There’s a wicked, almost palpable joy I get upon seeing the cold blooded Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) skate through his personal sales pitch. He promotes himself exactly as I imagine my father wanted me to promote myself – march right up to the owner, be firm, direct and insist you have whatever qualifications he’s looking for; don’t take “no” for an answer. This “all you have to do is assert yourself, son” is a common mantra of a certain generation for whom jobs were obviously easier to come by [read: or were big fat liars]. This half-assed brick-wall advice usually came with the added, “just pick out something you like to do, then figure out how to make money from it.” If every American followed this advice, we’d be the poorest nation on earth. Despite the big talk, I don’t believe more than 1/10th of 1% of American men on the mid-20th century ever got a job with this behavior. And, just in case you were curious, aggressive personal salesmanship has no place in the 21st Century. None.
The joy I derive comes from the above is that Nightcrawler believes this antiquated confrontational behavior is actually more common of sociopaths than well-adjusted human beings. As Louis slowly reveals he has neither soul nor conscience, his behavior is not just indicative of a socially self-destructive manner of being, it is indicative of a man completely cut off from human emotion and morality. This is one Hell of a character study.
The aptly titled Nightcrawler suggests a nocturnal parasitic insect preying upon the weak. This isn’t far from the people who bring you the images you see on the news. Fresh from beating up a security guard and failing to land a job from the buyer of his stolen supplies, Louis stops to see two men rescue a woman from a burning vehicle. His fascination switches targets when a van pulls up and two men hop out to film the action. Hey, now there’s a profession!
Louis, a self-professed “quick study,” rapidly makes a career lucrative enough to take on staff (Riz Ahmed). Rick is in charge of navigation and securing the car, but the more we 
learn about Louis, the more we realize Rick is just a bug caught in a wind tunnel. At first, it seems Louis just has boundary issues – he films too close to gunshot victims; he has no regard for police tape. The more we see of him, however, the more we realize just how much “Lou” is divorced from all emotion. There is no move he makes that isn’t calculated or considered, and no move he finds too ballsy. Happen upon a crime scene? Gunshots into a kitchen? Sure, go ahead and enter the house. The door’s open. Film what you want. Take what you want. Stage what you want. That’s right, move the family photo in between the bullet holes on the fridge. More sensational, bigger payday. Caluclulate exactly how long you have to wait to insure the biggest payday from the nightshift news director Nina (Rene Russo).
I haven’t even come close to giving away too much. It’s quite disaffecting seeing the google-eyed Gyllenhaal play a man so … creepy. He’s supposed to be a guy you root for, right? Louis is the kind of guy who would be a cold blooded serial killer if murder was his hobby. It’s almost a shame it isn’t.
♪He was a little too pale
Could’ve used a few rays
Tight with money while makin’ the craze
L.A.’s a city with big dark crime
And leeches to score off it ev’ry time
Every.single.time
Out on the freeway where traffic got tangled
Filming the scenes where somebody got mangled
Lookin’ for a paycheck without payin’ dues
Workin’ for the night news
Profitin’ from any random stranger’s blues
Filmin’ for the night news
In the outer circle of Hell♫
Rated R, 117 Minutes
D: Dan Gilroy
W: Dan Gilroy
Genre: Check your emotions at the door
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Reptiles
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Moviegoers who need warmth
♪ Parody inspired by “Night Moves”
