Review: Nightcrawler

With widespread praise and favorable comparisons to one of my favorite films of all time, American Psycho, I knew Nightcrawler was going to be something special. I finally had a chance to watch the film after a while, and it certainly did not disappoint.

The Premise

Louis Bloom is a desperate creep willing to do anything for a job. He lives in a dingy apartment and resorts to pawning stolen property for a bit of cash, wasting away on TV and watering a tiny plant. His life changes when he comes upon the scene of a grizzly car accident and discovers his new passion in life: filming the aftermath of whatever accidents he can find, no matter the cost to himself or the people around him.

Objectively...

Nightcrawler is shot brilliantly, weaving a dream-like tale with brutal succinctness. Lou is a man at home in shadows, both real and metaphoric. Nearly every scene is shot at night, and a large number of daytime scenes take place in Lou's unlit, cramped apartment. The tone is set visually, and when the narrative's dark underpinnings are revealed it never comes off as forced.

Because of the tone, the film itself is often very quiet: Lou comes across scenes of accidents while the police are cleaning up, so rather than focusing on action, much of Lou's job is sneaking around in dark houses or flitting between victims thrown from cars at the scene of a grisly crash. Development of Lou's character comes from just how far he is willing to sink to get that one perfect shot.

It's a success story where the audience wants the protagonist to do everything but succeed. Points of Nightcrawler's plot can be compared one-to-one with "underdog" types of movies, but the one defining characteristic is that Lou is simply an arrogant, creepy, and overall loathsome sociopath. This is where the film shines at its brightest; from the very beginning the audience can sympathize with Lou as a disaffected youth, willing to do anything for steady income. In any other movie of this type, Lou would be the antagonist whose ideologies clash with the more "moral" protagonist. But here he is—the hero we're supposed to be rooting for, underpaying his intern and rummaging through the houses of fresh murder scenes.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Nightcrawler's supporting cast, who are at best meandering and at worst completely supportive of Lou's cause. Those who aren't are functionally useless, and because of that there's simply not much of an antagonist. That's not to say there isn't one, but suffice it to say the opposing force for the protagonist is a road bump in their best scene. As Nightcrawler continues there's not a whole lot stopping Lou from accomplishing his goal, and the tension comes from the actual jobs he takes on rather than his initial goal of simply becoming a major ambulance chaser. That's not to say the movie is devoid of tension; in fact, closer to the end of the film the action itself becomes tense more than the initial premise. Which leads me to...

Subjectively...

The only single problem I have with Nightcrawler is that it's not quite focused enough. While there's plenty of intrigue and tension throughout the entire thing, it lacked focus for me. Not that the plot itself is unfocused, but after a while it seems like the movie just jumps between disconnected story arcs. Lou needs a job, he gets a job. There's a rival ambulance chaser, Lou takes care of him. It reflects the character as a guy who takes care of problems when they arise, but it didn't work out quite like I hoped.

The American Psycho comparisons are obviously drawn from Lou's similarity to American Psycho's protagonist, Patrick Bateman. I wouldn't go quite that far. Both characters are clearly multi-layered, deep but flawed in their own ways; and, of course, both are complete monsters when left to their own devices. While their characters might share some similarities, the story around them are entirely different (and not all in Nightcrawler's favor). For instance, Patrick is already established at the firm he works at; he's a yuppie, and he hates his empty life. A portion of Nightcrawler is dedicated to Lou finding his calling as an ends-meets-the-means photojournalist, although the "how" only really slows down the plot. Of course, the beginning establishes that Lou is willing to do anything for money as well as showing (rather than telling) the rivalry between he and a rival journalist. A chunk of the beginning could have been dealt with if he was already trying to start up his career, and honestly, I feel it could have started stronger if Lou was in the middle of starting his business.

But then, that's not the movie I'm reviewing. Clearly, the director wanted us to see Lou at his lowest before he started his filming career, and for what it's worth, it's just fine as it is. That's not the only area in which the two leads differ: a major subplot in American Psycho is the game of cat-and-mouse between Patrick and Detective Kimball, who is implied to be trying to wear down Patrick and have him reveal his crimes. Kimball's plot is more thematic than a key point of the plot and serves as an attack of conscience with the protagonist. Nightcrawler has a very similar subplot, and I imagine this is where a pretty fair amount of comparison is drawn. Like my earlier point, it's not a comparison I view as being very favorable.

Detective Fronteiri in Nightcrawler is everything Detective Kimball is not; emotional, following leads she cannot connect, and overall a fairly useless detective, Fronteiri gives very little tension to the scenes in which she attempts to pin Lou for his crimes. The depth of Kimball and Patrick's relationship is entirely missing, and even if you haven't seen American Psycho (thou must!), it's pretty apparent that, despite Fronteiri being so immediately hostile to Lou, she doesn't offer much as an antagonist with opposing ideals. She merely exists as the necessary symbol of justice, but instead comes off as more of a pushover. As multi-faceted as Nightcrawler actually is though, adding more to Fronteiri might drag the movie on. Even still, the morality of the film is mostly present in Lou's intern, Rick (also down on his luck and desperate for work). He's a very sympathetic character, but his role is largely comic relief until a later part of the film.

Of course, those are very specific complaints for such an incredible movie. For all the criticisms I have, I'm sure there is more than one reason why the final product is better for not addressing those specific areas. Aside from that, those are merely the reasons why I find comparisons to American Psycho off-base. Both movies are stellar character studies, but they're wildly different and excel in their own specific ways.

Verdict:

Nightcrawler is a rare movie: dark, subversive, deep and oozing with satire, this by all means should be a miracle from a first-time director. The American Psycho references are a bit weird, but I see where they're coming from; if you hated that movie Nightcrawler stands pretty far apart from it, but if you liked the former there will almost definitely be something in here you'll enjoy. Jake Gyllenhaal absolutely nails the role and you won't want to take your eyes off of him for a second.

Highly Recommended