View
3
Download
0
Category
Preview:
Citation preview
In Memoriam 1 942 – 201 3 |
REVIEWSREVIEWS
N IGH TCRAWLERN IGH TCRAWLER
Print Page
143LikeLike
4
TweetTweet 54
| Matt Zoller SeitzOctober 31, 2014 | � 36
Dan Gilroy's thriller "Nightcrawler" is about about an amateur cameraman who parlays his eye and his nerve into a successful smallbusiness, deceiving, manipulating and exploiting everyone who stands in his way. Shot by Paul Thomas Anderson's regularcinematographer Robert Elswit through what could be a Night Vision Rot filter, it's a film about how sociopaths get over oneveryone else, and a portrait of a disturbed, marginal loner that would fit perfectly on a double bill with "Taxi Driver" and "Henry:Portrait of a Serial Killer." It's also a media satire in the spirit of "Network" and "To Die For" that takes the slogan "If it bleeds, itleads" to its horrifyingly logical conclusion. It's a comedy.
The movie's hero, Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), is a man living on the fringes. He's first seen trying to cut through a chain-link fenceto steal scrap that he can sell for pocket money. While driving late at night, he happens upon cameramen filming a car wreck. He asks the lead cameraman(Bill Paxton) what TV station they work for, and learns that they're freelancers who monitor police radios, chase down wrecks and fires and homicides, andsell their video footage to the highest bidder. The rates aren't great, but they're better than what Lou is used to, so he buys a camera and gets in on theaction.
This leads him to a local station whose news director, Nina Romina (Rene Russo), has been up and down the dial, as a certain sitcom's theme song once sang,and needs to raise her newscast out of last place to keep from getting fired. Any idealism she had was ground out of her years ago; only desperation remains,and she speaks frankly to Lou from the moment she meets him, sensing a kindred spirit. (She has no idea how kindred: soon enough he'll cajole, pressure andeven scare her into unleashing her own inner Lou.) Nina tells him to avoid covering crime in poor or nonwhite neighborhoods because nobody cares about it;the sexiest crime stories are ones involving affluent white folks. At one point she flat-out tells Lou that the newscast's aesthetic could be boiled down the theimage of "a screaming woman running down the street with her throat cut." The newscasters' warning "These are extremely graphic images" is not, ofcourse, a warning; it's a come-on.
Sensing a golden opportunity, Lou feeds Nina footage that's more artless than the stuff offered by other local crews, but much bloodier. It starts with shotsof a domestic killing that he obtained by sneaking past crime tape and wandering around inside the gore-strewn house (blurred by Nina's technicians, butonly because they're required to blur it) and escalates, to the point where Lou is subtly goosing circumstances in order to produce more violence and chaoswhich he can then tape and sell. Lou and his easily cowed assistant, Rick (Riz Ahmed), breach barriers they aren't supposed to breach, and get close enoughto police investigators and firefighters and EMT's that they break their concentration and sometimes interfere with their work, but their literally in-your-face footage sets them apart from teams that film from a discreet distance, with a zoom lens.
Lou is also a sick person who, on first glance, might strike you as a reasonable, personable guy. He talks like a Tom Cruise go-getter from a 1980s hit—acomparison furthered by certain filmmaking choices, such as the "inspirational" montages of Lou hustling toward success while James NewtonHoward's triumphant retro synth-pop pounds in our eardrums. The hero gets a number of Stick-it-to-the-Man applause lines, the best of which is a kiss-offto a rival who has figured out that Lou is for real and wants to co-opt him rather than compete with him. "I feel like grabbing you by the ears right now and
R O G E R E B E R T . C O MR O G E R E B E R T . C O M
Choose a Section
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
screaming, 'I'm not fucking interested,'" Lou tells him, in the sort of tone one might reserve for, "What are your store hours?" or "I'll have a mushroomomelet, cooked with very little butter."
But it would be a mistake to suggest that "Nightcrawler" is told from Lou's point-of-view, much less that it endorses his behavior. It's too attuned to theanxiety and misery of the people he manipulates to validate such a reading. But it does put a subtle editorial frame around Lou's odyssey. "Nightcrawler" isthe blackly comedic, Neo-noir, night-people thriller that I wanted the Travis-Bickle-as-Superman fantasy "Drive" to be. Like "Drive," it could be describedas the best picture Michael Mann never made: a film about a private, ruthless loner who pursues his dream his way, always, and whose path through theworld is marked by the bloodstains of the people he's rolled over.
This is a classic film, not just because every scene and line is casually beautiful and devoid of extraneous touches, but because its tone is mercilesslyexact. Gilroy, a first-time feature director who has written or cowritten many movies, including "The Bourne Supremacy," knows what he wants to say, andhow to say it. He maintains just the right amount of distance from Lou, so that we get a buzz from his audacity while finding him revolting. We're not so muchlooking down on Lou as peering into an abyss that exists, to some degree, within everyone: the lightless home of that little voice that whispers, "You've justgotta do what makes you happy," and "It is easier to ask forgiveness than permission."
There's a lively satirical aspect, and it's not confined to TV news or journalism in general, or even the modern, social media-driven culture of continuoussurveillance and voyeurism. The entire film is, among other things, an attempt to treat certain American myths straightforwardly, within the context of asomewhat realistic drama, the better to pursue them to their bitter conclusion. It's warning against being fooled (in life) by people who remind us of can-do-All-American-hotshot heroes in fiction: incarnations of apple pie capitalism who see what they want (fame, money, a job, a mate), and go after it, and refuseto take no for an answer, even if the "no" is delivered through tears.
That tabloid journalism rewards the shameless doesn't count as a breaking news flash, but "Nightcrawler" is not interested in stoking our outrage over whatwe already know. It's using TV news as a means to an end—to show how a man who presents as "normal," even "likable" and "motivated" and "capable," canbe evil, and seduce us into being evil, too. Lou's inspirational aphorisms are chillingly funny once you realize they're devoid of generosity and decency, andthat he sees other people only as possessions, allies or obstructions: "I believe that good things come to those who work their asses off." "Television newsmight be something I love as well as something I'm good at." Primitive cultures believe a photograph can steal a soul. This man is a master thief.
More Reviews and a Few Great Offers!
FREE Galaxy S4 with innovative camera and fitness monitoring. New 2yr agreement req’d
Ads by Adblade
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
14 Benefits Most Seniors Didn’t Know They Had
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
15 Most Shocking Celebrity Transformations...
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
These smoking hot body paint pictures have readers asking, "Do I see what I think I see?"
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
29 of The Most Well Endowed in Hollywood!
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
POPULAR BLOG POSTSPOPULAR BLOG POSTS
Who do you read? Good Roger, or Bad Roger? Roger Ebert
This message came to me from a reader named Peter Sv ensland. He and a fr...
Mike Leigh, a smartphone, and mace Steven Boone
A report from the macing incident at y esterday 's AFI screening.
Video games can never be art Roger Ebert
Hav ing once made the statement abov e, I hav e declined all opportunities to ...
Walking Ghosts: Starz’s Brilliant New Drama “The Missing” Brian Tallerico
A rev iew of Starz's new mini-series "The Missing."
POPULAR REVIEWSPOPULAR REVIEWS
Shocking! The Government Does Not Want You To Know What We Discovered...
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
Foxcatcher� � �
Interstellar� � � �
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
The Theory of Everything� � �
Dumb and Dumber To� �
WATCH THIS MOVIEWATCH THIS MOVIEFandango
Powered by GoWatchIt
Reveal Comments
NIGHTCRAWLER (2014)NIGHTCRAWLER (2014)CastJake Gyllenhaal as Lou
Rene Russo as Nina
Riz Ahmed as Rick
Bill Paxton as Joe
WriterDan Gilroy
DirectorDan Gilroy
CinematographyRobert Elswit
Crime, Drama, ThrillerRated R for violence including graphic images, and for language117 minutes
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MAILING LISTSUBSCRIBE TO OUR MAILING LISTEnter Your Email Address
Subscribe
The Ebert Club is our hand-pickedselection of content for Ebert fans. Youwill receive a weekly newsletter full ofmovie-related tidbits, articles, trailers,even the occasional streamable movie.Club members also get access to ourmembers-only section onRogerEbert.com
Premiere Member : $20.00USD - yearly
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
by Matt Fagerholm
RELATED ARTICLESRELATED ARTICLES
THUMBNAILS 11/7/14THUMBNAILS 11/7/14
IN THEATERSIN THEATERS
�REVIEWS RSSREVIEWS RSS
Bad Turn Worse
Beyond the Lights
Dumb and Dumber To
Foxcatcher
Miss Meadows
Rosewater
Saving Christmas
Starry Eyes
The Homesman
Wolves
Page1
Page2
Page3
Page4
Page5
Page6
Page7
Page8
�� � �
� � � �
� �
� � �
�
� � �
�
� � �
� � � �
� �
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
MOVIE REVIEWSReviews
Great Movies
BLOGSRoger Ebert's Journal
Chaz's BlogMZS
Tom Shales At LargeFar Flungers
Scanners
CHANNELSCannes
DemandersInterviews
Opening Shots ProjectFestivals & Awards
SundanceBalder and DashTributes to Roger
LettersThumbnails
Life Itself
Roger EbertChaz Ebert
Matt Zoller SeitzBrian TallericoSimon Abrams
Godfrey CheshireOdie Henderson
Glenn KennyChristy LemireSheila O'Malley
Susan WloszczynaAli Arikan
Jim BeaverSteven BooneDanny BowesDave BuntingSean Burns
Dan CallahanChristopher Campbell
Jen ChaneySeongyong ChoOlivia Collette
Edward CopelandBrian Doan
Aurore DuiguoJustine Elias
Steve EricksonMatt FagerholmSam FragosoBruce Fretts
Michael A. GonzalesIan Grey
Scott Jordan Harris
CONTRIBUTORS
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
Rowan KaiserWael Khairy
Ben KenigsbergJoyce KulhawikKevin B. Lee
Donald LiebensonCraig D. LindseyLaya Maheshwari
Marsha McCreadiePatrick Z. McGavin
Nell MinowMichael Mirasol
Jana MonjiOmar Moore
Omer M. MozaffarLisa Nesselson
Scott NyeMichał OleszczykR. Kurt Osenlund
Kartina RichardsonAlyssa Rosenberg
Lisa RosmanNick Schager
Barbara ScharresCharlie Schmidlin
Tom ShalesKrishna Bala Shenoi
Peter SobczynskiBill Stamets
Scout TafoyaReBecca Theodore-Vachon
Katherine TulichGerardo Valero
Pablo VillaçaIgnatiy Vishnevetsky
Grace WangAnath WhiteMax Winter
© Copyright 2014, Ebert Digital LLC
About the Site Contact Us Privacy Policy Terms of Use
Movies by Letter Cast and Crew
LikeUson
FollowUson
RSSFeeds
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
Recommended