Jake Gyllenhaal as the Nightcrawler
Imagine trolling the seedy, late night streets of Los Angeles for gruesome footage of accidents and murders, for sale to the highest bidder in the local, late news ratings wars. “If It Bleeds It Leads” is the prevailing mentality in an industry where it comes down to which competing news outlet will win the weekly ratings contest for the most sensational, prurient interest stories.
Nightcrawler is the film which thoroughly embodies how a creepy bottom-feeder of an urban cesspit climbs the slimy ladder of coercion, manipulation, and power-grabbing to become a mover and shaker himself, in this cutthroat, sleazy world of L.A. crime journalism.
The nightcrawler or stringer, as it’s better known in news media parlance, is the amoral Louis Bloom played to memorably squeamish effect by Jake Gyllenhaal. How the Bloom character discovers his niche, that he actually has a real talent as a “nightcrawler” and methodically builds on this – is more intriguing than the questionable activities he pursues.
Nightcrawler also works well as an absorbing study of how Bloom comes into contact with fading news director Nina, (played by Rene Russo) whose station is consistently the lowest rated in town. Hers is a tough job, and if she can’t get the late night ratings to show remarkable improvement soon – she’ll be hitting the pavement looking for a new one! Bloom, however, helps to revive her sagging fortunes, initially by cajoling and manipulating her, gaining her trust. Soon, however; he becomes more insidious and uses sexual coercion and plays on her insecurities, to pull her more firmly into his web of dominance.
Watching Bloom gain this power over her and the others he pulls firmly into his sphere of influence to achieve his increasingly rapacious ambitions – never allows the viewer’s attention to stray. The story brings up much food for thought, such as, that American moviemakers always want us to root for the underdog – and as Nightcrawler opens, Bloom certainly starts out as a nobody on the fast track to oblivion. We might automatically think – he needs to catch a break!
Still, as the story progresses, this niche or specialty that he discovers is not the most admirable career path and is ethically sketchy at best (especially considering the way Bloom robustly chases it). Nobody wants to applaud a career move that could be considered debased – but just how critical can the viewer be of Bloom’s choices? The stringer or nightcrawler still fulfills a demand or market that must be satisfied on a daily basis. With that said, aren’t we as the viewers complicit in fueling the media’s pursuit of salacious interest stories?
Then again, there’s that old saying: “It’s a dirty job but somebody’s go to do it.” Of course, with that being said; it’s still human nature to be critical of the choices others make in life rather than examine our own too closely. Yet, this is the type of debate which never ends: the same old chicken and egg syndrome.
What possibly causes the greatest discomfort when watching Nightcrawler is the adrenaline rush Bloom gets from the pursuit of his quarry rather than the lurid stories he pursues. However, Nightcrawler is so well made that any discomfort that it causes to the viewer (and it does!) should raise questions about the morality and ethics of media producers and those who passively consume it.
Nightcrawler also raises some other questions that may not immediately come to mind, otherwise. For instance, who decides exactly, what rates of pay that a nightcrawler receives for his photos or video footage? How do competing news pay for this in relation to each other? Does this system encourages ‘creating ‘ news rather than just reporting it? These questions cannot also help but make one think: how does the news media decide what stories to broadcast? What events are the viewers not hearing about?
In any case, Nightcrawler is an outstanding example of neo-noir for our time, with appropriately murky atmosphere. It superbly depicts the unsavory characters of varying degrees who create the modern media and makes us the question the tastes of those who allow it to be pushed onto them.