Nightcrawler

I couldn’t fathom the evil of the Goose Lord, a man driven to heartless revenge due to his love of 1978’s Starcrash. Now he was in possession of a mass driver, no doubt stolen from the U.S. Navy. With this deadly weapon, he planned to destroy Walt Disney World and lay waste to Galaxy’s Edge, a Star Wars theme park. Edwige, my kangaroo companion from my misadventures in North America, was tied to the front of this monstrosity. When the fentanyl laced chunk of tungsten was launched, that would be the end of her and the happiest place on Earth. With my hands tied and with the ninja vigilante of downtown Orlando nowhere in sight, this was the end. I heard the coils powering up and the Goose Lord and his minions roared.

— To be continued. 

Tonight’s movie is 2014’s Nightcrawler from director Dan Gilroy. It’s not often you see an American motion picture with a genuinely evil protagonist. Our main character in this movie is Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), an unemployed young man who makes his living ripping metal to sell for scrap whether it’s wire fences or manhole covers. When a security guard discovers what he’s up to, Lou cheerfully tries to explain that he’s simply lost before sucker punching the guard and stealing his watch. Lou is desperate for money and tries to bargain his way into a job with the owner of the scrapyard he’s selling the scrap to, but he tells Lou he would never hire a thief. 

Dejected, Lou drives back to his seedy apartment, but on the way, he notices a nasty car accident and a guy with a camera shooting all of the gory details. His name is Joe Loder (Bill Paxton) and he’s a stringer, a freelancer who goes to accidents and crime scenes to record the grisly aftermath to sell to local news stations for profit. Lou asks if he’s hiring and Joe promptly turns him down, but he learns enough about Joe’s operation from mere observation that he figures he can go into business for himself.

Lou’s first sale featuring footage from a carjacking goes to a local news station called KWLA 6. Nina Romina (Rene Russo) tells Lou that he has a good eye, but he needs better equipment. Lou buys better equipment and manages to sucker an unemployed loner named Rick (Riz Ahmed) to be his intern for just $30 a night. As time goes by, Lou and Rick become more skilled at their job to the point where they become true rivals for Joe. When Joe purchases another camera van, he offers Lou a job to run it, but Lou turns it down. This forces Joe to really start competing with Lou and he beats him to every scene. 

Lou seems to have a rage-filled breakdown and he comes up with a new plan to get ahead. He cuts the breaks on Joe’s van and when Joe gets into a horrible accident, his mangled body is carried away by the paramedics and guess who’s filming the whole thing?

And this isn’t even the worst thing Lou does in this movie to get ahead. Jake Gyllenhaal gives a terrifying performance of a man who makes Travis Bickle seem tame by comparison. 

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, episode 284, episode 441, episode 442, episode 443, episode 444, episode 450, episode 477, episode 491, episode 492, episode 493, episode 495, episode 496, episode 545, episode 546, episode 547, episode 548, episode 549, episode 575, episode 596, episode 597, episode 598, episode 599, episode 642, episode 643, episode 644, episode 645, episode 670, episode 686, episode 687,  688, and 689) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.