Review of Nightcrawler (2014) by Lucas C — 24 May 2015

The story follows Bloum, a Nightcrawler in Los Angeles, who captures sensational images to then sell to news stations. Bold Films is having a sensational year: with multiple Oscar nominations for both Nightcrawler and Whiplash.

What Nightcrawler made up for in terrific acting from Jake (albeit, with some awkwardly placed music in the background) it lost with poor characters in his partner and the women who he sells his videos too.

My guess is that Jake wanted most of the film to be on him, so he made sure that the other two main characters did not get much screen-time. The whole film centers around him, which can be made effective at points, however, I just didn't understand the point of it all.

Sure it made some subtly social commentary and followed Jake Gyllenhaal's wacko character, but I just didn't get why the characters were doing what they were doing. I would have liked to see Jakes character receive some attention from the public in order to fuel his ego.

As he says in the film, "why he wants it is more important than what he wants". That being said, I just did not understand "why" he wanted to do this. Given that reasoning, it made him seem plain old crazy, which I never like to see out of a character no matter how "crazy" they might seem.

All in all a solid film, I say B+. Go see it, because, as always Mr. Gyllenhaal delivers.