“Bourne Legacy” screenwriter Dan Gilroy exposes the skullduggery
behind tabloid TV journalism in “Nightcrawler” (*** OUT OF ****), a gritty,
engrossing, but seldom surprising satire with savvy actor Jake Gyllenhaal cast
as an unsavory stringer with a camcorder. Hollywood has been producing
exposés about the depths that shady journalists will plumb to land the big
scoop. Some of the best include “Five Star Final” (1931), the
venerable “Citizen Kane” (1941), and “Ace in the Hole” (1951). If
you know anything about the history of yellow journalism, few things can top
what one sleazy news reporter orchestrated during the execution of Ruth Snyder
at Sing Sing Prison back in 1928. Convicted of murdering her husband,
Snyder was sentenced to die in the electric chair. The New York Daily
News hired amateur photographer Tom Howard to cover the execution, and
Howard snapped a photo of Snyder quivering in the electric chair as 700 volts sizzled
through her body. Naturally, the infamous photo appeared a little fuzzy,
but the Daily News ran the notorious picture on its front page.
Sales of the newspaper skyrocketed, and the Daily News ran the
same electrifying photo again on its front page the following day.
Most of what occurs in “Nightcrawler” is tame compared with the stunt
that the Daily News reporter pulled. Indeed, little of it is
as exciting as the real-life incidents that the movie’s technical advisors have
encountered on a regular basis. Nevertheless, this polished,
fast-paced, pulp thriller about what an ambitious but unscrupulous journalist
does to deliver the goods is often more amusing than audacious. A
gaunt-looking Gyllenhaal manages to be both charismatic and creepy as the anti-heroic
protagonist, and he lets nothing interfere with his ignoble aspirations.
Rene Russo makes the most of her role as an over-the-hill Los Angeles
television news director, while Bill Paxton scores in a peripheral role as a
veteran nightcrawler who shows Gyllenhaal the ropes. Although he doesn’t
break new ground with “Nightcrawler,” Gilroy proves with his directorial debut
that he can capably stage not only suspenseful shootouts and careening car
chases, but also conjure up flawed but hypnotic characters in a morally
skewered universe.
Initially, when we encounter Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal of “End
of Watch”) for the first time, he is a petty thief who will pinch anything.
He steals copper, cyclone fencing, wristwatches, and even tournament
racing bikes. Eventually, he discovers that money can made as a freelance
crime videographer lensing scenes of blood-splattered murder and mayhem.
Since he resides in Los Angeles, where people die violently every day, Bloom
decides to hock a trophy bike for a camcorder and a scanner. No
sooner does he try his hand at his new profession than he rubs shoulders with a
professional stringer. Joe Loder (the incomparable Bill Paxton of
“Aliens”) cruises around in a souped-up minivan equipped with high-tech cameras
and a sidekick to shoot those big scenes. Loder has a computer
editing console on-board so he can upload video to the highest bidder at the
various competing TV stations around Los Angeles. Loder admires
Bloom’s determination and drive. Bloom scoots around in crappy 1985
Tercel and wields a low-tech camcorder. He sneaks inside a house where a
homicide has taken place and reorganizes the crime scene so it appears more
photogenic and then sells it to a TV station. Later, the
enterprising Bloom hires a homeless man, Rick (Riz Ahmed of “Centurion”), to
serve as his navigator. Whenever Bloom races off to a potential crime
scene, Rick struggles to route his impatient employer along the fastest streets
to the crime scene. Bloom pays him $30 a day, but Rick is still pretty
clueless about being a stringer. Meanwhile, the unscrupulous but
captivating Bloom has taken a shine to a dame, Nina Romina (Rene Russo of
“Lethal Weapon 3”), who works at the lowest rated Los Angeles TV station.
"I want something people can't turn away from," she tells
Bloom. “If it bleeds, it leads,” she explains. She avoids his
amorous advances, but she praises his video. At one point, to
acquire better video of a corpse after a car crash, Bloom drags the body into
the light. At the station, Nina observes that Bloom has blood on
his hands. Indeed, Gilroy uses Romina to make a sarcastic comment about
Bloom’s cynical nature, but Bloom has no qualms. Ultimately, Bloom and
Rick get so good at their game they beat the LAPD to a crime scene, and Bloom
prowls the premises where three corpses lay sprawled in puddles of blood and
photographs them. He even shoots footage of the perpetrators
fleeing. Bloom orchestrates events so he can make big bucks off the
crime as well as the eventual capture of the killers.
If you have read the Internet interview with Austin Raishbrook who
served as the technical advisor for “Nightcrawler,” you have to wonder why Gilroy
didn’t replicate more of Raishbrook’s exploits. Some of the sights Raishbrook
and his two brothers have seen would make you cringe. When the Raishbrook
brothers rush out to shoot video, they suit up in bulletproof vests and prepare
for the worst. Not only have they have been shot at, but also thugs
have smashed their equipment. Some of the chaos they have seen sounds
surreal compared to the formulaic genre shenanigans Gilroy puts his characters
through in this vivid R-rated urban epic. Despite its shortage of
surprises, “Nightcrawler” features some incredibly amoral characters and
top-notch performances. Bloom doesn’t care what it takes to obtain
footage, even if it means either sacrificing an employee or eliminating the
competition. In this respect, “Nightcrawler” differs from most movies
where the villains get their just comeuppance. Louis Bloom is most
certainly not a hero. He qualifies as a vile, low-life,
bottom-feeder, but “Nightcrawler” doesn’t punish him for his wicked ways.
Instead, he comes up smelling like roses no matter what he does and that
is the singular thing that distinguishes the above-average “Nightcrawler” from
most mainstream, standard-issue, Hollywood film releases.
No comments:
Post a Comment