Nightcrawler (2014) [Blu-ray]
Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline: The City Shines Brightest at Night

Nightcrawler is a pulse-pounding thriller set in the nocturnal underbelly of contemporary Los Angeles. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Lou Bloom, a driven young man desperate for work who discovers the high-speed world of L.A. crime. Finding a group of freelance camera crews who film crashes, fires, murder and other mayhem, Lou muscles into the cut-throat, dangerous realm of nightcrawling - where each police siren wail equals a possible windfall and victims are converted into dollars. Aided by Nina (Rene Russo), a veteran of the blood-sport that is local TV news, Lou blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story.

Storyline: NIGHTCRAWLER is a thriller set in the nocturnal underbelly of contemporary Los Angeles. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Lou Bloom, a driven young man desperate for work who discovers the high-speed world of L.A. crime journalism. Finding a group of freelance camera crews who film crashes, fires, murder and other mayhem, Lou muscles into the cut-throat, dangerous realm of nightcrawling - where each police siren wail equals a possible windfall and victims are converted into dollars and cents. Aided by Rene Russo as Nina, a veteran of the blood-sport that is local TV news, Lou blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story. Written by Open Road Films

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Kenneth Brown, February 7, 2015 -- Oscar Snub Season is once again upon us. Among this year's hotly debated victims: Selma, Gone Girl, Interstellar, The LEGO Movie, Locke, Big Eyes, Force Majeure, Life Itself and Nightcrawler. The best of 2014's non-winners? Critics and audiences seem to have narrowed the most offensive snubs to three films: Selma, which somehow failed to earn acting or directing nods (despite a much-deserved nomination for Best Picture), The LEGO Movie, bizarrely overlooked in the Best Animated Feature category, and Nightcrawler, without question one of the best films of the year and, now, one of the Academy's most tragically overlooked. Though nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Dan Gilroy's chilling, utterly mesmerizing study of a career-driven sociopath could have been a staple of several major categories, including Supporting Actress (Rene Russo), Actor (Jake Gyllenhaal), Director, and Best Picture. Adding insult to injury, two Best Picture spots remain empty, with only eight out of a possible ten slots filled. (Three of which are occupied by decent but divisive, largely unremarkable biopics: The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything and American Sniper.) Could Nightcrawler have won? Gyllenhaal might have nabbed a Best Actor statue, and even then it would come down to a neck and neck race with Michael Keaton and Steve Carell, but Best Picture? Not in a year dominated by Birdman, Boyhood and other stunning achievements in film.

Gyllenhaal doesn't need an Oscar nomination to make Nightcrawler an unforgettably intense character drama, though. The film doesn't need to be counted among the Best Picture nominees to make it one of the most gripping thrillers of the year. It doesn't need any awards attached to its name to pull off everything Gilroy set out to accomplish, and more. Nightcrawler is a taught, riveting, stomach-knotting nail-biter that doesn't let up for a second, and the only real snub to be dealt is by those who pass it by without so much as a rent.

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Lou Bloom, a driven but disturbed young man who discovers the high-speed world of L.A. crime. Stumbling across a group of freelance camera crews that film crashes, fires, murder and other mayhem for news networks, Lou muscles into the cut-throat, dangerous realm of nightcrawling, where each police siren wail equals a possible windfall and victims are converted into dollars. Aided by Nina (Rene Russo), a veteran of the blood-sport that is local TV news, and desperate for work, Lou blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story.

Nightcrawler hinges on Gilroy and Gyllenhaal's double down presentation of Lou's self-realization, not as a traditional sociopath but as an American success story willing to do anything and everything necessary to make something of himself. A brief but crucial introduction tells us all we need to know: Lou is an unscrupulous thief, a monster of impulse (who angles for a job minutes after assaulting a security guard), and an internet-addled creature of calculation and obsession. Soon, though, Lou isn't asking for anything. He takes it. All of it. And he works so hard it almost begins to seem as if he deserves it. There's a sharp undercurrent of satire -- unchecked capitalism as serial stringer; political permissiveness as ratings-driven news -- and the film is cleverly devoid of empathy, moral justice and likable characters. It's a risk to be sure; a gamble that relies on its audience's eagerness to follow Gyllenhaal's high-functioning, self-made madman through a series of increasingly tense manipulations of crime scenes and co-workers. But it pays off. Bloom is a terrifying predator, yes. Unsettling and unremorseful. He's also one of modern cinema's most magnetic maniacs, making it that much more difficult to look away.

Gyllenhaal anchors Nightcrawler with a wide-eyed, high-strung intensity that threatens to burn out but rarely even flickers. Lou may reel at times, scrambling to keep ahead of the truth, but the performance never does. Deceptively measured and nuanced, Gyllenhaal's delivery is both unnerving and aggressive, with the actor's unwavering confidence being the only personal connection he shares with the character. There's a sense that, at any moment, Lou might snap, and God help anyone in his way. But there's never a sense that Gyllenhaal is out of control or unsure of how to proceed, or that Dan Gilroy or editor John Gilroy will fail to fold such a dominating performance into a film that has more to offer than its leading man. Russo is excellent as well -- Nina's plunge into Lou's world is the closest thing we get to an arc, and it's a downward spiral -- as is Riz Ahmed, in a thankless role that quickly blooms into something far more compelling. There's Los Angeles too, and that cherry red Challenger SRT8 392, and the news station, Lou's apartment, the streets, the mansion, the diner... the locales and hotspots of Nightcrawler are characters unto themselves, and provide a familiar place for our wolf in sheep's clothing to hang his hat, lick his lips, and hunt.

Nightcrawler is as frightening as it is fascinating, with Gyllenhaal's performance bordering on revelatory. It's rare that such a narrowly focused character piece feels so sprawling, so intense, so uncomfortably hypnotic, but Gilroy's thriller is anything but ordinary. Universal's Blu-ray release is one of the must-haves this Oscar season too, with a terrific video presentation, an involving DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, and an engaging audio commentary from the filmmakers.

[CSW] -2.8- A character piece film that comments on society's relationship with the media. In particular how much the news strives for attention at nearly any cost and how the eager masses waiting to eat it up. A dark side look at the American dream. There's always a movie about what it takes, and what it "takes" to make it big, but writer/director Dan Gilroy implies something a bit different here. That maybe what it takes is to be sociopath, have no principles, moral or empathy and that maybe it rubs off a bit, because it is seductive. Or at least it is supposed to be. I found the sleaze of the character to be very disturbing and uncomfortable and I recognize that sometime the bad guys win. I was hoping that with the amoral slant that wouldn't happen but you'll have to see for yourself the winners and losers. It was nominated for a "Best Writing, Original Screenplay" Oscar and with this storyline you will understand why. This is a creepy psychological character study, if you like the dark side, don't miss this one.
[V4.5-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box 10/10.


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