Critical Recommendation: Nightcrawler

I like to think that when screenwriter and director Dan Gilroy sat down to conceive Nightcrawler and the characters that inhabit its world, he thought to himself, "how can I create the most horrible, terrible, immoral, and yet eerily normal character of all time?" And craft a true stinker he did in the form of Louis Bloom, a sociopathic petty criminal who gets caught up in the trade of the nightcrawler, a slang term for people who record the gnarliest and most bombastic clips of accidents and disasters that they possibly can in hopes of selling them to local news stations for a profit. Now, I know that it would be a blatant overstatement to paste every single existing nightcrawler as psychopathic, sociopathic, money-grubbing individuals with no regard for human life whatsoever, but when you really think about it, a career like nightcrawling would certainly attract individuals like Louis Bloom. OK, so before I spoil the entire film, I want to get into this review, and just start off by saying that if you haven't seen this movie, go watch it. Immediately. It's your call whether you do so before or after you read my review. Nightcrawler is one of my favorite movies, one of the better films I've seen this side of 2000, and in my opinion, one of the greatest and most all-engrossing thrillers of all time. But what exactly makes it so great and innovative? What exactly makes the city shine brightest at night in this film?

Let's start off with the heart of this movie, Lou Bloom. He's a terrible person. No, I'm serious when I put it that bluntly and that simply. There are absolutely zero redeeming qualities about this guy, and I respect the guts of Gilroy to run with this concept and turn it into the entire focus of the movie instead of just a plot thread that's part of a larger story or a temporary character flaw that will be undone in glorious redemption by the end of the movie. Nihilism doesn't really sell in theaters, and so noirish, sleazy character studies like this don't get made very often. Watching Bloom felt a lot like watching a hyena at the zoo. He's creepy. He's eerie. He's an obvious sociopath and psychopath. And worst of all, he's wildly intelligent. You want to look away, but Gyllenhall simply won't let you. It is the best and most dynamic performance I've ever seen from Jake Gyllenhall, and it's frankly not really close. Bloom is incredibly creepy, morally devoid, socially abhorrent, and, at times, even erratically terrifying. He's the worst tendency and stereotype of every news studio boiled down into one person. He's a horrible influence on his likable and naive news partner, a previously homeless man named Rick (portrayed by Riz Ahmed), and the entire movie, you'll be begging for Rick to walk away from Lou. Character studies aren't by and large crowdpleasers, so Nightcrawler won't be a movie for everyone, but if you're into those kinds of films, those films that try to be small, smart, and character-based instead of big, impressive, and spectacle-based, it could be the finest character study I've ever had the privilege of watching.

As for the plot progression of the film, it's marvelous and relatively straightforward, playing with tension on a scene-to-scene basis that is wildly uncomfortable. A sociopath gets into the news filming business. He impresses his peers with his prowess and begins to accrue wealth and status. And problems begin to arise the more influential he becomes. This film always builds towards an inevitable conclusion you'll be dreading, but you'll also feel completely helpless to stop. Watching Lou's arc is like watching a runaway train as it crests the top of a mountain and builds up speed. You know that things are going to go wrong at some point. The only question is a question of when. In addition to this, Nightcrawler also adhered to a very interesting and unusual plot device: it allowed the main character of the film to influence those around him for the worse in true sociopath fashion, rather than letting the supporting characters influence Lou for the better. It's an innovative perspective that I haven't often seen replicated elsewhere, and it really grabs your attention and doesn't let you go as the movie goes through its dark and grungy twists and turns. Too often in a lot of movies, plot progression becomes lost as characterization becomes too important to the directors. However, when you tie the plot of the film entirely to the decisions of your main character, you put the two in a crucial symbiotic relationship. And when you leave the decisions made in the movie entirely to a sociopath, your movie will inevitably be going somewhere gloriously horrible.

In addition, this movie is incredibly thought-provoking. I have worked on some news broadcasting while in college, and so while some things were exaggerated for the sake of the plot, a lot of what happened was very on-point and real-to-life, and will certainly resonate with a culture that is obsessed with the 24/7 news media. This movie really makes you think about a lot of things we take for granted with the news. It asks a lot of uncomfortable questions, questions the likes of "why are we so addicted to the macabre?" and conversely, "when did we become so indifferent to it?" Some have labeled this movie as a satire, and while I can see where they're coming from, I think of it a closer to a psychological horror than a satire, although the two can be interchangeable. It's a relatively humorless film, and when it does crack a joke, the humor always seems to be in a hopelessly bleak and very self-aware vein. It feels appropriate for the world we're entering, where people need to become indifferent to the horrors they witness or risk going insane, a world that attracts the worst of the worst. It's a dirty film about the paradoxically almost-clinical desensitization of others by the clinically desensitized, and a very effective, sobering, and horrifying one at that. And because it is a dark film, I do need to slap a content warning on the movie for a regular spattering of bad language, some incredibly realistic (if not too graphic) bloody images of car crashes, home break-ins, and such, and a steady stream of downright disturbing and psychopathic themes. For instance, one character states that the spirit of what the news tries to showcase is a screaming woman running down the street with her throat cut. Nightcrawler is not a comfortable watch, and I want to make you aware of that. However, it is a masterfully made and provocative film, and one I highly, highly recommend. Just know what you're walking into.

Nightcrawler - 10/10

Ecclesiastes 5:10