Nightcrawler

"My motto is, 'If you want to win the lottery, you have to make the money to buy a ticket.'"

The film opens with Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) tampering with a metal fence gate. As the minutes go on, it becomes apparent that Lou lives off of a shady job: small, petty theft. However, he finds out about a much more “stable” job: recording and selling grisly crime tapes to news stations. Geared up with a camcorder and police radio scanner, he sets out to film the violent streets of Los Angeles and sell the tapes to a struggling news director (Rene Russo) of a low-rated TV station, becoming bigger with every step.

Jake Gyllenhaal essentially gives the best performance I’ve ever seen him in. The variety and passion that he puts into his performance is off the charts, so much so that I’m struggling to see an actor here. All I see is Lou Bloom, and when all you see is a character, you know a performance is beyond good. By the end of the film, viewers will be questioning why they rooted for such a psychotic character, and one of those answers would definitely be “Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance.”

The actors had to work with a screenplay, so did Jake Gyllenhaal have to make an amazing performance without the assistance of good dialogue? Absolutely not. The script written for “Nightcrawler” easily contains some of the best dialogue in 2014. It’s natural, fluent, thought out, and, above all, brilliant. One of the best scenes in the entire film was just a simple one-on-one conversation thanks to the gripping dialogue.

10/10- Finding just one flaw in “Nightcrawler” would be a chore. The fantastic performances, brilliant screenplay, and gripping stride make “Nightcrawler,” all in all, an utterly fantastic (and thought-provoking) film.