Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler thriller dives into the mixture of ambition, crime, and media ethics. Set in the lower part of California, Los Angeles, the film follows the main protagonist Lou Bloom played by Jake Gyllenhaal, a desperate drifter who has a strong interest in freelance crime journalism; filming accidents, fires, and violent crime scenes to sell to the local news stations.
Bloom quickly rises through the ranks by capturing gruesome crime scenes often crossing legal and moral lines to get the most out of his terrifying footage. What makes Nightcrawler so unsettling for the audience is its nerve-racking commentary and the disgusting nature of modern news media. Bloom’s tactics become increasingly irregular, messing with crime scenes and manipulating events so he could get better footage, the film forces the audience to face the uncomfortable reality of the stuff seen in the media.
Jake Gyllenhaal’s body transformation for this role is off-putting. He lost weight for the role, giving the character Lou an almost skeleton-like appearance that matches his lack of morality. He rarely ever blinks and his smile is more of an unsettling type of smile than a warm welcoming one. His character is a mixture of a predator and a product of a system that lives off of fear and violence. With him, is Rene Russo as Nina Romina, a veteran news producer desperately doing anything to keep her ratings up, even purchasing Bloom’s gruesome footage to keep them up, who also encourages Bloom’s very questionable behavior in life. Nina represents how pressure in the media industry can lead to poor decisions, making fear and drama the main focus over truth and responsibility.
Nightcrawler is more than just a thriller movie. It delivers a strong message on how far people and media companies are willing to go for success. It forces the audience to question ethics, responsibility, and where the line is drawn between creating news and reporting it. As a whole, the film makes viewers think about what kind of news we watch and the people who profit from it.
