Nightcrawler, which recently marked its tenth anniversary, follows an unhinged stringer selling exclusive video footage to a news station.

It is not unfair to compare this film to the 1976 classic Oscar-winning satire, Network. Much like the satirical Network, Nightcrawler is the type of thriller that makes audiences think about things as the film moves along, frame by frame, into the Los Angeles underbelly late at night.

Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is the type of driven young man desperate for work. After coming across a car accident, he runs into a stringer, Joe Loder (Bill Paxton), and learns all about the world of crime journalism in LA. It’s the type of career where you have to work very fast and almost usually with another person. All one needs for the job is a camcorder/digital camera and a police scanner. It is not an easy job. In fact, it’s very dangerous. When nightcrawlers hear a police siren, money is probably the first thing that comes to mind. Not the victim or victims of crashes, fire or murder, etc., but the dollars and cents that he can make. It’s a cutthroat business where if you’re not first, you may as well be last.

Lou needs a few attempts to get himself going but eventually, he goes in the right direction. After his first success as a nightcrawler, he sells his footage to the KWLA 6–the fictional station’s exteriors belong to KTLA while interiors were filmed at the KCET Studios at the time. The station’s morning news director, Nina Romina (Rene Russo), informs Lou of her interest in graphic footage, especially in predominantly white area. This is the footage that can bring in ratings and get the station out of the doghouse. Getting the footage that Nina wants places Lou in situations where tampers with a crime scene or breaks into a home to get the right shot for the newscast. It’s almost as if he’s becoming the star of the story, much like Howard Beale in Network. One such instance comes during a fatal car crash on Mulholland Drive.

Gyllenhaal absolutely nails the performance and should have received an Oscar nomination for his performance. The actor describes Lou in the making-of featurette as being a coyote. “He’s the product of the idea of capitalism, which is success at any cost,” Gyllenhaal says of Lou. “That’s something that he believes in deeply and that he follows to the end.”

If it were up to me, Rene Russo would have received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Why she didn’t is beyond me. It’s a challenging role and not one that comes around all that often. The film’s only Oscar nomination is for the original screenplay by Russo’s husband, Dan Gilroy. AFI honored Nightcrawler as one of the top films of the year while the Academy overwhelmingly snubbed it. It just boggles the mind and leaves one perplexed just thinking about it.

Behind the camera, Dan Gilroy does certainly does his homework, researching what the stringers do during the night. He brings on a pair of brothers, Austin and Howard Ashbrook, to serve as consultants. They spent a few nights showing Dan and the cast what stringers do. Of course, Lou does things that they would never do–moving the bodies in the crime scene. Make no mistake that the film captures the adrenaline that comes with the job. The Ashbrooks describe the cutthroat business and the short of shots that they crave for their work. One might look at the film as evil succeeding but Gilroy looks at the film differently. What Gilroy does is tell a realistic and objective story. Here’s a guy with journalistic gifts and gets rewarded.

Los Angeles is very much a character in the film as much as the characters are themselves. In addition to Mulholland Drive, filmmakers take advantage of all that the city and surrounding area has to offer, be it a restaurant setting or just the panoramic views. Even at night, Los Angeles is still a city of lights. There’s also a beautiful shot of Gyllenhaal’s Bloom leaving the LAPD station with the Hollywood sign perfectly framed in the background.

DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER: Dan Gilroy
CAST: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed, and Bill Paxton

Open Road Films released Nightcrawler in theaters on October 31, 2014. Grade: 5/5

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