Review: âNightcrawlerâ cuts it close in its dark look at local TV news

Kenneth Turan reviews âNightcrawlerâ Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton. Video by Jason H. Neubert.
âNightcrawlerâ is pulp with a purpose. A smart, engaged film powered by an altogether remarkable performance by Jake Gyllenhaal, it is melodrama grounded in a disturbing reality, an extreme scenario that is troubling because it cuts close to the bone.
The theme of âNightcrawler,â written and directed by Dan Gilroy, is the excesses of the âif it bleeds, it leadsâ culture of local television news, a world where the words âwhat you are about to see is graphicâ are both a warning and a come-on.
But the main attraction of this film is not what goes on behind the scenes at Los Angelesâ fictional KWLA, Channel 6, but rather an examination of the character and career trajectory of one Lou Bloom, the young man in a hurry that Gyllenhaal brings to life with extraordinary conviction.
A hollow-eyed, delusional hustler always looking for the main chance, Lou is introduced doing a pair of typical things: breaking the law and trying to talk his way out of it with practiced glibness.
A determined autodidact who âhas not had much of what youâd call a formal education,â Lou has schooled himself on the Internet, and it shows in the earnest insincerity of the self-improvement phraseology he often resorts to, as when he tells a prospective employer, âI know that todayâs work culture no longer caters to the job loyalty that could be promised to earlier generations.â Itâs almost as if he were born on a galaxy far away and being human is something of an acquired skill.
Gyllenhaal has been memorable in the past (âBrokeback Mountain,â âEnd of Watch,â âPrisonersâ), but, as impeccably written by Gilroy (whose credits include co-writing âThe Bourne Legacyâ with brother Tony), his Lou is a creature apart.
Extremely friendly on the surface, Louâs mesmerizing cheerfulness is scarier than other peopleâs anger because, as with Robert De Niroâs Travis Bickle in âTaxi Driver,â there is unmistakable mania lurking around the edges, if not closer.
Untroubled by other peopleâs definitions of reality, Lou burns with a terrible and terrifying desperation. We never find out why he is this way, but we do come to understand that there is nothing he is not capable of, no line he will not cross if he feels it will get him where he wants to go.
It all begins on a random night, when Lou stumbles across a freeway car accident and notices Joe Loder (an expert Bill Paxton) and another cameraman for the aptly named Mayhem Video.
These men are freelance videographers who trawl the streets of L.A. looking for any and all violent situations and sell the resulting footage to ever-hungry local TV stations. This is a world Lou never knew existed, and you can almost feel the gears moving into place: Hey, this is something I could do.
Lou acquires, never mind how, a camcorder and a police scanner, and heâs in business. Sort of. So new heâs never heard the word âstringerâ and doesnât understand what he should be filming, Lou catches a break when he connects with Nina Romina (Rene Russo in one of her best roles).
A woman of a certain age, Nina is KWLAâs news director for the dusk-to-dawn hours known as the vampire shift. Desperate in her own way, she recognizes a kindred spirit in Lou, as well as a good eye, and she fills him in on the kind of footage sheâs looking for.
âI want something people canât turn away from,â she says. The key word is not bloody but âgraphic,â the victims should be well-off and white. âThink of our newscast,â she concludes, âas a screaming woman running down the street with her throat cut.â
âIâve always been a fast learner,â Lou replies, nothing daunted. âYouâll be seeing me again.â And so the journey begins.
Though he can barely support himself, Louâs first move is to brazen it out and acquire an assistant, the hapless Rick (a splendid Riz Ahmed, compelling in âThe Reluctant Fundamentalistâ and âClosed Circuitâ), who is persuaded to come on as a nonpaid intern.
âIâm giving you the chance to explore career options and gain insight into my organization,â Lou says, though his organization doesnât exist. âItâs not at all unusual for me to make full-time job offers to my interns,â who are also nonexistent.
As Lou makes his way, upgrading his chase car from a blue Toyota Tercel to a red Dodge Challenger, Gilroyâs lean, straight-ahead direction pulls us along with him, aided by the editing of John Gilroy (another brother) and cool, seductive cinematography by the veteran Robert Elswit (an Oscar winner for âThere Will Be Bloodâ) that makes Los Angeles look like the dream and the nightmare rolled into one.
Despite the melodrama that increases as âNightcrawlerâ moves to a conclusion, there is no denying that something real is in the wind here, something about us as a society, how we talk and what we value. No matter what we think of Lou and his exploits, it is hard to deny that the world he thrives in is the one we have made.
Twitter: @KennethTuran
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