Wednesday, July 8, 2015

NIGHTCRAWLER (2014)

As a cynical, poison-filled, unloved, unliked, dead soul slowly rotting away in a ugly worthless human carcass I related quite a bit with the awkward, unsociable loner Louis Bloom, played brilliantly by Jake Gyllenhaal.  One evening, quite by accident, Louis sees freelance cameraman, Bill Paxton, filming two police officers saving a woman from a burning car.  This gives Louis an idea and next thing you know he's out on the street filming overnight events for the morning news.  He has a natural eye for the more sensational stuff and before long his personal drive has brought him a small amount of notoriety.  This only drives him further.

I enjoyed every second of NIGHTCRAWLER.  The photography by Robert Elswit was absolutely spellbinding, the story had me hooked from beginning to end, the acting by the entire cast was fantastic, nice pace, smart script, satisfying ending.  The only thing that keeps this film out of my favorites films category is it wasn't dark or misanthropic enough for my tastes.  That said, it's a great movie, I just like my dark movies to be really dark.

Highly recommended.