Jake Gyllenhaal plays one of the creepiest, most depraved characters of recent memory in Dan Gilroy's terrific 2014 thriller, NIGHTCRAWLER.
Gyllenhaal lost a lot of weight and looks like he hasn't slept in months as the socially awkward loner Lou Bloom.
With few job prospects and all of his interactions with people resembling an alien impersonating human emotions, Lou has little future, no friends and no morals.
Roaming the streets of Los Angeles all night in his beat up car, Lou stumbles upon a gruesome accident and watches as stalking paparazzi arrive on site and start filming, anxious to grab a twenty second piece of footage they can sell to local TV news for the morning headlines.
Lou suddenly sees a job he's made for and pursues it with manic, intense and naked ambition.
When he finds that he has a natural talent for crossing the normal boundaries of morals and decency to get the shot at all costs AND that local TV News program manager Nina (Rene Russo) will pay him for his depravity, a monster is born.
Gyllenhaal is excellent as Lou. Every word out of his mouth is calculated and twisted. When Lou begins to bend every rule of law and basic human values to get the story, the film gets more and more tense, breaking out into some excellent, believable action scenes.
The entire film builds in intensity, with the suspense tightening as the web that Lou spins catches more and more people in its wake.
This is Gilroy's first film as a director and it's an impressive debut. Los Angeles at night has never looked quite this raw,real and dangerous from the inner city to the mansions in the foothills.
Gyllenhaal is an impressive actor and his performance matches anything that was nominated this year, it's a shame that he didn't receive more recognition for his work.
Lou Bloom is a sick individual, but like the film he shoots for the morning news, you won't be able to take your eyes off of NIGHTCRAWLER.
This perfect little thriller gets an A+ and a dark spot just outside the shadows of my all time Top 100. If you haven't seen this, I envy your first viewing.
Comments