Nightcrawler (2014)

It is fantastic how a movie can transport you. Behind the door of every cinema or after pressing play at home you can feel like you’ve stepped into a different world. A short escape from reality, providing a unique experience you normal won’t be able to feel.

Nightcrawler takes you into the world of the “nightcrawlers”, the men and women who, armed with a police scanner, are searching for accidents and crimes to film and photograph. The goal is to sell the material to either newspapers or news agencies.

Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is someone who makes his money by stealing metal and selling it. He’s someone with ambition though and sees opportunities in everything, just waiting to be taken advantage of. When he’s driving on the highway he witnesses an accident and sees how the police is trying to save someone trapped in a car. It doesn’t take long before a man with a camera appears (Bill Paxton) and he talks to him. When he finds out there is money to be made filming accidents he buys a cheap camera and a scanner to set his first steps into this dark world. He is willing to go further than the competition and in Nina Romina (Rene Russo) he finds someone at a news agency willing to buy that footage. But his success slowly pushes him into darker territory, crossing the borders of what is legal.

With this movie Gyllenhaal gives one of his best performances ever. He lost weight for the role, making Lou Bloom a man with a piercing look. The character he plays here is easily compared to sociopaths previously portrayed by Robert de Niro in movies like King of Comedy, Taxi Driver or The Fan. Lou Bloom uses several online courses and self help videos to make sure he has the skills to be the best at something by simply following the lessons strictly. He doesn’t know where to stop though as he doesn’t hesitate to use manipulation as an effective weapon to reach his goals. It is a character you know you would never want to meet. At the same time the movie critisizes the wya in which the media are searching for the extremes in society and by doing so aids in creating a successful person like Lou Bloom. The movie the world creates feels realistic and Gyllenhaal adds a lot of dark humour.

While watching the movie I was constantly reminded on how it must have felt watching a movie like Taxi Drive in the cinema and I was transported to the seventies (even though this movie is set “now”) as there was so much similarity. Whether Nightcrawler will turn into a classic film as well remains to be seen, but it is one I would love to revisit. It would not surprise me if Gyllenhaal gets an Oscar nomination for his work in this film.