Nightcrawler is Tony Gilroy’s – the
brother of Michael Clayton director
Dan Gilroy - debut film, a fun drive through the murky and hazy streets of
nighttime Los Angeles, where loners and creeps and sociopaths feed the world
violence on the local news circuit. Okay, it’s not a Network or Taxi Driver,
even if the film feels like a synchronization of both. It’s more pulpy than
intelligent, fantastical and thrilling rather than poignant and relevant
commentary, riddled with odd skirmishes and adrift souls.
Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is eager to learn about the culture of work, but he’s
homeless and scavenges copper and metals anywhere he finds it. “We don’t hire
thieves,” he’s told by the yard manager when he attempts to get hired. A
central tension of the film – his desire to succeed and gain control – is
planted here, coloring his next encounter with a burning car and a camera crew
led by the gruff Bill Paxton. From him, he learns what freelancing video
production is and, like a Travis Bickle, channels his inner emptiness and
insomniac tendencies into this line of work.
He’s
an obsessively confident fellow, with no ability to connect to others. He’s a
Joycean figure, a Leopold Bloom, a man with no identity and affiliations, who
eats “the inner organs of beasts and fowls” yet is as hollow as they come. Mr.
Gyllenhall succeeds in crafting an unfeeling character, a tightly wound and ambitious sociopath, intent on filming what he wants, where he wants without even considering the moral lines he crosses to get the best footage.
The
film plays out as a Travis Bickle fantasy. Instead of the adoration by Taxi’s end being in Travis’s head
(arguably), Lou receives praise the harder he works for boss Nina (Rene Russo).
His gutsy risk-taking and economical acumen, as well as his gonzo journalistic footage,
draw her in further into his clutches.
We
can say this movie is about obsessive media culture and sociopathy, but I
honestly kept thinking Nightcrawler to
be most fascinated with the nature of internships and work hierarchy. In the
age of the unpaid internship, Nightcrawler
comically gives us the boss you never want to have, an entitled
monster who happens to be at once talented, greedy, manipulative and manic. Rick
(Riz Ahmed) is a homeless man hired by Lou as an intern for his nightly roundabouts.
With police scanners and a speedy red car, they work on getting the juiciest
videos they can. Rick, like us, doesn’t know anything about this guy. He’s just
so convincing, you actually think he is who he says he is.
Lou
threatening Nina in a Mexican restaurant is the film’s most disturbing scene. Their
sipping margheritas while anxiously waiting for their food is primetime for Lou to blackmail her for
sex; he tells her that she needs him if she doesn’t want to lose her two year
contract. She’s speechless, as are we, yet she’s unable to tell him to get lost.
This is his leverage: even if he’s crazy, he gives her some can't-miss footage.
Gyllenhall’s
articulation and agitated gait give him a levity and ease as he goes around
town, filming the city. He videotapes a murder scene, undiscovered by police,
without any regard for the bodies around him. He orchestrates a police shootout
with the killers to get good footage. Some might say the critique Gilroy is
making is not particularly relevant. Where I might to tend to agree, and where I
think Nightcrawler overextends, are
in the various scenes that occur in the newsroom between Nina and her boss (played by Kevin Rahm).
Rather than complement the film’s insanity, they give it a Network vibe which doesn’t feel too inspired; despite lacking in convincing and engaging contemporary commentary, Nightcrawler embraces its vintage exterior with confidence (God,
Robert Elswitt, what a year for you sir!). Some of its grander ideas and
arguments about media and sociopathy, as I mentioned, are a bit underdeveloped,
but, within the larger scope of the film, this doesn’t detract from the
experience.
Technology
is purposefully absent in this fantastical Los Angeles where your sharp wits
and dirty tricks are the keys to success. Nightcrawler
is a finely-conceived, tightly-structured and oddly-comical fantasy thriller.
In other words, it’s everything Gone Girl
isn’t.
And, as for the ending: let’s
hope those interns find themselves in Lou’s good graces, or else!
Grade: B+ to A-