Nocturnal Activities

Mind your asthma. Be careful not to breathe in too heavily if you have allergies. The dust in here is quite thick. Film Fry Up may have taken a long hiatus but hey it could have been longer.  But fear not, your favourite, mediocre, rambling, badly written film review blog is back in a sporadic fashion. So I’ll get the Mr Sheen out. Pass me that duster. And let’s forget about the neglect.

Served up on Film Fry Up’s plate this week is Nightcrawler. A Halloween release that is more unnerving than any film containing Ouija Boards, possessed dolls and busty blondes. 

Louis Bloom is a petty thief that stumbles upon a car crash late one night. A brief encounter with a news crew at the scene, (“If it bleeds, it leads”) he soon discovers that there is good money to be made in filming crime scenes and traffic collisions. Soon the pressures of success and demand begin to pile up, like a motorway accident, and Louis begins to take drastic measures to ensure he has subjects to film.

The commentary on the media, news networks and immorality is about a subtle as a sledgehammer to the head but Nightcrawler is masterfully held together with a truly mesmerising performance from Jake Gyllenhaal. His portrayal of Louis Bloom, a motivational jargon spouting, lonely, sociopath could have gone wrong in so many ways but Gyllenhaal injects just the right amount of humour to the role. You love to hate him. Dropping a reported 20lbs for the film, his face sunken, his eyes bugging, his hair slicked back, he resembles a coyote feeding off the night and a Brett Eason Ellis character all rolled into one.

Without giving the game away Louis never crosses that line from sociopath to psychopath. This makes Nightcrawler all the harder to shake off after viewing. We all know people that are determined, fast learners, driven like Louis. We all know that corporate, motivational, self-help language that streams out of his crooked mouth. Hearing Louis speak is a conversation everyone has heard a dozen times over. What makes Nightcrawler deeply unsettling is that the horror is not the monster in your closet, it’s not the wronged caretaker. It’s the person you talk to everyday, the person you share the lift with. How blurry is that line between right and wrong? Sane and insane?

Nightcrawler is one of those rare beasts. It’s an original screenplay, an original story, beautifully shot and superbly acted. In this current climate of prequels, sequels, remakes and comic book catastrophes it’s a refreshing palate cleanser.

XXX