Nightcrawler

Parental Rating: R

Contains: Language    Violence    Adult Content    

Jill's Review

Opens October 31, 2014

Runs 117 minutes

Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a young man desperate (and maybe a little crazy?) to find his place in the world.  He speaks in motivational platitudes and he is searching for his true passion. He discovers that he is intensely interested in the news business, especially gruesome crime scene reporting. Eventually, he buys a camera, hires an assistant Rick (Riz Ahmed) and starts trawling for crime scenes to film. He finds a sympathetic news producer, Nina (Rene Russo) who starts grooming him and buying his film footage. She tells him that the stories she is looking for should be like a woman running down the street with her throat cut...that immediate and graphic. Lou takes that to heart and seeks out the most horrific scenes, racing to beat the cops and perhaps crossing the line in his film footage. Soon the line begins to blur even more between pure reporting and his active involvement in creating the story. Lou will stop at nothing for his stories to be the lead on the news broadcast. Maybe he is just a little too involved with his subjects?

This is a pretty good movie in an intensely creepy way. Jake, as Lou, is bug-eyed and haunted as he becomes more and more obsessed with getting the story first and providing the most in-your-face gruesome footage. He is great! And, it was great to see Rene Russo as Nina. She is almost as obsessed as Lou in getting the most macabre story on the news, regardless of ethics or anything else. I liked this movie. Trainer Joe was a little more ambivalent. I think he thought some of the footage was a little over the top and it was. But, that just played into Lou's obsession as it began to grow and grow. If you don't have a weak stomach, this is a great look at behind the scenes news reporting and what it takes to get the story. I say go see it.

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