Nightcrawler
2014
****
Director: Dan Gilroy
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed, Bill Paxton, Ann Cusack, Kevin Rahin, Kathleen York, Eric Lange
A lowlife thief named Louis Bloom buys a police radio scanner and a camcorder and begins to shoot graphic footage of accidents and crime scenes, which he sells to a local news station. As Bloom's morally corrupt business is blooming, his ruthless methods become increasingly questionable. Screenwriter Dan Gilroy's directorial debut is a stylish and gruesome noir thriller set in Los Angeles. The nocturnal setting (beautifully shot by Robert Elswit) shares a visual kinship with Collateral and Drive, and the script offers an Information Age variation of the story in The Public Eye. This is a captivating but extremely cynical film with a terrific central performance by Jake Gyllenhaal. Bloom, who has no character arc, is a creep in the beginning, a creep in the middle, and a creep in the end.
