Nightcrawler Movie Review 348

Nightcrawler is a 2014 thriller directed by Dan Gilroy and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo and Bill Paxton.

Lou Bloom(Gyllenhaal) is a loser who has no prospects. He steals an expensive racing bike and pawns it in return for a video camera and a police scanner. He wants to film things that might be on interest to news stations and sell them. He needs to be on the scene of the accident or shooting before the cops get there and seal it off. He manages to get some footage and he approaches TV news director Nina(Russo) with his find. She is impressed with his footage and tells him to get her stuff and she will pay him well. He hires a down and out guy called Rick(Riz Ahmed) and tells him to do what he says and he will pay him.

Lou gets a fast car so he can be on the scene much quicker than the cops. He begins to become well known at the news station for his amazing footage. He has a rival ,though, called Joe(Paxton) and he wants to join with Lou or put him out of business. This backfires when Lou messes with his car and causes an accident in which Joe is injured which he then films.Lou begins to mess with crime scenes to get a better shot. He videos a home invasion and films the criminals and the dead bodies inside the house. He then follows the criminals and when they enter a restaurant, he calls the cops to tell them that they are inside, wanting a stand off between the cops and criminals which happens. Rick is a bit put off by this and Lou is not happy. Rick gets shot by one of the criminals and Lou films him!

The cops want the footage of the shootout, but Nina will not give it to them. She is sleeping with Lou and she is happy with the way things are.It turns out that it was not a home invasion, but a drug deal gone wrong, but Nina will not air that part of it as it would take away from the story. The cops talk to Lou but can't find out what really happened. Lou is a sensation after this and he gets more employees and two vans so he is going to  make his business even bigger!

This movie was interesting and it has a great performance by Gyllenhaal as the weirdo Lou. He plays the part well. The supporting cast were good too. It is well worth a watch if you enjoy a good thriller. I will give it 7/10.