-eyed, constantly smiling opportunist who will not hesitate to spout trite motivational soundbites as if they were incontrovertible gospel.
Outside of the core ensemble, the film moves along just fine. Even though you can probably guess how Gyllenhaal's obsession with his job will escalate out of control over the course of the movie, you don't particularly care as it plays out against some impressively shot night-time sequences (it helps that Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Elswit is on hand to capture Los Angeles in all its neon-soaked and grime-laden glory) while a captivating score by James Newton Howard that features both sinister guitar work and haunting ambient noise plays in the background. Many scenes are fascinating, whether it's one-on-one dialogue in a dingy restaurant or a tense race-against-time for Louis to capture the perfect shot (especially in the film's unpredictably dangerous climax). The satirical angle here is just strong enough to stand up under scrutiny and it only helps to make the film's relatively surprising ending hold up despite it not being quite what the audience was expecting, but still...Nightcrawler is an extremely well-made debut that makes for a darkly comical journey into the depths of one man's soul (or lack thereof). Highly recommended.
Dan Gilroy, 2014
An aimless low-life decides to become a "nightcrawler", a person who drives around filming crimes and accidents in order to sell the footage to television networks.
Right from the moment that the first sharp night-time images appear on-screen, I knew Nightcrawler was going to be rather impressive. Jake Gyllenhaal manages to deliver an astonishingly great performance as Louis, a clearly disturbed individual whose messed-up nature makes him the perfect fit for an occupation as callous as that of a nightcrawler. The other characters of any significance are generally not much better than he is - there's Bill Paxton as Louis' much more experienced rival, Rene Russo as the TV executive that he sells his footage to and Riz Ahmed as his extremely earnest yet desperate "intern". There is a strong ensemble at work here, but it's Gyllenhaal who makes every scene his own as a gaunt-faced, dead-eyed, constantly smiling opportunist who will not hesitate to spout trite motivational soundbites as if they were incontrovertible gospel.
Outside of the core ensemble, the film moves along just fine. Even though you can probably guess how Gyllenhaal's obsession with his job will escalate out of control over the course of the movie, you don't particularly care as it plays out against some impressively shot night-time sequences (it helps that Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Elswit is on hand to capture Los Angeles in all its neon-soaked and grime-laden glory) while a captivating score by James Newton Howard that features both sinister guitar work and haunting ambient noise plays in the background. Many scenes are fascinating, whether it's one-on-one dialogue in a dingy restaurant or a tense race-against-time for Louis to capture the perfect shot (especially in the film's unpredictably dangerous climax). The satirical angle here is just strong enough to stand up under scrutiny and it only helps to make the film's relatively surprising ending hold up despite it not being quite what the audience was expecting, but still...Nightcrawler is an extremely well-made debut that makes for a darkly comical journey into the depths of one man's soul (or lack thereof). Highly recommended.