Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
When Lou Bloom, desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story. Aiding him in his effort is Nina, a TV-news veteran.
Nightcrawler is a razor-sharp neo-noir character study elevated by Jake Gyllenhaal's mesmerizing, career-best performance as Lou Bloom — a hollow sociopath who weaponizes self-help rhetoric. The script is surgically precise in dissecting media ethics and late-capitalist opportunism. Robert Elswit's nocturnal LA cinematography is genuinely stunning, bathing the city in neon decay. The film's conception is highly distinctive — a satire, a thriller, and a character study fused seamlessly. The ending, while fitting, resolves somewhat conventionally for such an audacious film, pulling back just slightly from the full darkness it seemed to promise.