Nightcrawler – Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Chris Eberle

Synopsis

Lou Bloom is a young man looking for a way to elevate his fortunes. He has no qualms about stealing to survive. One night he stops to watch policemen save a woman from a burning car. An independent camera crew arrives at the scene and Lou is fascinated. The next day he steals a bicycle to buy himself a camera and police scanner. He soon strikes up a relationship with a local TV news editor who is hungry for as much gruesome footage as Lou can come up with.

On a routine patrol, Lou manages to beat the cops to the scene of a home invasion. He manages to film the criminals escaping, then goes into the house to capture footage of the victims. At that point the police take a greater interest in his work. Rather than share his information about the perpetrators, he waits until he has an opportunity to film their capture in a violent shootout. The results are shocking but Lou simply goes on “doing his job.”

Commentary

As a film, Nightcrawler is extremely well-written, directed and acted. Jake Gyllenhaal is eerie as Lou Bloom, a man with no morals or conscience whatsoever. He is driven by opportunity only and has no regard for the people around him. Despite some truly disturbing subject matter, it’s a pulse-pounding thriller for sure. There were many moments where I found myself gaping in shock. Just when you thought Lou couldn’t go any lower, he does. And the news director, played by Rene Russo, isn’t far behind on the moral scale. Her willingness to put the most intense footage on the air in the name of ratings borders on sociopathic. As a whole, the movie is entertaining but it’s scary to think that people actually do these sorts of things for a living.

Technical

Nearly the entire film is shot at night on LA streets. Despite that challenge, detail and contrast are excellent and film grain is never more than a welcome texture. Color is also nicely rendered with a slight greenish tint throughout, representative of florescent lighting. The half-star reduction is for a few shots that seemed soft.

Audio is almost minimalist in nature. There are plenty of ambient effects to create atmosphere but not quite as many as there could have been. Dialog is the star here with excellent clarity and an obvious sense of where voices are coming from. Louder material like car crashes and gunshots was a little too polite for my taste. There I could have used more dynamic range and punch.

Extras

Bonus features include audio commentary with the writer, editor and director and a five-minute featurette with interviews of cast members and actual two nightcrawlers who consulted for the film.