Nightcrawler

Dan Gilroy has been living in brother Tony’s shadow for a while now which, considering that Tony was the director of The Bourne Legacy and Dan was the writer of Freejack isn’t really all that surprising. It’s good news for the Gilroy family though as Dan has come to the party as writer / director of the highly enjoyable Nightcrawler. Despite being marketed as a sleazy trawl through the LA underbelly, this is more a character study of Jake Gyllenhaal’s Lou Bloom, a young man who stumbles across a car accident one night and becomes fascinated by the freelance camera crews (“nightcrawlers”) who film the situation and are then paid by the news channels for their footage if it’s deemed worthy. What a character it is too, thanks to Gilroy’s sharp script and Gyllenhaal’s star performance. Gilroy’s film sets its stall out early on, picking up Bloom in the opening scene showing him assaulting a security guard and pocketing his fancy watch. He’s a low-life, but he is oddly fascinating as we watch him slowly integrate himself into the nightcrawler scene, eventually reaching Man Bites Dog-esque territory as Bloom starts to become directly involved in causing the carnage that he subsequently films. Gyllenhaal’s performance is superb, helped by Gilroy’s decision to steer clear of mentions of his background and for us to instead just invest our emotions with an individual who at times is so robotic in his approach to life, that he’s like an Alien impersonating a human being. Though this is Gyllenhaal’s film, there is also strong support from Riz Ahmed as Bloom’s naïve “assistant” (look for the hilarious job titles and appraisals that Bloom subjects him to) and Rene Russo (Gilroy’s real life missus) as a news editor torn between her job and submitting to Bloom’s quasi-blackmailing in the shape of having to sleep with him for his video footage. Away from the individual assessment, the rest of the film is solid if not spectacular. Though it appears Gilroy is satirising US news reporters, European audiences will still be cringing at the (true to life) alarmist paranoia put out during the forecasts. Plus, a shock twist towards the end of the film is clearly telegraphed if you’ve been paying attention. Overall though, this is one of the films of the year. To wit: Bloom isn’t a anti-hero, he’s a morally bankrupt sociopath with a serious dark side but, somehow, Gilroy and Gyllenhaal mess with your head so much that you’ll remember Bloom as a charmer who you actually care for. Rating: 8/10.