Thursday, November 20, 2014
Monday, November 10, 2014
Nightcrawler (2014)
Nightcrawler (2014)
Director: Dan Gilroy
Cast: Jake Gyllenhal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton
Nightcrawler came out of nowhere for me, I had no idea who
was behind it, who made it, who wrote it, I didn’t even know it was in
production. But then I saw a trailer and I was immediately hooked. The premise
alone got me; the idea of a guy who takes matters into his own hands and starts
filming things that happen on the streets, capturing footage of moments on the
spot, seconds after they’d happened, or sometimes as they are happening, sometimes
getting there before the cops or the fire men themselves, it just seemed like a very original
concept to me. I mean, speaking about the media, we all know how news is manipulated
to shape the way the masses perceive things. I personally despise how the media
is always fear mongering. Example, I turned on the television the other day and
right there in words that caught practically half of the screen where the words
‘Fear’ and ‘Ebola’, with no other words on the screen. I was like wow, that’s
what their selling now. That’s what they want people to fear now, but is this
an actual epidemic? Or are they deviating the publics attention from things
that really matter in the world? A few months down the line it’ll be some other
fear; the trick is to keep us in a state of panic without focusing on things
that are truly important. So a film in which someone wants to capture the news himself seemed so interesting to me. Did Nightcrawler
deliver the goods?
The story focuses on Louis Bloom, a common thief with
delusions of grandeur. Louis is a smart guy, he educates himself by reading a
lot, the problem is that he’s kind of nuts. Actually, the guy is full blown
nuts. He’s the kind of guy that a few minutes into the conversation, you realize
he’s completely bonkers, but boy, what a character! So anyhow, when we first
meet him he’s stealing manholes and watches to sell them for scraps, until he
stumbles upon this guy who films video footage so he can sell it to the local
news channel. Suddenly, like an epiphany, Louis realizes that he can make more
money doing this as well. So he gets himself a camera and starts shooting
footage of car accidents and fires, with the footage being as graphic as
possible. Soon he starts making some money and growing. He starts to get
ambitious, how far is he willing to go to make it the top?
One thing I like about movies like this one is how they feel
like a jolt of electricity because they speak the truth because they aim their
guns at something that’s happening in society, something that’s real. The media is of course being controlled, so is
music and films, this is probably why most films are so watered down and silly,
the Motion Picture Association of America holds a firm grip on the type of
films that are being released in cinemas, same goes for the news we see in the
newspapers and on television. They focus only on certain things, on things they
want us to think about. There’s this amazing scene in Nightcrawler in which the
producer of the news show (played by Rene Russo) is feeding the news anchors
the words that they have to emphasize during their broadcast. The word fear and
panic popped up more than once. The question that popped in my head was: just
how much of what news anchors say are their own words? The answer is zero, they
read everything. Everything is filtered, chosen for them. But this is just one
of the themes the film addresses, we’re talking about a very layered film here.
A few movies came to mind while watching this one, but one
of the first ones to pop up was of course Taxi Driver (1976), because the main
character is a loner roaming the streets at night, slowly going insane because
of society and the way things are. But unlike Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, Louis Bloom doesn't try to change the world, instead, like a vampire, he wants to feed off of it. What kind of person is society breeding?
Louis Bloom is a good example, here’s a desperate character without a formal
education, but willing to learn and do what he’s got to do to survive in this
crazy world. He’s ambitious, but ambition and greed have corrupted his soul, so
here we have a guy willing to do anything to make it to the top, even if what
he has to do is morally unacceptable. But then you get to thinking, arent these the kind of people that make it to the top anyways? Louis Bloom builds his own
small enterprise, he becomes the boss of his own imaginary corporation, and he
treats his only employee the way most big corporations treat their employees,
like shit; with little benefits or remuneration for their work, yet exploiting
them as much as possible. So in a strange way, Louis becomes the mirror image
of corporate America. You think Louis Bloom is wrong in the way he treats
people? Then you think most big corporations are, because to me they are one
and the same in this movie.
How awesome is Jake Gyllenhal in this movie? I’d say his
performance is Oscar worthy stuff, I hope he gets it. It’s one of those career
defining pieces, where the actor will never be the same after it, so here’s
hoping. It’s been interesting seeing Gyllenhal grow as an actor. I’ve been
following his career since his early days, when he blew me away with Donnie
Darko (2001). Gyllenhal, you’ve come a long way baby, many kudos to you for
this performance, hopefully we’ll see you Oscar night. So anyhow, his
performance will blow you away, or send chills down your spine. You might even
find yourself cheering him on at one point? At others you’ll totally despise
him, at others you might pity him, he’s a very ambiguous character with many
sides to him. Certainly not someone we want to emulate, but at the same time,
you have to admit his character does say certain truths about life and the
world we live in; is Louis Bloom a mad prophet of our times? You be the judge.
The way it was shot, and the way it looks, Nightcrawler has
this weird thing about it, it feels like a film from the 70’s. It’s also like a
film from the 70’s because it reminded me of that time when movies weren’t
worried about being politically correct and were more concerned with saying
something that matters, something relevant about society. The 70’s were a time
when movies still had an edge to them, and Nightcrawler has that edge. It speaks
of the desperate times we’re living in, where people are struggling to “make
it”, struggling to dig themselves out of the proverbial hole, doing anything
necessary to make ends meet. Sad part is that it’s the economy and the way
society is constructed that pushes people to live this way. I enjoyed that
rawness about Nightcrawler; it feels real, genuine and alive. It reminded me a
bit of Sydney Lumet’s Network (1976) because it has to do with the dissemination
of news to the masses and because it speaks the truth about the dog eat dog
world we’re living in. If we’re not careful, we’ll turn into Louise Bloom, a
desperate individual, willing to step on anybody to make it to the top.
Rating: 5 out of 5
