Nightcrawler 2014
I was given a digital copy of this movie. Although I hadn’t heard of it, it was nominated for an Oscar for the script, which is usually a good sign. It is an interesting movie that will leave you thinking about for a while afterwards. Jake Gyllenhaal plays a weird guy, like maybe we’ve seen a few times before, who learns a lot on the internet, has big dreams and confidence, and enters the world of a stringer, getting news footage and selling it to a local TV station. The main character is kind of darkly funny in the way he talks and negotiates. Rene Russo plays a graveyard news editor who is willing to buy his grisly footage in order to pump up ratings and move up at the station. It is a squirm inducing watch that seems to exaggerate what stringers can really get away with. The whole pretext seems just a little too artificial, in fact, but I think there is enough truth to make it work as a fable. It is a good look at this self-deluding psychopath as well as the TV news business, and in turn viewers of local news, which is all of us.
Written: 11 Feb 2020
Owned on: Digital