Film Review: Jake Gyllenhaal is Eerily Seductive as the ‘Nightcrawler’

CHICAGO – This film can be defined as “Network” meets Norman Bates, but it also exposes virtually all our modern sins, in a chilling story about a loser who spouts business self help while taping bloody crimes that sell on the morning news. Jake Gyllenhaal is the “Nightcrawler.”

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Gyllenhaal creates an amazing characterization, his Louis Bloom is a creep who is dangerous, because he convinces enough people that his way of practicing his profession is legitimate – which describes the methodology of most American fortunes and politicians. It is a riveting and hard-to-digest psychology, because in the end it is the obvious truth. Dan Gilroy makes his directorial debut from his own script, a clear-eyed vision of a modern society that favors fear over substance, and what is for sale over what is moral. This is the scariest film, guaranteed, to be released on Halloween.

Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a con man and petty thief who stumbles upon a new business while coming upon a car accident – the selling of nighttime crime or accident footage to Los Angeles morning news programs, hungry for ratings. After getting a cheap camera rig, he lucks out on his first assignment, and sells his stock to Channel Six in L.A., encountering and developing a business relationships with news director Nina Romina (Rene Russo).

Soon the “Nightcrawler” is building a business selling these videos, and takes on a hapless assistant named Rick (Riz Ahmed). To be successful, Louis has to fight his own demons, stave off a competitor named Joe (Bill Paxton), seduce Nina into seeing things his way, and gather crime footage by outpacing the other Nightcrawlers. It’s a dirty business, in a dirty town.

“Nightcrawler opens everywhere on October 31st. Featuring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton, Riz Ahmed, and Kent Shocknek. Written and directed by Dan Gilroy. Rated “R”