Nightcrawler

Nightcrawler 2014

R - 1Hr 57Min   -  Netflix

I see I'm late to the game here as usual, viewing an older movie that seems fresh to me, at least.

 

The resemblances here to Taxi Driver are plenteous and obvious to anyone who knows a great plot.  Louis Bloom's hair in fact (Jake Gyllenhaal) echoes the different stages of unkempt and disheveled or tied up in a knot states of psychosis that the character finds himself in, as did Travis Bickle in an oily state, or a Mohawk, in his time of crisis in Scorsese's internalized drama. The "lonely man", single mind, up against the world, and finding the violent and disturbing and consistent state of affairs on the street does what he needs to do to maintain self-protection.  In Taxi Driver it's a gun.  In Nightcrawler, it's a camera.  But in both, at least at the beginning, our protagonist is searingly open-faced, vulnerable, almost naive. 

But the analogy breaks down about half way through the film.  Our man Louis it turns out is a Narcissist of the highest order, and Travis in Taxi Driver...well he was simply a kitty-cat lover in the end, and at despair over his own self, along with everyone else.  Travis did not have a perspective of himself that was healthy or disciplined outside of angst, and a conflicted person internally, whereas Louis, in Nightcrawler, is always highly aware of who he is, who others are, and in control.  A real psychopath, a complete abuser of relationships, a ladder climber of the first order.

The really disturbing thing for us, the onlookers to this media tragedy, is that we can see that this is what shapes our voyeuristic nature, our need of inside information, first-hand accounts, our seeming need for abject horror over and above good news or news that may be of political importance.  We crave dirt, salivating over death at times, embellishment drawing us in, as a rule, and will never admit it openly.  At least that is the case until we get absolutely tired of it.  It's not about news gathering, or about Louis, or even greed...it's really about us, or at least one version of a great many of us, as we salaciously want to see the blood on the pavement, the final moments of a life.

Concerning the NEWS...There have been many expositional pieces in cinema...Broadcast News (1987) or Network (1976), all the way back to Citizen Kane in '41. Nightcrawler utilizes the far end of a single human's psyche, and absolutely opaque behavior as the catalyst for the news being conveniently exploitative.

 

It's great, tense, and action packed as films go, with some nail-biting driving scenes and anticipation of events. So it's a fascinating, while also sadly reflective piece of film.  7 or 8 out of 10.

Here's a short list of like-minded subjects to take a look at if you've never seen them:

 

Ed TV

All the President's Men

Talk Radio

Natural Born Killers

The Truman Show

A Face in the Crowd

Broadcast News

Network

Medium Cool

 
- Agitatus