The all-around outstanding actor Jake Gyllenhaal excels at playing guys who are just a little too obsessive (Zodiac, Prisoners, Enemy) to let you get comfortable with them. In the thriller Nightcrawler, Gyllenhaal gets to play a 100% psycho. His character is seriously twisted, but in that high functioning way so the other characters don’t suspect it until IT’S TOO LATE.
Gyllenhaal’s bug eyes come in handy in playing the ever-too-intense Lou Bloom, a hustler who talks like a super-caffeinated sales guy, full of the argot of self-help and inspirational speakers. His bromides about success seem mainstream, but his hyper affect puts off regular folks. He’s thieving copper when he sees an opportunity to turn himself into a free-lance video journalist. Nightcrawler is an acid commentary on the TV news world, and Lou has finally found an arena where being balanced is not an asset.
In fact, a cynical TV producer (Rene Russo) finds Lou’s intrusiveness and utter disregard for social boundaries to be helpful. When placing her order with Lou, she can be entirely unfiltered: “What we re looking for is a woman running down the street with her throat cut”, preferably a “White well-off victim”.
Riz Ahmed, so compelling as The Reluctant Fundamentalist
is unrecognizable here as Lou’s tweaked and shifty homeless assistant Rick. It’s an effective transformation, and it’s equally great not to see Ahmed stuck playing a terrorist again.
Nightcrawler is successful both as a biting satire and as a charter-driven thriller. You can stream Nightcrawler from Amazon Instant Video, iTunes and Vudu and rent it on DirecTV PPV.