Nightcrawler in a Nutshell
Maybe I misunderstood what they were trying to do with Nightcrawler, but that was a messy film from start to finish. I honestly can’t believe I sat through the two hours of it. After it received good reviews from critics and audiences I figured it couldn’t be as good as they were saying but still worth watching. The basic premise behind it is that Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a desperate person looking for any work. This leads him to stumbling upon freelance crime scene reporting; which in itself I find it hard to believe. It’s basically anyone with a camcorder racing to a crime scene and getting as close as possible to film it then selling it to the highest bidder for the 6 a.m. news. In a matter of two months working this job, Lou manages to save up enough to buy a brand new car. Which made me question the pacing and realism of this whole idea of a movie. Then I can’t tell if I was supposed to be cheering for Lou to succeed seeing as he was a manipulative creep. Maybe it was just like how I missed the entire point of Drive and how it was some artsy movie. There were so many ways he should have gotten arrested or held for at least interfering in an investigation. I don’t recommend you see it so I’ll just tell you. Throughout the movie, he slowly figures how to actually beat police to the scene so that he can rearrange evidence so it looks better on screen. He even gets blood on his sleeve and the news director he’s been selling to notices! But of course she doesn’t question it when he says it’s just a ketchup stain or something. Now media outlets these days may not be the most honest, but I like to think they’d still have some journalistic integrity with where they get their breaking footage from. What infuriated me even more was the last story he helped create in a way. A triple murder happened in a house right as he arrived at the scene. He then films the killers getting away, then proceeds to walk through the house filming weapons, bodies, you name it! And all the police apparently do is check up and believe his alibi on one go! Then when he later leads the police to where the killers are, he lets police and innocent civilians get killed just so he can get “the shot”. Which that same news station eats up without any hesitation! The police then question him about this too, believe his alibi with apparently no follow up, and he goes free! Then the ending was just the icing on the cake. Lesson of the movie is apparently lie and manipulate the news to get the story and you to can own your own independent news company! I would get started on the technical aspects like editing and the like, but it’s just as frustrating so there’s no need for me to say anything. Just stay away from this movie at any costs; unless you liked Drive, then this may be your cup of tea I guess.
