You filming me? Are you filming me? - "Nightcrawler" movie review

Jake Gyllenhaal redefines creepy as Lou Bloom, a modern day Travis Bickle adrift in Los Angeles.  Like Taxi Driver forty years ago, Nightcrawler follows a rogue square peg unable to fit into the contemporary black hole of society.  Filmed almost entirely at night, Nightcrawler is a gorgeous-looking, yet brutal dissection of 21st Century morals, and how they're influenced by local news.

If anyone remembers the coyote wandering the urban streets in Michael Mann's Collateral, then imagine an entire movie about that coyote.  Jake Gyllenhaal plays the coyote as a fierce, instinctual scavenger who feeds on other people's garbage and scares anyone who gets close.  It's a phenomenal performance, and Mr. Gyllenhaal has never been better - or scarier.

His character begins as an out of work, petty thief, but soon decides that a career as a nighttime videographer of accidents and crime is his calling.  It's fascinating to watch him learn the bare minimum and quickly transform into a success.  Of course, success is a relative term.  He also lacks any sense of right and wrong, and doesn't care much for the law.  Like many recent movies, Nightcrawler features a protagonist that is an unlikeable sinner.  Unlike Taxi Driver or other past anti-hero portraits, Nightcrawler does not highlight any hero qualities, and Lou Bloom never does the right thing.  This results in an unsettling experience for the audience, and ultimately I'm not sure what to think.  Actually, I know what to think but it's a frightening thought about how to succeed in America.  In that sense, echoes of There Will Be Blood rattle throughout this modern parallel.

To help battle his demons, Lou confronts two outstanding co-stars.  First is the local news director played by Rene Russo.  Leading the city's least watched news broadcast, her character's professional ethics are also a blurry signal.  She enables Lou's career by encouraging his work and stroking his personal ego.  She gives him the only lesson he needs when she sums up her industry with the movie's best rallying cry:  "Think about our newscast as a screaming woman running down the street with her throat cut."

Lou recruits a partner-in-crime:  a nearly homeless, uneducated young man played by Riz Ahmed.  An excellent young actor who was the best part of last year's Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mr. Ahmed brings heart and spirit to a man also seeking his American dream, but with a clearer moral judgment.  It's captivating to watch him spar with Lou, as the bullshit is slung, and the two have-nots fight for power. 

The movie is a scathing portrait of local news, reminiscent of such classic films as Network and Broadcast News.  But this is more about the individual.  Who's feeding who?  Who needs who?  It's a compelling debate, and Nightcrawler does an excellent job moderating the discussion.