Nightcrawler (UK Rating: 15)
There’s a rapidly lengthening line of actors who have transformed their appearances for film roles. Christian Bale (The Machinist, 2004), Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club, 2014) for instance, and his co-star Jared Leto almost specialises in it, putting on 67lb for Chapter 27 (2007), losing 30lb for Dallas Buyers Club and now he’s gone blonde to play The Joker in the forthcoming Suicide Squad. Hard on his heels, however, is Jake Gyllenhaal, who’s gained 14lb of muscle to play a boxer in Southpaw (due for UK release this July) – after shedding 30lbs for Nightcrawler, which is currently out on DVD.
It’s a weight loss that chimes perfectly with both his character and the film. As Lou Bloom, he’s down on his luck and out of work when, by accident, he stumbles across the murky world of the nightcrawlers – stringers who monitor the police despatch system at night to find accidents and crime, film them and sell the footage to TV stations. He has a natural aptitude for the work, establishes a connection with a small station in Los Angeles and his business flourishes, so much so that he starts setting his own agenda – and that involves creating the news itself.
He’s a creature of the night, one that’s obsessed with getting the right shot – whatever the cost – and dropping that weight means his already large eyes appear to bulge out of his head, like a bug-eyed monster or bush baby. Lurking in the night-time shadows, he’s almost an extension of his camera, emerging in a sinister, sinewy way with one aim in mind. Not surprisingly, he’s also a sociopath, with no real connection with people. They are simply a means to an end, be they suffering or dead on the other side of his camera, or doing business with him. He constantly spouts what sound like whole sections from the business websites he’s studied, but people only figure in that context if they help him get something he wants.
The night setting is all important to the storyline, which is a fascinating triptych of thriller, horror, and satire. The glaring neon lights of the city and car headlights are a startling contrast to the dark corners where the likes of Gyllenhaal lurk and it all helps build the tension for the thriller element. The horror comes from the scenes he witnesses and films, the audience’s reaction when he’s actually responsible for some of them, and the TV station’s willingness broadcast them, which is where it overlaps with the satire, because this is a very unflattering portrait of a television news operation running stories purely to fit its own agenda. Journalistic independence? What’s that?
It’s a lean, slick piece of cinema that works equally well on DVD and has some excellent performances – not just from Gyllenhaal. Renee Russo is the news editor at the TV station who rapidly becomes dependent on him because the footage he provides is keeping her career alive, and, just like him, she will do anything to get what she wants. Their scenes together soon take on the flavour of a drug dealer and his addict, and Bill Paxton is bang on target as another nightcrawler, an experienced veteran who is foolish enough to mock Gyllenhaal while he’s learning his trade. It’s something he soon comes to regret.
