Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton
Directed and Written by Dan Gilroy

Louis Bloom, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, is creepy. He will get things done by any means necessary. When he pulls over on the side of the highway at the scene of a car crash he discovers the art of nightcrawling. Nightcrawling is to go out and try to capture scenes of accidents or crimes on camera before everything is cleared by police and paramedics. The goal is to then send the footage to the news station of the highest bid. Louis becomes fixated when he sees a man, played by Bill Paxton, jump out of a van to record a woman being pulled out of the wreckage of the car crash. The next day he trades in his

bicycle for a police scanner and video camera. Louis has an unnervingly charming personality and quickly smiles his way into becoming the go-to guy for the local, failing, news-station run by Nina Romina (Rene Russo). With the aid of an under-confident junkie named Rick (Riz Ahmed), Louis’ coverage single handedly boosts ratings. He begins to show up to scenes of crimes long before anyone else, including the police.

This film is quite unsettling, not just in how single-minded Louis is in getting the goriest footage but also because of how strongly Nina holds the importance of ‘graphic footage’ over the means required to obtain it. She doesn’t want just any violent film though, specifically urban crime creeping into the suburbs. That is the news that grabs the attention of the public. It soon becomes clear to everyone in the newsroom that Louis is breaking many ethical rules. However, the ratings are what matter. This is an interesting satire on our own media’s race for viewership. While Louis is clearly a maladjusted sociopath perhaps the most frightening character is Nina who is shown to clearly understand the distinction between right and wrong but will disregard it all for a product that will sell and that product is fear.

Jake Gyllenhaal is brilliant from his greasy hair and plastic smile to his slouch and deliberate, calm way of speaking in any situation. This is not an anti-hero movie where the main character is bad but the audience is still rooting for him. Instead, I was thinking two things during the movie: how far is he going to push this and when is he going to start caring about the victims. I was rooting for him to fail and that’s not a common feeling to evoke from an audience. An intense psychological thriller that I won’t speak any more on. Go see it.

Grade: A-