Nightcrawler is a 2014 drama-thriller about a man who will sink to any and all depths to make his American Dream come true.
With director Dan Gilroy’s latest movie in Velvet Buzzsaw less than three weeks away, what better time to delve back into the dirty world of his 2014 feature?
THE STORY: Freaks operate at night. Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a middle-aged individual living in Los Angeles, looking for a job. Lou is…off-kilter, yet the drive he possesses to pull himself up by the bootstraps is evident. All he needs is that opportunity that remains ever-elusive.
It isn’t until Bloom drives by after another failed “job interview” and makes a stop at the scene of a graphic car crash when the light bulb goes off in his head—capturing raw (pun intended) crime footage is the job for him. After asking for a position and being declined for it by well known “Nightcrawler” Joe Loder (Bill Paxton), Bloom decides to go into business himself. Hiring an assistant in Rick (Riz Ahmed) who he tasks with learning police codes and the best navigation routes, he goes wherever the story and crime scene take him. Operating under the mantra of “If it bleeds, it leads,” Lou makes it his mission to seize the most visceral content on recording, even if it means blurring the line between passive recorder and active role-player within it.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR: Gilroy’s directorial debut is nothing short of stellar. Almost five years later, Nightcrawler is still one of the more puzzling Oscar season omissions across various categories of recent memory, with extremely legitimate claims to be staked in its year for Best Actor (not up for debate, should have won), Best Supporting Actress (sneaky strong performance from Rene Russo), Best Director (there’s no wasted shot or motion here), and Best Score (James Newton Howard’s semi-heroic score is kind of bizarre but not when one realizes the story is being told from Lou’s point of view…he’s the hero!). At least it got one for Best Original Screenplay.
Gilroy’s version of L.A. isn’t glamorous, it’s grungy from the get-go and baked in black, gray, and dark green hues. The movie is a look at the news, and what makes its way on it. It is one thing to catch the big story and footage and to be first on the scoop, though the real power in that is being able to manipulate it to tell the desired narrative. Some key concepts here are the ideas of framing and leverage. Much like directing a movie, capturing something or lingering on an aspect in a specific way as opposed to another way will create a specific effect on the viewer. Add in some charged language, and you have sensationalism at its peak. His movie is darkly humorous, too.
Boil it down, and Nightcrawler is, first and foremost, a laser-focused character study, examining how low one will go to achieve The American Dream. Yes, there’s nothing necessarily novel about that, but the way it’s told in Nightcrawler feels vastly different than any other films telling the same story. Bloom is nasty, a man who exhibits sociopathic traits at minimum and psychopathic tendencies at maximum–and that’s just in the first ten minutes. In no way does Gilroy say we should be treating his lead character as an antihero, he is purely evil. But, we as an audience must respect him, because he’s what many aspire to be while lacking the gumption (and depravity, thankfully) to pull it off. He doesn’t wallow in his situation, he makes himself better. If he doesn’t know something, he learns it (everything is on the Internet, after all). By hook or by crook, Bloom is the Horatio Alger myth come to life.
A GREAT MOMENT: Way too many! The opening few minutes that show the malice of the lead character, the breakfast interview that sees Bloom hire Rick, the “heroic” scene that sees Bloom announce his passion regarding the news industry “(On TV it looks so real”), when Bloom rejects Loder’s attempt to hire him to his stringer squad, the second negotiation at dinner, and the final climatic car chase that does a better car chase than many action movies.
However, there’s one moment that stands above them all, and that is the third negotiation scene that immediately follows Bloom’s recording of a vicious triple murder in Granada Hills. Nightcrawler is a story about a lot of things, but it’s also a lesson in Negotiation 101, driving the point home that the true price of an item or service is what someone is willing to pay for it. Leverage is a powerful tool, and it’s one Bloom uses throughout the movie at the right times to enhance his wants.
Bloom begins with a high asking price for his footage of $100,000, which of course, is a ploy before settling on $15,000. When Nina refuses to go higher than $10,000, he’s fully prepared to walk and sell to the news station across the street, again, increasing his bargaining power and knowing Nina’s negotiating from a position of weakness. With her two-year performance review upcoming and with no ratings to show for it, her desperation is high in the 11th hour. As Lou anticipates, she reengages and offers $12K, but Lou sticks to his guns. And from here, knowing he holds all the cards, the proverbial s*** hits the fan.
Lou isn’t settling for just $15K. He’s an up-and-comer now, wanting to be treated as such. His demands are for his work to be recognized as Video Production News–a professional news gathering service, to formally be introduced to everyone on the news team to make his own personal connections, to stop discussion around prices for his contributions, and finally, for Nina to stop resisting his chosen things for what he wants to do when they’re alone together. The news producer has no choice but to comply.
This scene is a masterclass fusion of acting and direction. It starts with Gyllenhaal from a distance lurking the shadows, announcing what must happen to continue this alliance. As his chaotic-though-controlled monologue gets more intense and disturbing, he closes the proximity and emerges into the “light” with Gilroy slowly pulling the camera closer to his actor. In this instance, a metaphor comes to mind. Bloom is a shark smelling blood, circling the boat, and going for the kill.
THE TALLY: Nightcrawler is one of the decade’s best films; an absolute classic analytical satire of the news industry, and a compelling probe of a character with absolutely no morals. It’s What to Watch.