Austin Chiavaroli, Staff Writer
With many mistaking the name for the X-Men character, “Nightcrawler,” directed by Dan Gilroy, still brings much to the cinema world. This movie is an American crime thriller that will have viewers sitting on the edge of their seats.
The story begins with a young man, Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), who is desperate to find a job in Los Angeles. When he comes across a car crash, he sees a camera crew shooting the aftermath for the local TV news station. Inspired by what the crew was doing, he obtains a camcorder and tapes a carjacking to sell to the local news station. Nina (Rene Russo), the morning news director, pays for the taped film and encourages Lou to keep bringing her live videos like the one he had given her. Lou hires an assistant, Rick (Riz Ahmed), and the two begin videotaping crashes, fires, home invasions and more as they mess with the crime scenes to get better footage. With this the two get dragged into more dangerous and illegal recording situations, and they become “Nightcrawlers,” or people who try to be the first to get the most up close, personal, and goriest footage to give to the hungry media viewers.
Jake Gyllenhaal was also one of the main producers for the movie. His acting skills show as his character goes from being a goal driven young kid to a creepy, calm, but insane monster through the duration of the film. Rene Russo also does a great job as her character is serious, but she also has a dark side to her character as well, thriving on the close and personal tapes that Lou brings her.
The film has gotten very positive reviews on most movie review sites. However, there are some issues with the movie that need to be addressed. The film’s message about multimedia exploitation can sometimes be disturbing, which can have a negative impact on the movie. This idea can cause some viewers discomfort as it shows the truth on how some people are “okay” with gruesome imagery in media, sometimes even enjoying it. Another issue is that though the film tries its best to hide what Lou will become, his character does show too much of the sociopath he becomes.
With these issues out of the way, the movie is far from bad. The film makes the viewers question their own sanity throughout the whole movie. Movies like this should be welcomed more as they show what is really going on in the media.
Though this film has its few minor nitpicks, it is a masterpiece at showing how horrible the media can be. With the film being edgy to show the best that Gilroy and Gyllenhaal have, this film gets a 4/5 rating.
