MOVIE REVIEW – Nightcrawler

Posted on 13 December 2014

MOVIE REVIEW

NIGHTCRAWLER

Corporate Crawling

by Doug Young

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Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton, Riz Ahmed; directed by Dan Gilroy

Nightcrawler
Don’t be fooled by Jake Gyllenhaal’s effectively creepy acting performance as a psycho and thereby thinking this is a case
study of a weird guy even though he is so “off” and yet ingratiating we worry that at any moment he may “go postal” or turn all
Hannibal Lecter.
Don’t get the impression that his character, a low-income loner scrounging around looking for work and some meaningful
purpose to his existence, is more violent than he actually is as there’s palpable menace to his demeanor and the film’s tone and yet he never actually personally assaults anyone directly.

Don’t get lulled into thinking this is a docudrama of the seamy underbelly of low- PAGE 15 h THE COLORADO STATESMAN h DEC. 5, 2014 “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. “ — Walt Disney Company life characters in Los Angeles even though the film bathes the city in a strangely menacing yet alluring aura enveloping the city’s streets and environs.
Don’t be drawn into the opinion that the film is an indictment of the way local TV news stations gather graphic footage of real
accidents and gore so as to compete for ratings and stature just because the Gyllenhaal character decides to try doing this for a
living when he happens upon such a scene being filmed by guerilla freelance cameramen.
Don’t be mistaken that his attraction to this line of work — where he secures the employment assistance of a homeless man
and becomes more and more ambitious, cutthroat and successful — means that the film is about how these sorts of unconventional occupations operate and spring into being.
Don’t expect that the film then becomes
a rags-to-riches story just because his
amazing footage of carnage helps him win
the appreciation of an older woman local TV
news station producer (played by Rene
Russo), who is struggling herself with the
station’s low rankings.
Don’t succumb to the notion that the film
is really about a May-December romance
whereby the Gyllenhaal character falls for the
Russo character given that they spend a lot
of time together and sadly need one another.
Don’t become convinced that the film is really about how we are all both repelled and attracted to ever more outrageous images and stories to satiate out desires for dirt, disaster and disadvantage of others precisely because the footage shot by the Gyllenhaal character becomes ever more extreme and yet valuable for airing.
Don’t be caught thinking the film is about a police procedural as Gyllenhaal’s ever escalating need for shocking footage
leads him to a multiple murder scene in a house in the hills thereby suggesting he might be breaking the law and withholding
critical evidence even though we get scenes of him being hauled downtown to be questioned by the police.

Don’t get cajoled into believing the film is about skewed working relationships only because of the mounting tension
between the Gyllenhaal character and his formerly homeless assistant as they butt heads over working conditions and arrangements. Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler.
No, this film is — and is not — about any of these things.
What the film is really about is an indictment of unfettered capitalism and free enterprise.
No, I’m not crazy.
Really.
Sure some bad stuff happens and the Gyllenhaal character is genuinely creepy.
But he symbolizes the drive to succeed at all costs — to climb the ladder and use his wits, wiles and wonderment
to get the most out of every situation and arrangement for himself, even while giving the false impression that he is
also about helping others prosper.
He is the embodiment of ambition without morals, to get to the top of the heap without being encumbered by any gooey scruples regarding the needs, desires and betterment of others — that other people are just things, mere means to monetary ends. That may make him seem like a sociopath, but there method to his madness. He’s an economic theory devoid of human caring and feeling.
Now, the question is: Is our capitalistic society really this crassly cold and narcissistic? Ever heard
of the economic crash of 2008?

 

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Unfortunately we can’t describe Doug Young adequately in strictly iambic
pentameter, so we’ll just tell you that he is an award-winning (and poetic) film critic and that he is “Filmoholic” Critic Man, aka Doug Young, who is a senior environmental policy advisor to Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, his reviews canbe found regularly on Pop Geek Heaven.

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