In Los Angeles, times are hard for Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal). Unemployed and unemployable, he scrabbles a living from theft, while devouring self-help literature in the hopes that a positive mental attitude will set him on the ladder to economic success. One night, he happens upon the scene of a traffic accident and notices the men who arrive with cameras to document the carnage. Seeing a way to enter an industry at ground level, Lou finds himself a camera and an assistant (Rick, played by an endearingly pathetic Riz Ahmed) and begins to film the bloody crimes that pepper the LA night, selling them on to ruthless TV news editor Nina (Rene Russo).
Through Bloom’s interaction with Nina, writer/director Dan Gilroy builds a satire on modern newscasting in which ethics are discarded in favour of bloody sensationalism. The dialogue crackles with pitch black comedy in these scenes and Russo is fantastically vile as the news anchor desperate to make ratings. The film is not just a media satire though, it is also a character study of a deeply sinister man who is very much a product of his times. Bloom is a man-made grotesque born out of the humiliation of recession and the unattainable American dream. When he begins to film the dead and dying, they are nothing but pixels on a screen, the necessary collateral to his relentless quest for success.
Gyllenhaal is fantastic in the role, his usual bulk has been pared down, giving his face a haunted, desperate look, punctuated by eyes that are wide and wild. The way in which he delivers Bloom’s self-help babble is pitch perfect – fluid and assured, with a hint of restrained hysteria. Riz Ahmed provides an impressive counterpoint to Gyllenhaal’s performance. Rick too is in a desperate position but in contrast with Bloom’s unswerving self-belief, Rick has been broken by his hard-scrabble existence to such an extent that he only expects the worst from life.
The look of the film is also in harmony with the content. The LA nightscape is painted pitch black with accents of neon and fluorescence, as if the streets were slick with oil – a landscape lacking a crucial integrity. All in all, Nightcrawler is a fantastically entertaining watch, flowing seamlessly between surprisingly funny satire and disturbing thriller tropes. An L.A. story well worth telling.