‘Why you pursue something is as important as what you pursue...’
Heroes are ten a penny in Hollywood but antiheroes are harder to come by. Robert de Niro made a career out of them in films such as Taxi Driver and Raging Bull; the Marvel franchise has attempted them in their universe with mixed results, but when done correctly, as with films such as Fight Club, The Godfather and American Psycho, a good antihero can be era-defining. Well, Lou Bloom from Nightcrawler can hold his own with the best of them…
When we first meet Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), he is a jobless, manipulative criminal – driven but directionless. He is a man waiting for a purpose. When he accidentally stumbles across a crime scene and encounters a ‘stringer’ (a freelance photojournalist) recording gruesome footage for local TV news, he realises he has found his calling. After recruiting some rudimentary equipment and an assistant (Riz Ahmed), Bloom sets about chasing ambulances and police cars in the hope of capturing an exclusive. Bill Paxton appears as a veteran stringer and Rene Russo, wife of writer/director Dan Gilroy, convinces as a desperate and unscrupulous TV producer.
Despite wearing its influences on its sleeve (Network, Taxi Driver and pretty much any noir film set in Los Angeles), Nightcrawler carves out its own identity through a combination of Gilroy’s sharp and cynical script, Robert Elswit’s assured cinematography and a show-stopping performance from Gyllenhaal (outrageously snubbed by the Academy). The film felt pertinent upon release in 2014, but since the proliferation of smartphones and social media, it now feels downright prophetic. The concept of a stringer is perhaps archaic in 2026 in an era in which everyone is a roving reporter in their own way, but the scenes in which Gyllenhaal, barely able to contain his wide-eyed excitement, arrives at a crime scene first, even before the police at times, are genuinely uncomfortable to watch, and they’re made even more uncomfortable by the fact that while this is primarily a critique of unethical and dishonest methods employed by certain sections of the press, it is also a reflection of the fact that the gutter press is just giving the people what they want. This is supply and demand. Something that social media has only confirmed over the last decade. Hate sells. Violence sells. In this brave new world, the Lewis Blooms of the world will eventually rule the earth.
Nightcrawler is a film that gets under your skin and stays there. It’s not a pleasant film, but it is an important one, of that there is no doubt.
