Nightcrawler

Rating : 7/10
Release Date : 7th November, 2014
Time : 117 minutes
Director, Writer: Dan Gilroy; Music : James Newton Howard
Starring : Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Riz Ahmad, Bill Paxton



Jake is eerily creepy as the accidental Nightcrawler, a colloquial term used for those freelancers who stay up all night, film scenes of urban crime and then sell any such exclusives to networks. He is determined to climb up the ladder of success and, thanks to the internet, he is armed with all the knowledge he needs to be able to do so.

Rene Russo is one of the network executives who spots something in Jake and its fascinating to see how this symbiotic relationship progresses. Bill Paxton is Jake’s competitor, who unfortunately passes up an opportunity to hire him when he had the chance. And Riz Ahmed is Jake’s mostly terrified employee – who struggles to cope with his drive and also morality – as Jake isn’t about to flinch while cutting a few corners and expects the same from his employees.

Jake, with his slouch, his strange kind of bookish English, his gaunt frame and burning eyes, is most definitely not the kind of guy you would want to cross paths with. He owns the movie, is there in almost every frame and you are riveted as you watch him try to be one step ahead of everyone else. He celebrates the fact that he is single and so is able to do as he chooses. It is fascinating to watch how he negotiates, the insidious way he makes himself indispensable to the network, ingratiates himself with the people working there, realizing the perfect opportunity to pounce or to give up.

It’s a strange world we live in… This film is most of all about the thin line separating right from wrong and how many, in their headlong rush towards success, knowingly cross it many a time. Networks in their chase for ratings, freelancers in their quest to get an exclusive, a close-up of blood to go with your breakfast… There is a sense of foreboding, something sinister throughout this movie and I can assure you, its not entirely misplaced…