Poor Man’s American Psycho, If it’s older brother didn’t exist, this movie would have no shadow to stand in
★★★★☆
Jake Gyllenhaal, to me, is one of the most underrated actors we have working today. I know that’s a weird way to lead off a review, but I want to make sure that everyone reads that sentence before getting bored by the rest of this. Nightcrawler is just one more movie that helps me forget that he ever decided to make Bubble Boy. Jake’s got a serious case of Jude Law syndrome. We forget how good they can be because they too often play handsome leading men in roles that don’t ask them to act the part, just to look it. But, Gyllenhaal has always turned in his best performances in creepy roles like the titular character in Donnie Darko and like Louis Bloom in Nightcrawler.
Nightcrawler is a 2014 movie starring Gyllenhaal and the directorial debut of Dan Gilroy. It is a movie about Louis Bloom (Gyllenhaal) finding his passion as a stringer, a videographer who specializes in racing around cities late at night looking for gruesome stories to capture for the morning news. These stringers, as they are called, use police scanners to try and arrive at the scenes first to get a scoop on car accidents, murders, etc. in an attempt to sell the tape to whatever morning news station is willing to pay the highest price. Bloom meets one of these stringers in the film’s first act and decides to join their ranks.
The backdrop of LA after dark aids this movie’s twisted world view, but it really is all driven home by Gyllenhaal’s amazing performance as Bloom. Bloom is a sociopath in the truest sense of the word. He does not care for nor tolerate the unwritten rules of society. He’s not even that fond of the written rules either. He travels from murder to murder in attempt to grow his business and his brand. He manipulates people for money, for sex, and mostly because he seems to kind of enjoy it. He lets nothing get in the way of accomplishing his goals and does it all while spouting life lessons that harken back to 90’s personal success seminars.
Gyllenhaal is not the first person to play a sociopath on the big screen. Christian Bale played Patrick Bateman. Anthony Hopkins played Hannibal Lecter. Malcolm McDowell played Alex DeLarge. We have a weird fascination with sociopathy. They are larger-than-life figures that walk among us. The can look down and see the rest of us the way we look down and see ants. Sociopaths are modern day demi-gods. We need something that isn’t quite human to tell certain stories. We use them, because they are more relatable than aliens or mythological creatures. These characters are forces of nature walking around in human form. They all possess amazing abilities in their own right, but it’s their lack of empathy and relentless drive that sets them apart. They are outside observers they may blend into the crowd but to them, that would be the biggest defeat of all. Wasted potential is a fate worse than death to many of these characters. I had no trouble coming up with that list above because I too love these movies.
Gyllenhaal turned in a performance as Louis Bloom that will go down on that list one day. His mannerisms and calm demeanor as he walks through a world that bends to his every whim will stick with me for some time to come. Bloom (and by extension Gyllenhaal) doesn’t start racking up the body count of a Patrick Bateman. He has no over the top scene-chewing lines like Hannibal Lecter. His motivation isn’t murder or cannibalism, it is much more grounded. That’s what makes him so terrifying. A sociopath is limited by his ability to blend into society and Gyllenhaal gives us a man who raises so few red flags. He could be your weird upstairs neighbor and you would never know the difference. It’s a delicate balance of polite and crazy that really give Bloom his ick factor and that all runs through Gyllenhaal’s performance.
I didn’t talk about the plot of this movie a lot, and that’s because at the end of the day it’s a character study. It seems baffling to me that Gilroy was up for best screenplay (which was deserved) but Gyllenhaal wasn’t up for best leading actor for this role. If you love these characters as much as I do, than do yourself a favor and check out Nightcrawler sooner rather than later.
Nightcrawler is available for streaming on Netflix.
Next week, David takes on Harold and Maude, which might be the complete opposite movie from Nightcrawler. I just recently watched this movie and I kinda fell in love with it. I think I have a soft spot for any movie that includes ‘If You Want to Sing Out.”
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