NIGHT CRAWLER

Nightcrawler
Grade: A-

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed and Bill Paxton
Premise: An ambitious loner excels at the "profession" of night-crawling--taking graphic on-the-spot footage of crimes/accidents and selling it to the highest bidder among local news stations.

 Rated R for bloody/disturbing images, language, and some violence

It's a shame I didn't agree with the note on which writer/director Dan Gilroy chose to end the movie Nightcrawler, because I left a sensational movie decidedly less than thrilled. That's a significant complaint, but a small one. For the vast majority of its running time, Nightcrawler borders on phenomenal. It's a truly spellbinding thriller, an adventure that's so engaging and exhilarating despite being undeniably icky. True, in the day and age of Game of Thrones, American Horror Story, Gone Girl and True Detective, audiences aren't exactly strangers to the idea of moral and ethical ambiguity, but, in Nightcrawler, it hits home with an extra deflating force because of the all-too-real nature of the seeming crimes against nature perpetrated. Packing a powerfully edgy punch and a brilliant against-type performance from Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler is great stuff.

Plot
Lacking formal education and many (any) friends, ambitious ne'er-do-well Louis Bloom (Gyllenhaal, superb) has scraped a living selling scrap metal and odd objects to black market traders. One day, he sees a car accident on the side of the road, and he sees the people who arrive before the news--camcorder-waving scavengers determined to scratch a freelance living, turning stolen, snatched moments into headline news. They're nightcrawlers, and their philosophy is delivered to Louis curtly by one experienced videographer (Bill Paxton): "If it bleeds, it leads." This turns out to be true, as Louis' first adventure giving it a try bags him some graphic close-up footage of a shooting victim. A brief jaunt over to KWLA Channel 6 news brings Louis a stroke of good luck; tough-as-nails News Director Nina Romina (Rene Russo) likes what he has, offers him $250, and tells him to keep her in mind in case he gets anything else particularly interesting.

The offer sticks. Hooked, Louis hires a partner/navigator (Riz Ahmed) who's too poor to refuse the dubious position, grabs a police scanner, and begins crawling every night, seeking diamonds in the rough in the form of flames, corpses, wreckage, and blood, all caught on camera. It works, and he's soon such a name the local vet who brushed him aside offers him a chance to team up. But Louis' hard-changing, no-questions style begins to exhibit worrisome signs, such as a tendency to bend (or break) the law, drive like a maniac, lie to the police and, sometimes, put people in danger who didn't need to be. While Nina's always looking for some more footage from her protégé, Louis's competitors, his partner, and local law enforcement are soon on his tail. But Louis--obsessive, driven, increasingly-maniacal Louis--can't help himself.

What Works?
Any discussion of Nightcrawler's merits has to start with--and mostly consist of--praise for Jake Gyllenhaal's performance, a turn that deserves to be remembered in the Best Actor category come Oscar time. This is the 34-year-old actor as you've never seen him--gaunt and goggly-eyed, suspiciously-evasive, creepily-manipulative and darkly-driven. It's far removed from the actor's boy-next-door appeal; in fact, it's sometimes impossible, while watching Nightcrawler, to picture the kindly actor as he's generally known. This is a chameolonic turn, with the rants, raves, deception, and creepy offers others can't refuse. Louis Bloom is a character you'll remember.

Gyllenhaal dominates the proceedings, appearing in almost every scene, but he's ably supported by a tightly-wound Rene Russo (in her best and most prominent role in probably a decade) and newcomer Riz Ahmed, who plays audience surrogate as a guy who sometimes admires Louis, but, at other times, is appropriately terrified of him.

This is Dan Gilroy's directorial debut; his highest-profile past projects were writing The Bourne Legacy and Real Steel. Considering the former was a bust and the latter was a pile of clichés, Gilroy's Nightcrawler script is a major breakthrough and an absolute gem. While its main character and primary content are certainly repellant, Gilroy's quietly-churning script pulls you in and holds you there, until the last act suffuses breathtaking suspense and then explodes with wild action. That Louis is composed mostly of self-help clichés and workplace platitudes clearly memorized off the internet is unnerving in this digitally-obsessed age, and the crimes depicted are so commonplace you'll be hard-pressed to avoid thinking of nightcrawlers the next time you drive past a car accident scene or a cluster of emergency response vehicles (one scene audience members will likely find hard to shake is the sight of Louis--fixing an accident scene to his liking for the first time--dragging a probably-dead car accident victim around a car and leaving him there, illuminated in the glare of the headlights, because it makes a juicier shot).

What Doesn't Work?
While the plot takes a late turn many audience members won't particularly like, it's the final two scenes that hit me as false. Not wanting to post spoilers, I can't reveal what they are, but it's unfortunate, because the majority of the movie is utterly stellar. It's not fun to leave the theater in which you saw a brilliant thrill ride trying to convince yourself it really was good.

Content
Nightcrawler will give you the willies, with unnerving depictions of car-accidents and shootings at the immediate aftermath, with wounded or dying people bleeding and being treated while cameras hover in their faces, taking in their agony. Go in knowing what you will see will be unethical and morally skewed. For the squeamish, there are some depictions of very bloody bodies and crime scenes, plus a few realistic shootouts. There are also some F-words. This is dark stuff (more power to Gilroy, who made this edgy concept so entertaining).

The Bottom Line
I thought I might like Nightcrawler, but I didn't expect it to border on brilliant. The last couple minutes didn't feel quite right and damaged my enthusiasm a bit, but this unnerving, suspenseful, well-acted film is powerful. Jake Gyllenhaal deserves to be in the thick of the Best Actor conversation for a performance unlike anything he's done before. And try keeping this movie out of your mind the next time you witness a catastrophe. If you liked Gone Girl, here's another dark story about the everyday sociopath.

Nightcrawler (2014)
Written and Directed by Dan Gilroy
Rated R
Length: 117 minutes