Nightcrawler

nightcrawler

Like some ill-conceived spawn of Rupert Pupkin, the crazed comic stalker from Marty Scorsese’s The King of Comedy, Louis Bloom, the “spanning the spectrum” psycho protagonist of NIGHTCRAWLER, is a full blown passive aggressive whose soft spoken and polite manner masks a monstrous manipulator.

From the opening scene we glimpse Louis’ predatory personality as he ekes out a living as an opportunistic thief before stumbling upon a career path that suits his coyote cunning and misanthropic mien, that of the mongrel newshound .

Unlike the paparazzi who prey on personalities, these night crawlers are basically ambulance chasers sent salivating to car crashes, fires, and any kind of mayhem to satisfy the insatiable appetite for the salacious by tabloid television.

Following the mantra of “if it bleeds, it leads”, these catechists of catastrophe and cataclysm have their ears cocked to police scanners and their eyes peeled for disaster as they prowl and pinball from one place of mishap to another.

Jake Gyllenhaal is chilling as the sociopath Louis, wide eyed tunnel visioned scary monster super creep. Self-educated by way of the internet, a chilling example of rote learning diminishing social skills, retarding empathy and eroding any moral boundaries.

To achieve top echelon in the kerb crawling, gutter sniping business he’s shown such acumen in, Louis is not averse to setting up stories, rearranging murder scenes for a better photographic frame and putting colleagues in harm’s way.

Written and directed by Dan Gilroy, edited by his brother John Gilroy, and shot by Academy award winning cinematographer Robert Elswit, whose use of wide angles and a vivid colour palette brings this almost completely nocturnal world to palpable, visceral life, NIGHTCRAWLER also boasts a terrific performance by Gilroy’s wife, Rene Russo, as a TV station news director who employs Louis, full pays him and then falls prey to him.

It’s a portrayal that recalls Faye Dunaway’s Oscar winning turn in Network, kindred spirits in the pursuit of ratings, no matter what the cost.