Nightcrawler

Rating: 5/5

Nightcrawler, being lead by a stunning performance by Jake Gyllenhaal, is frightening in an eerily subtle way.

Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), is a man seemingly at the end of his rope, desperately in search of employment. He hasn't had much "formal" school training, but has spent his time learning online, and has come up with his own business/life plan. When he is driving home from work, he is passed by several police cars, and stops to see what has happened. It is there he sees a videographer getting footage of the car accident. He learns of the job known as "nightcrawling" and discovers his professional calling.

Eager to make his way in this new career, Louis stops at nothing to get the most bloody and graphic footage possible. When a local news station agrees to use his work, fuel is added to the fire, and Louis begins to cross boundaries that should never be crossed.

Nightcrawler is unusual in many ways, one being that as you would expect based on the title, almost the entirety of the film is shot at night. Not only does this amplify any tension that is in the plot, but it also makes any moments of daytime appear jarringly bright. Both purposes are very useful in creating a film with a incredibly strong impact.

Though he did not win the Academy Award he was nominated for his role in the film, Jake Gyllenhaal's performance in Nightcrawler should go down as one of his best. He is completely transformative in his portrayal of Lou, in both his acting and his dedication to his physical appearance. By losing weight for the character, his eyes appear to bulge from his face, making his horrific actions as a nightcrawler appear all the more manic. It is his performance that really sells the intensity of the film.

Upon first watching Nightcrawler, it is pretty hard to believe that this unspoken world of graphic freelance video journalism exists, but it does. Of course, the real videographers most likely don't perform as many illegal escapades Louis Bloom. Not only does Nightcrawler portray an incredibly dark and frightening story, but it exposes a whole other side to the what goes into creating the evening news.

Nightcrawler is a movie that I may not have been drawn to initially, but is one that I am glad to have been introduced to. The content in the movie is hard to watch at times, but tells a phenomenal story. It is almost guaranteed to make your heart race and keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the film's duration.