Nightcrawler

[Sgt_Gath]

Nightcrawler

This was an interesting film, though I'm honestly not really sure what to make of it.

Jake Gyllenhal basically plays a creepy, greasy, bug-eyed weirdo with a no people skills whatsoever, but more intelligence and fast-talking ambition than any person could possibly know what to do with. Over the course of the film, he is slowly but surely revealed to be a manipulative sociopath with no empathy whatsoever, and the drive necessary to do literally anything to succeed.

As the trailer shows, he starts working in the seedy business of filming late night crimes and tragedies on a freelance basis, so he can sell the footage to the local networks for their morning news coverage (a.k.a. 'Nightcrawling'). He gets to be very good at this, and eventually starts deliberately manufacturing his own crises so that he'll have better footage to sell.

That's basically the film in a nutshell.

It was intense, and certainly worth the watch (though Gyllenhal's performance honestly made me about as uncomfortable as it did the characters he was onscreen with

). I just got the definite impression that it was trying to send a greater message, and I'm not quite sure what that was.

Something having to do with the cynical and exploitative nature of our "shock value" centered media, and the jaded ruthlessness necessary to survive in that industry, I suppose?

Ether way: I'd give it an 8 out of 10.

 

[ChrisL]

Nightcrawler

This was an interesting film, though I'm honestly not really sure what to make of it.

Jake Gyllenhal basically plays a creepy, greasy, bug-eyed weirdo with a no people skills whatsoever, but more intelligence and fast-talking ambition than any person could possibly know what to do with. Over the course of the film, he is slowly but surely revealed to be a manipulative sociopath with no empathy whatsoever, and the drive necessary to do literally anything to succeed.

As the trailer shows, he starts working in the seedy business of filming late night crimes and tragedies on a freelance basis, so he can sell the footage to the local networks for their morning news coverage (a.k.a. 'Nightcrawling'). He gets to be very good at this, and eventually starts deliberately manufacturing his own crises so that he'll have better footage to sell.

That's basically the film in a nutshell.

It was intense, and certainly worth the watch (though Gyllenhal's performance honestly made me about as uncomfortable as it did the characters he was onscreen with

). I just got the definite impression that it was trying to send a greater message, and I'm not quite sure what that was.

Something having to do with the cynical and exploitative nature of our "shock value" centered media, and the jaded ruthlessness necessary to survive in that industry, I suppose?

Ether way: I'd give it an 8 out of 10.

By "manufacturing his own crises" do you mean that he lies or that he commits crimes? Not sure.

 

[Politico]

So he basically is the media.

 

[Sgt_Gath]

Nightcrawler

This was an interesting film, though I'm honestly not really sure what to make of it.

Jake Gyllenhal basically plays a creepy, greasy, bug-eyed weirdo with a no people skills whatsoever, but more intelligence and fast-talking ambition than any person could possibly know what to do with. Over the course of the film, he is slowly but surely revealed to be a manipulative sociopath with no empathy whatsoever, and the drive necessary to do literally anything to succeed.

As the trailer shows, he starts working in the seedy business of filming late night crimes and tragedies on a freelance basis, so he can sell the footage to the local networks for their morning news coverage (a.k.a. 'Nightcrawling'). He gets to be very good at this, and eventually starts deliberately manufacturing his own crises so that he'll have better footage to sell.

That's basically the film in a nutshell.

It was intense, and certainly worth the watch (though Gyllenhal's performance honestly made me about as uncomfortable as it did the characters he was onscreen with

). I just got the definite impression that it was trying to send a greater message, and I'm not quite sure what that was.

Something having to do with the cynical and exploitative nature of our "shock value" centered media, and the jaded ruthlessness necessary to survive in that industry, I suppose?

Ether way: I'd give it an 8 out of 10.

By "manufacturing his own crises" do you mean that he lies or that he commits crimes? Not sure.

Both. He breaks the law and manipulates situations so that they turn out worse than they would have otherwise, just so he can have a better story to film.

For instance, he watches a shooting happen, and sees the guys who did it, but doesn't tell the cops. Instead, he follows them around in his car for a couple of days, and waits until they're armed, and in a really crowded area, before calling the police, just so he can film the resulting shoot-out and sell it.

It's pretty messed up. lol

 

[ChrisL]

Nightcrawler

This was an interesting film, though I'm honestly not really sure what to make of it.

Jake Gyllenhal basically plays a creepy, greasy, bug-eyed weirdo with a no people skills whatsoever, but more intelligence and fast-talking ambition than any person could possibly know what to do with. Over the course of the film, he is slowly but surely revealed to be a manipulative sociopath with no empathy whatsoever, and the drive necessary to do literally anything to succeed.

As the trailer shows, he starts working in the seedy business of filming late night crimes and tragedies on a freelance basis, so he can sell the footage to the local networks for their morning news coverage (a.k.a. 'Nightcrawling'). He gets to be very good at this, and eventually starts deliberately manufacturing his own crises so that he'll have better footage to sell.

That's basically the film in a nutshell.

It was intense, and certainly worth the watch (though Gyllenhal's performance honestly made me about as uncomfortable as it did the characters he was onscreen with

). I just got the definite impression that it was trying to send a greater message, and I'm not quite sure what that was.

Something having to do with the cynical and exploitative nature of our "shock value" centered media, and the jaded ruthlessness necessary to survive in that industry, I suppose?

Ether way: I'd give it an 8 out of 10.

By "manufacturing his own crises" do you mean that he lies or that he commits crimes? Not sure.

Both. He breaks the law and manipulates situations so that they turn out worse than they would have otherwise, just so he can have a better story to film.

For instance, he watches a shooting happen, and sees the guys who did it, but doesn't tell the cops. Instead, he follows them around in his car for a couple of days, and waits until they're armed, and in a really crowded area, before calling the police, just so he can film the resulting shoot-out and sell it.

It's pretty messed up. lol

It sounds like a pretty good movie.

 

[Politico]

That's not messed up. It is brilliant.