As much as I love movies, it is pretty difficult to see everything that I want to watch.  Throughout the hectic year, I can’t always watch every movie that gets released to theaters, no matter how much I want to see them.  Thus, once those movies make their way onto DVD, I jump at the opportunity to watch many of the ones that I missed, which were released in the previous year.  Grand Budapest Hotel, Birdman, and The Raid 2 are all great movies that I only got to see after their initial releases, and crime/journalism thriller Nightcrawler was another that I was hoping would be as good at it had seemed.

Now, I knew virtually nothing about Nightcrawler before I saw it, essentially deciding I wanted to see it based on genre and actor alone.  Jake Gyllenhaal in a crime drama regarding late night journalism at its grittiest seemed like just the movie for me, but I really wasn’t ready for what the movie was.  I had assumed that Gyllenhaal’s character was going to be more like his character from Zodiac, a kind of overly talkative and hyperactive journalist who wants to catch a killer.  I had assumed he would be playing more of a glorified Boy Scout, who was attempting to use his journalistic skills for the good intentions of stopping crime before it happened.  What I got was a character study of a sickly determined man, a person who is willing to step over anyone (literally, when it comes to the dead bodies he films), in order to make a name for himself in the TV news world.

Louis Bloom, when we are first introduced to him, is a thief, living day-to-day off the money he earns from pawning stolen products.  One night, he stumbles upon a horrific car crash, at which an independently run filming crew is shooting the chaos.  Upon questioning the camera-men, Lou finds out about the lucrative market of nightcrawling, or capturing violent crime footage and selling it to morning news stations.  Soon, Lou buys a camera and some equipment, and goes neck-deep into the nightcrawling world, equating traumatizing events and dead bodies to paychecks and fame.

What makes the movie so enthralling is not only how chilling Gyllenhaal’s performance is and how disturbed Lou is as a character, but how most other characters in the movie perceive his insanity as drive.  Lou gets very close to dead bodies in car crashes, multiple homicides, and other horrible and graphic accidents, and sociopathically shows no emotion over the deaths of the people involved.  He never hesitates to get a shot, so long as he thinks it will improve his payout and make his growing business stronger.  Perseverance and determination, traits which are generally demonstrated as positive, are shown as vulgar and frightening.  The movie gives us a new angle to perceive people who “never give up”, showing that the combination of determination and mental issues can create a dangerous individual.

The movie has little outside its main character, as we explore his ever-growing obsession with violent crime and media, but Gyllenhaal’s performance is so good that the movie doesn’t need anything else.  The other characters are serviceable, but overshadowed by the ever-present creepiness of Lou, who’s constant and insane actions keep the viewer enthralled.  I never really saw Jake Gyllenhaal as a great actor, but his performances in Zodiac, End of Watch, and this movie prove his talents for portraying a wide range of characters.  If you’re in the mood for a dark character study with some gruesome scenes, Nightcrawler is the perfect movie.  Dark and depressing, Nightcrawler is a hidden gem in the sea of films released in 2014.