Preface

• Nightcrawler came out on Halloween Day (yeah, this review is a little late…) and it was a perfect release for that time.
  • It crisply captures a creepy feel, and mixes with an urban, shady tone.
    • And I love movies like that.

*Also, I included that trailer because it didn’t give away too much, unlike the other ones!

Gyllenhaal

• This is usually where I do Cast and Characters (you’ll know why I didn’t in a minute), so let’s run down the supporting characters in this movie.
  • Riz Ahmed (had to look that name up) plays the kid that Gyllenhaal is taking under his wing, and this guy is supposed to be our eyes through the adventure.
    • Kind of like the Watson to Gyllenhaal’s Sherlock.
  • Rene Russo is really good for the part she has, and shows a lot of weird development through the movie that ultimately makes a lot of sense by the end.
  • Bill Paxton and others also have smaller roles in the movie, but this is Gyllenhaal’s film.
• But let’s not kid ourselves here: this is Jake Gyllenhaal’s movie.
• Gyllenhaal gives the best performance of his career and one of 2014’s best as Lou Bloom.
  • I honestly didn’t even see Jake Gyllenhaal throughout the movie, I just saw him as Lou Bloom.
    • In which case, let’s re-do that title card!

Lou Bloom

• This guy is one of the best movie characters of this year.
  • And by best, I mean best at being a horrible person.
• Lou Bloom, the center of this film, is a man who is trying to fit into the world, and decides to become a free-lance videographer where he can sell his footage of crime scenes to this news.
  • Then he starts getting too good at it……
• This guy is CREEPY.
• He presents himself as a weird combination of Sherlock Holmes from Sherlock, mixed with DiCaprio from The Wolf of Wall Street, mixed with The Wolf from Pulp Fiction. Kinda?
  • Sherlock because he’s presented as really shady, but really smart.
    • And that fits with us being Rick’s Watson to his Sherlock.
  • DiCaprio because he always has a business plan, and is always talking and taking people under his wing.
  • And The Wolf because he’s dealing with really crime-related illegal activity, and is really self-centered.
    • Also, since it’s a cross of The Wolf and The Wolf of Wall Street, would that be The Wolf of Wolf Street? (featuring Sherlock?)
  • Bloom is just horrible at talking to people, and that’s easy to see by his conversations with Rick, his intern, throughout the movie.
    • Rick is sweating when he’s with this guy, you can feel it.
  • Lou Bloom is one of those characters who you will never forget watching in a movie.
    • He’s eloquent, he’s a creeper, he’s unbelievably shady, but he creates one of the coolest anti-heroes I’ve seen since Walter White.
  • I know this is a competitive year (as they all are…) but I’d love to Gyllenhaal at least get a nomination for this character, because he beyond deserves it.

Script/Directing

• There isn’t a ton in this movie to talk about, so I’ll combine these two point.
• The script in this movie is really cohesive.
  • It’s one that you just want to watch play out, and you can’t wait to see how one point will play into the next scene, and how the trail of points play on throughout the movie.
  • It was really magnetic.
• The directing…
  • It was a pretty unknown director, who I thought did a pretty okay job.
  • I wish someone more hands-on and experienced had taken the project and really touched up a few scenes that needed polishing, but the film did look good.
  • A. was portrayed so well in this movie, and the shots of the city were great.
  • I guess I ultimately just felt like it was a Breaking Bad episode director who tackled this, and used a lot of the same devices, without increasing the scale for the big screen.

Flaws

• Other than the directing, there are no ENORMOUS flaws, but there are a few.
• There were some points where the script may have missed a beat or two, and the audience had to solve what was going on to get the resolution scene.
  • If there was a problem, not all of it was explained; so when the resolution came, we had to say, “oh, so that was the other part of the problem!”
• Also, the timing is a little off in some places.
  • It feels like the whole movie takes place over the course of one week, and it should feel more like several months.
  • And I wish we had seen more failed attempts of Lou Bloom training to be a free-lance videographer.
• But this was a really solid movie that I thoroughly enjoyed.

In Conclusion

• In Conclusion, Nightcrawler was a really creepy, really shady film that took you through a cool look at L.A. night life, and the world of free-lancing.
• It had unbelievably solid acting, characters, and a really good script, but a few problems with direction, scope, and timing.
• Ultimately, I can’t wait to buy it when it comes to Blu-Ray.

4/5

***

So guys, those are my thoughts on Nightcrawler! What are your thoughts? Let me know down below, and as always, thanks for reading guys.

So guys, those are my thoughts on Nightcrawler! What are your thoughts? Let me know down below, and as always, thanks for reading guys.