Nighcrawler - Movie Review

                

         

          

            In modern times, few movies that come out are actually, truly, great films. Yes, there have been films even this year that I have said are great movies. But among The Lego Movie, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Captain America: The Winter Solider, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Edge ofTomorrow, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Gone Girl, none are truly fantastic films. However, I do stand by my statement that they are all great for their genre. What I believe to be a great movie in what it goes for in its genre and a truly great film are two different things. Film critic Roger Ebert had a very profound definition of a great film, and I analyze that to be a film that goes beyond being a piece of entertainment and into a study on something; a statement about something, perhaps. There was one movie which came out earlier this year that I would consider a great film, and that movie is Snowpiercer. Nightcrawler is also truly great film.

            Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a thief who does many illegal things and earns money for a living off of selling random things. He has no career and no real job. However, he is a very smart man, maybe even a genius. And when he sees that people are making money by finding events in which people are gravely hurt using a police scanner and filming them to sell to the news, he takes that up and it leads him down a dark path.

            As I just said, Bloom is an incredibly intelligent man. But he has some very odd views. He thinks of life in a very straightforward, pro-or-con, way. When he decides to do something, it is because it would affect him positively. When he is thinking about doing something illegal or “morally wrong,” he does it if the positives generated from it outweigh the risks of doing it. He doesn’t really care about other people is does not show much emotion. He basically turns everything into a mathematical equation.

            This film can offer many thrills to the audience, as it did to me, but the film is not made specifically for its thrills, but it’s made as a character study on Louis Bloom and a social commentary on several things. But I cannot go in-depth about them, because they don’t really come into play until the very end of the movie, and it’s easiest to discern them after viewing the movie. Since I would like you to be able to experience these things yourself, I will not talk about my analysis on the film’s themes. All I will say is that it gives you a possible insight on media and some new ideas about how business really works and what life can possibly be about. Does the movie condone some of the actions of its main character? No. But the movie raises questions, and could thought to be asking them itself, on the success of Bloom. Does the director/writer think Bloom is smart or insane? That is for us, the audience to decide.

            Many of the moral punishments of the film are put on the audience to decide, and that is reflected in the conclusion of the film. See, this isn’t quite a normal movie. It does not have the same plot structure - beginning, middle, and end - that most films do. The focus of Nightcrawler is not on its plot, but on its character. And that is one of the things that make it a great film. Much of the attention is given to Louis Bloom, and that is how the themes are entered into the movie. The themes do remain subtle, but not so subtle that you need to view the film six times to find out what one shot means.

            As far as the technical aspects behind the production of the movie go, we have all positives. For one, Dan Gilroy does a very great job directing the movie. It looks authentic and real with a great vision of the big city - especially at night. Because he also wrote the film, he had a great idea about the social commentary he wanted to put into it, so he could focus on the character and create a dark tone that coincides with the messages. He also does a very good job at using the camera to give us information. He has a unique style of directing, and he is able to make every scene his own. Lastly, Gilroy creates an even pace that retains throughout the entire movie.

            Jake Gyllenhaal gives a top-notch excellent performance, which is probably the best of his career. He gives every single line as if he is the character, and after a while, I started seeing the character more than I did the actor. Gyllenhaal is able to sell every single scene and performances excellently under Gilroy’s direction. He seems so natural in the movie that it’s almost shocking how good he is at the start of the film. Although none of the performances are bad, Jake Gyllenhaal’s leading one more-or-less carries the entire movie.

            Last to mention is the script. As I said earlier, because Dan Gilroy wrote and directed the film, he was able to include his ideas in both the script and the direction. And the dialogue is fantastic. It is so realistic, but also very original. The film does not create its own boundaries, it just goes in. Gilroy uses his writing to make the movie seem so real. The plot does not exactly move quickly, so there is not a bunch of stuff going on all at once. The movie takes a lot of time to lock in its themes that would later be expressed. And because of this, it seems so real that when events take place near the end, it’s shocking to point of which it seems like they are, actually, happening. With an unconventional plot, an incredible main character, and excellent dialogue, a fantastic script is created.

            Nightcrawler is definitely a great movie. It goes beyond being a piece of entertainment and emerges into a piece of art. The direction, script, and lead performance work together to create many ideas and introduce a social commentary. The only thing I can really say is “wrong” with the film is that at some times it does meander and some enjoyment was lost, but that’s it, and those times were rare due to Dan Gilroy’s good pacing job. I loved Nightcrawler and urge anyway reading this to go out and see the movie in theaters.