Nightcrawler

Nightcrawler (2014)

Producers: Betsy Danbury, Gary Michael Walters, et al.

Director: Dan Gilroy

Rated: R for violence including graphic images, and for language

Runtime: 117 min

Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller

The trailer for Nightcrawler sold viewers on a movie that seemed to be an indictment of sensationalist media, and a character study of a man who goes from light-hearted go gettter to lunatic willing to do whatever it takes to get his next bit of grisly footage. Remember the scene from the trailer in which Jake Gyllenhaal is screaming at his mirror, furiously attempting to rip it from the wall? Surely that's the turning point of the movie, right? That's the moment when this movie's version of Travis Bickle goes from socially awkward, with an unhealthy obsession with a woman out of his reach, to reprobate film journalist willing to make news when none exists. Sadly it's not, the movie never takes that next step to something big.

Gyllenhaal, for his part, does a good job conveying the mindset of his character. He embodies the ambitious Louis Bloom, full of self-help cliches and a willingness to ignore societal niceties to advance himself. He's almost always polite, while wearing people down with his persistence. There are a couple of moments when some anger leaked through his carefully crafted facade, and each time I got excited to see the next level of crazy he might exhibit. He never reaches that next level though, even when Bloom sets his coworker up for tragedy he does so in such a wormy way that it doesn't elicit much of a reaction from the audience. Maybe the darker side of someone so eternally optimistic is supposed to make an impact, but the latter part of the movie lacked to punch that a real change in the character could have provided.

In August movie goers were treated to a film that examined the nature of news coverage; the news' ability to shape a story and drive the narrative despite not having all the facts, in Gone Girl. I expected something similar here; an examination of how far the media will go to deliver the news they deem worthy of delivering. Maybe with a bit of commentary on why the public tunes in to violence and misery as long as it's not their own. There's one side character who's purpose it seems was to do something along those lines, but that side of the argument is drowned out by talk of money and ratings. It is another missed opportunity in a movie that should have done something to give itself a purpose, but didn't.

All of this is not to say Nightcrawler is a bad movie. Dan Gilroy clearly has a love for the city of Los Angles, and it makes a very interesting backdrop for the story. The sprawling cityscapes offer a very different setting than the claustrophobic streets of the more commonly used New York City. I enjoyed the entire cast, even Bill Paxton. Sure his usage of “brah” seemed a little forced, but this is the second supporting role I've seen him in this year that made me think positive things about him. I'm not sure if he's gotten to the point where his career needs a resurgence, but if it does I hope he's now trending in the right direction.

Conclusion: Some missed opportunities keep this from being the movie I thought it could be. While all the technical and performance aspects are handled superbly I left the theater feeling like the script didn't take the chances that it could have. Instead of exposing the media and our own viewing preferences for violent 'news' as a strange appetite for others' suffering, and showing us what damage the hunt for another grisly crime scene could do to a fragile psyche, the audience is treated to something that is just less than it could have been.

Rating: 7/10