As soon as I saw the trailer, I instantly put it on my list of films to watch this year.
I am a fan of Jake Gyllenhaal. But when I saw him in the trailer, it did not look like him at all. He has completely changed his look for his actor and that just intrigued me even more.
What I saw was possibly the performance that could get give him his best chance of nominations in the upcoming awards season.
From the first scene, you could already see that his character is someone that you should not encounter. From then on, despite his creepiness we manage to care for Gyllenhaal's character even when this thrill ride gets cranked up to the slightly disturbing.
Everyone will be talking about Gyllenhaal, but the story is still a very gripping one that has quite a fresh look to it. We get to see a job that we never really think about, and we get to know a pretty dark profession that some people would kill for.
Apart from the obvious, the big positives that I got from this was how the idea was used and I think director Dan Gilroy makes best use of it. Throughout, the choice of landscape and cinematography style was tip-top, especially during the night scenes which there was a lot of.
The pace was pretty solid throughout. It even got me biting my nails towards the end which is something that I never do even when it it supposed to be a thriller.
However the tone of it I felt could have been improved. Overall, I thought it was pretty good. But there were moments that I felt it lowered the quality of the characters and the story and that is probably what will stop me considering this as one of the years best.
Outside of Gyllenhaal, there was one particular performance that was outstanding and that was Rene Russo. Like Gyllenhaal, from the opening scene you quickly get engaged with her character and never want her to leave the screen. Whether she has good intentions or not, her screen presence gets you interested and hooked and that is tough to do as a supporting role.
There were hardly any major faults apart from maybe how it ended. It is one that I think a lot of people will not be satisfied, but just about fine with.
In the end, I really enjoyed this movie and was really proud to see Gyllenhaal give a career best performance. It is definitely something completely different from his previous films. The closest comparison would be from Donnie Darko, and I would relate it to Christian Bale's character from American Psycho.
Nightcrawler gives us a great idea that we can think about long after the credits have ended. The whole experience is tense, dark, disturbing and even turns your stomach on a few scenes. There is also a surprising amount of comedy moments, which was nice to see. This could get a few nominations come awards season and Mr. Gyllenhaal will be leading the charge with his full-on creepy character.
Rating: 8/10
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