Rated R
117 minutes
Directed by Dan Gilroy
What is the line between perfectionism and insanity? You want to be the best, but what measures do you go to to be the best? Louis Bloom takes perfectionism to the next level. He puts everybody in danger in order to get the shot for his television news video business. This is because as the film goes on, he becomes more and more enamored with the money of it. Louis wants to make the money to buy the lottery ticket he references in his pitch to an employer in the beginning in the movie, but he doesn't care how he gets it.
Louis Bloom is obsessed with the old prospect of the American Dream, and the belief that "good things come to those who work their asses off, and that good people who reach the top of the mountain didn't just fall there." However, what Louis doesn't realize is that in trying to reach the American Dream, you lose who you are. He's certainly lost a bit of himself, as reflected by his shocking skinniness and his lack of morals. With the best intentions come the worst outcomes, and Jake Gyllenhaal reflects this in a great performance that you just get immersed in and forget that Louis is being played by Gyllenhaal.
The film reflects the obsession with the American Dream perfectly, as Dan Gilroy never shies down from getting what he wants and saying what he wants. He viciously goes after news networks, saying and effectively showing the lack of empathy that the heads have. They don't care about human life, as long as they get their ratings. The ratings come from primitive things, saying "if it bleeds, it leads," and by being racist, with their wants being white victims and colored perpetrators. It's eye opening, and truly meaningful.
Nightcrawler is America embodied. It's ugly, vicious, and racist, but at the same time, it's not possible to turn away. And in the end, it's divisive. Not everybody will like it. But, there are a select core that will get it. It's not possible to get away from the image Nightcrawler builds. It embraces the ugliness, and nothing can get you away from it. Nothing, unless you're one of the two people in the theater and the other person has an Anthony Anderson laugh, and doesn't realize what to laugh at. I would be watching in this scene that I was invigorated in, and then I just heard "HA!" and then I started laughing. But, besides that, Nightcrawler will hook you. Just be sure that you're ok with unsympathetic characters.
3.5/5
B+
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