Nightcrawler ***** (2014, Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed, Bill Paxton) – Movie Review

Dear Lou Bloom,

You did real good! Congratulations to you and Video News Productions for your excellent Nightcrawler footage. Please give my best to Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed and Bill Paxton for their fine work in helping you out on what I suppose was your usual load of hard work for very little money. Well done!

Many thanks

Cheers

Derek

PS: I should tell people that in the film Gyllenhaal plays a totally bonkers young guy who breaks into the underground world of Los Angeles freelance TV filmed crime journalism by chance and links up with Russo’s local TV network executive after selling his first footage to her.

He then starts up his own little business, recruiting a hapless homeless guy (Riz Ahmed) to help him capture thrilling news footage of accidents, muggings and murders. With their scenes together crackling with electric tension, Gyllenhaal and Russo are completely brilliant and so’s this awesomely weird and wonderful film.

PPS: Nightcrawler’s clever writer-director Dan Gilroy was born on June 24 1959 in Santa Monica. This is his debut as director, and he seizes his chance with all the rich gifts he’s got. He wrote Chasers (1994), Two for the Money (2005), The Fall (2006), Real Steel (2011) and The Bourne Legacy (2012). He has been married to Nightcrawler’s co-star Rene Russo since March 14 1992. Gilroy was Oscar nominated for Best Original Screenplay for Nightcrawler in 2015, the film’s only nomination.

Jake Gyllenhaal received a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actor, his second after Love & Other Drugs (2010). He has only one Oscar nomination by 2014, for Brokeback Mountain (2005). It was a bad surprise to see his name missing from the Best Actor roster for Nightcrawler in 2015.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Movie Review

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