Welcome to major market television news where If It Bleeds It Leads…
Especially during Sweep Weeks!
But how do you GET all the graphic footage? And more importantly GET IT FIRST!
That’s where ambitious Lou Bloom comes into the picture. He’s smart. He’s smooth. He’s also a ruthless thief and scavenger—which leads him into the seedy the world of TV videographers.
They’re called NIGHTCRAWLERS—freelance stringers equipped with police scanners in their cars who try to reach nighttime crime, fire and crash scenes sometimes before even law enforcement does.
Then they sell their oftentimes gory footage to the highest paying TV news bidder. The rougher the video, the higher the windfall for BOTH the station’s ratings and the stringers pocketbooks.
Problem is, competition for the sexiest shots can blur the lines between being an observer…and becoming a participant.
Against that backdrop Jake Gyllenhaal as Lou Bloom delivers one of the great, yet frighteningly creepy screen performances of the year.
Cynical and unhinged from reality, Gyllenhaal muscles his way into this gray world—and he’s damn good at it.
He even successfully persuading a young kid with promises of the big time, to become his assistant and navigator which results in making him the first on the scene.
The best customer for the footage turns out to be Rene Russo, the news director of L.A.’s lowest rated evening newscast and who lets it be known that it’s not everyday urban crime footage she’s after, but the urban crime creeping into the nice UPSCALE SUBURBS.
Problem is those mandates can lead to overstepping the coverage in the process.
It’s the high intensity, high speed, cutthroat world of crime journalism with a possible Best Actor nomination in the wings for Gyllenhaal’s morally unhinged, unsettling performance.
Think NETWORK with shades of BROADCAST NEWS. And a good dose of TMZ thrown in for good measure.
It’s Coverage You Can Count On, as Russo’s news department proclaims
But IS IT?
Check out NIGHTCRAWLER, also featuring Bill Paxton—scoring a pulse pounding A-. (Opening citywide)
(Reviewed at AMC Ward Parkway)
JACK GOES TO THE MOVIES Friday mornings at 6:40 a.m. and 8:40 a.m. on 98.1 KMBZ—and anytime on Facebook.
Sounds like a good one, Jack.
It IS, CG.
It should be mandatory viewing in every TV newsroom!
You’ll love it.
Saw it Saturday night with my daughter Jack and we both thought it was excellent.
Great review.
I know you don’t pass out “A” grades very often