Review: ‘Nightcrawler’

“Nightcrawler” is an intense little movie about some pretty big ideas. The media we consumer as a culture has to come from somewhere, and this movie focuses in on one particular part of our media, one that long ago has seen the ideal of “journalistic integrity” shredded to bits in the wake of advertising dollars and sweeps weeks ratings, that being the news, the people and companies tasked with dispensing information to the concerned public.

Like any other television program, your local news programs on the various networks are all vying for the same eyeballs, and it is a bit of a war when it comes to the ratings. And just like with any other programming entity, the better the ratings for the show, the higher the cost of advertising on said show. Get more people to watch your, show, get more money spent on your show, which means more money for the powers that be.

And it appears that much of the news programs have somehow honed in on the fact that they can exploit our nation’s fears by focusing on the violent crimes in the area and tying them all together. And when people get scared, they stay home, and they watch more television. And which news programs do they choose to watch? Well the ones with the best information, of course, with the “best” stories, which usually means worse stuff. It’s like we watch the news for the same reasons we watch horror movies, to be scared and then reassured that it wasn’t us who were hacked to death by a cholo gang in south Los Angeles, and it wasn’t us decapitated in some horrible desert by insane people, no sir, not us, we are home with our microwavable food and high def TVs and our smartphones and we are safe and sound, unharmed by the psychos and drunk drivers and drug dealers slowly yet surely creeping into our suburban neighborhoods.

“Nightcrawler” is a portrait of some of the people who are at the center of this exploitation, and sure enough the main character is portrayed as a sociopath, which I am sure the folks actually working in the news really appreciate. Or maybe they get it. Who knows. The movie introduces us to unemployed Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), in the midst of stealing metal to sell to a scrap yard, and right away we learn about how this guy is a deceptive piece of shit, but also a hustler and something of a go getter. Actually, if more people had his kind of initiative and work ethic, we’d be a lot farther in this world. But hopefully they leave the more terrible tendencies of this Lou Bloom fella behind. Or maybe that’s the point? Because this guy sees everything as a business, a political world in which to maneuver, a giant chess game in which power moves are often made, so when he sees a way to advance his own goals and ambitions, he will not hesitate to do so even at the expense of others, whether he is close to them or not. This Lou Bloom guy is kind of a monster. A weirdly charming yet still somewhat off putting monster.

When Lou Bloom finds out that he can videotape victims of horrible accidents and violent crimes and then get PAID for that footage by news stations looking for clips for their daily shows, he jumps headlong into the profession, learning on the go and starting his own company out of his beat up Toyota Tercel. He drives around Los Angeles and learns the ropes, meeting other people working the same job, he hires his own assistant, and by breaking a few rules here and there that others aren’t willing to break, he gets some great footage of horrible crime scenes, he gets closer than anyone else, he gets better shots, and this all results in more money for everyone involved. And Lou realizes this, and he tests his leverage at the news station and finds way to expand his tiny little empire of horrors. He lies, openly manipulates, threatens, does whatever he has to do to get what he wants, and he has wide psycho eyes the entire time.

Bloom also takes bigger and bigger risks in his pursuit of the ultimate true crime footage to the point where his ethics and judgement are obviously beyond compromised, as his decisions get him closer and closer to danger as well as the wrong side of the law, and part of the thrill of this movie is watching this insane person get away with so much stuff and to see how far he can take this thing before it could all possibly come crashing down around him. And the way the inner workings of the news station is presented is a little more in line with a satire like “Network” as opposed to something like “Broadcast News,” what with the overly bloodthirsty news manager and the presentation of a very underhanded and sinister way of doing business that involves MUCH compromise. But while some of this does feel very over the top and skewed from reality, it also has a hint of truth, it feels as if something like this COULD happen, like this is a possible future.

But while all of this is going on, the movie still works if you ignore a lot of this stuff and just watch it as a thriller about a guy who gets in deeper and deeper into something none of us know anything about, hence murky waters made even murkier by Lou Bloom’s actions. Much of the movie takes place at night, and nighttime Los Angeles definitely has a unique feel, one that just works for movies like this, with the wide open streets and the hillside views of the expansive city laid out beneath them, full of possibilities and opportunities and people just waiting to be maimed by other people. These dark streets have a menace to them, a palpable sense of danger, made more dangerous by the presence of the movie’s lead character, and it all makes for a wild ride of a movie, one that will be very interesting to revisit down the road.