“Nightcrawler (2014) is Dan Gilroy’s debut feature as a director and it’s a neo-noir psychological thriller. Exaggerated even more, it leads us into the shady world of freelance criminal writing and how far people are willing to go for success and in such a cut-throat field — ethics be damned. This is one of the most menacing and powerful performances from Jake Gyllenhaal ever. Nightcrawler is a darkly comedic look behind the curtain of modern media that creates an unsettling reflection on ambition, morality and the ever-fading line between voyeur and participant.”
In Image: Nightcrawler (2014)
American Psycho Centers around Lou Bloom, an ambitious but amoral anti-hero free of any job specs (at the film’s outset). Gyllenhaal plays Lou as a psychopath, savage and only more so when he starts to become the grim face of modern capitalist society. The film focuses on his rise in the world of freelance video journalism, as well as how he evolved from unemployed drifter into wealthy but unscrupulous businessman. Gyllenhald’s Lou Bloom is unsettling, eerie and frightening because of how far he goes to find success. His is one of the key components that sets Nightcrawler apart as a dark, unsettling thriller.
Overview of the Plot
In Nightcrawler, when we first see Lou Bloom he is a petty thief hustling the occasional small item. A vehicle accident he stumbles upon has “nightcrawlers,” or freelance cameramen, filming the aftermath to sell to local news stations. Lou, seduced by the possibility of making a living this way, buys himself a cheap camera and a police scanner and enters the world of freelance crime journalism — for life.
However, Lou soon realizes that the only thing that really matters to get ahead in this business, and heck all businesses regardless of how moral or immoral it was at some point, is to have the most brutal and shocking events on film. He partners with news director Nina Romina (Rene Russo), who’s desperate to increase ratings for her flagging station. Nina pushes Lou to add more outrageously incriminating content, even if the footage comes from morally ambiguous origins.
“In his new job, the better Lou gets at it, the less moral he becomes. At one point he even manufactures an opportunity for an exclusive video, tampering with his own crime scene and withholding important information from police. His ability to predict where crime will occur — before even the cops — gives him a leg up, but it also reveals his moral ambivalence. He eventually hires assistant Rick (Riz Ahmed), who gets drawn into Lou’s sordid, unethical universe.
Lou deliberately refrains from informing Nightcrawler police of a crime so he can orchestrate this high-stakes chase between police and suspects. This is the film’s climax. Lou filmed this ungodly encounter in gruesome slow-motion. At the end of the film, Lou has achieved his dream of success in freelancing journalism without any awareness or care for what he sacrificed to get there.
Motifs & Themes
One of the central themes in Nightcrawler is about how we monetize human tragedy here at the dawn of 21st century media. The fact that news organizations taking the heat from Fabrication Factory put sensationalism before integrity is a direct reflection of our voyeurism culture present in modern society, something that the film seeks to criticize. Lou Bloom’s character progression in crime journalism stemmed from his wanting to profit off of what happens to people. Graphic and disgusting video gets more value for news stations meaning the media would rather a dehumanized people in order to boost viewership.
Another key theme in Nightcrawler is how capitalism and the American Dream takes a nightmarish form. Lou is the evil face of entrepreneurial spirit. He is the definition of a ‘self-made man’, starting with nothing and building an entire company on sheer will power and creativity. But he wields force, and takes advantage of these folks with complete disregard for ethics when it comes to getting his way. Nightcrawler serves up a sharp critique of the darkest sides of capitalism; where success is so often built on things like a decay in morality and the suffering of others.
Another subject that the movie discusses is what morality means in more and more grey areas of right versus wrong. Lou does increasingly immoral things over the course of the movie, but nothing bad ever happens to him. Instead, he is rewarded with influence, power, success. What accountability fails to address, however, is a couple of questions — the broader society that encompasses these organizations also has lost their moral compass and simply put, they have colluded with people and organizations doing this activity. Nightcrawler, in a world dominated by profit and sensationalism, it is clear that ambition and greed can easily outpace any semblance of ethics.
Lou Bloom: A Sociopathy Study
In Nightcrawler, the central character Lou Bloom (psychopathic traits) drives the plot. Lou is a master of getting what he wants through seduction and glib speech. He was a sociopath, only concerned himself with using people to do his bidding (considering them nothing more than tools to achieve his desired end) and then discarding them when they were no longer useful †. Everyone has a transactional relationship to him, and nothing will get between him and what he wants–not even another person he might injure or kill.
Jake Gyllenhaal’s portrayal of Lou Bloom is nothing short of incredible. He embodies the cold, calculating nature of the character shockingly well. To portray the role, Gyllenhaal allegedly lost a significant amount of weight to give Lou an emaciated, almost predatory appearance. Nothing gives Lou an unsettling aura quite like his empty eyes and spooky smile, making him one of modern cinema’s most recognizable and nightmare-inducing characters.
The fact that Lou so unabashedly expresses zero remorse or regret for the destruction he wreaks is undeniable proof of his sociopathy. Lou would never hesitate to do whatever it takes to score better footage, whether that means tricking the police department, manipulating a crime scene, or standing back and watching his assistant die. Blinded by ambition, he cannot see the ethical consequences of his actions and by the end of the film gladly embraces being a media predator.
The Media’s Function in Nightcrawler
Nightcrawler: A Slamming Take On The Power Of The Media And How Far They Are Willing To Compromise Morality For Viewers It argues that the shock factor of current affairs coverage overshadows deeper, educational journalism by presenting cinematic representations of pain and tragedy ahead of news culture. Nina Romina, Lou’s news director, represents this way of thinking by paying more attention to increasing her station’s ratings than the moral implications of what she airs.
When it comes to the relationship between Nina and Lou, there is mutual exploitation. He uses her platform to promote his work, and she uses his footage to keep a job. The film’s criticism of media is latent here, suggesting that sensationalist practices in news reports are a matter of institutional structure shaped by consumer demands rather than an individual ambition (a ‘hunger’ as the film characterized it) trying to pass through human barriers. Instead of focusing on quality or objectivity, news stations depend on ratings as a measure of success like companies do.
It confronts its audience with an indifference to misery — and violence. Lou’s tape continues to grow graphic and grotesque, yet the audience numbly observes. And, like the news outlets, the public participates in sadification by accepting increasingly horrific images as entertainment. In turn, Nightcrawler gives its audience something to ponder on both the viewer’s own role in the sensationalism cycle and well as the moral implications of such material ingestion.
Cinematography and Visual Style
Nightcrawler is a visual feast as Los Angeles at night serves the film’s dark themes. The image of the city is a huge dark Landscape where sky sand was thrown with neon lights. Robert Elswit, cinematographer here and a longtime collaborator with the director, adeptly captures the contrast between post-9/11 New York’s glimmering lights and below-ground darks, which lends the whole an ominous tone.
In Video: Nightcrawler (2014) Trailer
Famous for its noirish style, the nighttime locales help reinforce the moral ambiguity of both characters and their world. The sanitized image presented by the media and the brutal reality of events reported in the news are represented by Lou’s compositions — bright city lights that wash out or obscure any darkness (save for blackness signaling where a crime has been committed). This contrast lends itself to the film’s indictment of the media and its manipulation of public perception.
Nightcrawler — The cinematography helps the suspense & anxiety of Nightcrawl. During the most emotional moments, particularly in scenes that feature Lou and other characters as they make heartbreaking decisions regarding their future together or apart from one another, the use of handheld cameras and close-ups create a sense of intimacy and immediacy that puts viewers inside Lou’s head. And it’s a testament to the movie’s slow, deliberate pace, full of long lingering shots where the tension gradually creeps up on you that makes its final, explosive moments so powerful.
Acceptance and Heritage
Nightcrawler — At the time of its release, Nightcrawler earned critical acclaim for Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance, Dan Gilroy’s directing and the storyline itself. Lou Bloom earned Gyllenhaal numerous award nominations, including a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor and is one of his greatest performances to date. Part of what makes the film one of the top films of 2014 is its dark, cynical view on media and its examination of moral grey areas resonated with both critics and viewers alike.”
The film is arguably one of the more provocative and chilling thrillers released from the 2010s decade, a reputation that only strengthens over time. The fact that it satirises the media and how they portray tragedies becoming almost a spectacle to be enjoyed, is tragically still relevant today- as if there even is a difference between news and entertainment anymore. Nightcrawler has been analyzed and discussed by many scholars and critics as a modern parable about journalistic ethics and the dangers of pathological ambition.
Journalism and Ethics: Nightcrawler’s Effect on Media Criticism
The ethics of journalism is one of the most relevant conversations that Nightcrawler initiates. When the constant churn of 24-hour news and clickable headlines often dictates journalism, the film asks how far reporters — or in this case, videographers — should go to get a story. Interpretation: Lou Bloom is a gross outcome of a society that values sensationalism and profit over truth or integrity.
Conflating the roles of observer and participant can lead journalists to engage in unethical behavior. This is illustrated best, however, by Lou hiseself in Nightcrawler. As Lou distorts this moral compass more and more, he begins to change crime scenes, delay contact with the authorities–even cover up evidence from police. Lou stops being an uninvolved observer and directly participates in the creation of such events — his camera a means of enforcing, as it were, what will be the stuff that matters.
The film itself serves a critique to the collusion of actual journalism in needing more shocking, graphic and deeply intimate content to keep viewer marginalia engaged. The best representation of this type of thinking is Nina Romina, who condones Lou’s unethical actions despite being fully aware of them, all because it’ll bolster her ratings. To paraphrase Nina, she represents the widespread issue across media companies where profits and ratings are prioritized over journalistic standards.
In this day and age, when social media and citizen journalism have really created a labyrinth between the connection of ethics to news, this is critical. It is instantaneous, usually unedited info on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok and Twitter and there has never been so much competition for eyeballs. The given pressure is the reason that Nightcrawler resonates with this because they need to have attention and do whatever it takes, even an unethical thing, yet know right. Lou Bloom embodies what we become when ambition and the pursuit of money goes unchecked.
Nightcrawler’s Sociopolitical Context
Nightcrawler serves as a commentary on the sociopolitical state of America and also holds journalism and media, in general, accountable. Lou Bloom’s rise in the field of criminal journalism is emblematic of the social and economic woes faced by so many Americans. At the start of the film Lou becomes a symbol for economic recession. He’s a smart and clever man, but is struggling to find consistent work. In a capitalist society where the strong prey on the weak, he has made precisely the kind of career choice that gets him paid by other people’s pain.
The film could be viewed as a criticism of the worst parts of the American Dream. Lou is a man with ambition, whose illegal activities he sees as par for the course when it comes to business. He talks in the motivational speeches and corporate self-help-type books. He speaks endlessly about being an entrepreneur, self-improvement and hustle culture, but runs to the boardiest epiphany possible under the lack of morality and empathy that defines these concepts — they are meaningless bollocks.
In many respects, Nightcrawler is a reflection of the type of civilization that will value outcomes over techniques. Instead of paying the price for his psychopathic tendencies, Lou is rewarded. That’s the secret of his success: He understands that in a news business, greed and sensationalism always takes precedence over ethics. At the movie’s conclusion, Lou has achieved his goals and now exists as a successful man without facing sufficient consequences for his actions. Therefore, the film also critiques the systems that allow this behavior to flourish.
Rick’s Persona: An Opposite View of Lou Bloom
In Nightcrawler, Lou Bloom is the protagonist and contains main character status but adding a counterweight to that while also maintaining narrative momentum comes in the form of Rick played by Riz Ahmed. Rick, who is Lou’s aide has a moral compass throughout the film even though he certainly isn’t without flaws. Rick’s motivations are not ambitious or out for power unlike Lou. Lou has easy access to Rick because of financial woes and out of work.
Throughout the film, Rick is uncomfortable with Lou’s increasing depravity but there’s nothing he can do about it. We all know Lou is crossing ethical lines, and yet he ends up becoming his employee, purely out of desperation. Rick is everyman in a world where morality is frequently sacrificed for survival. This is driven home by the end of his arc, where he is left to die so that Lou can find better shots; a fitting image of the way Lou’s society discards people like trash and wins through the misery of others.
The triumph, however, is a world away from the dismal ending for Rick. Lou gets rewarded for his amorality, while Rick is punished for not being able to fully adapt to the business’ savagery. It also amplifies one of the key criticisms at the heart of the film — a society where ambition and profit run at cross-purposes to morality and existence.
Overall, certainly one of those good and disturbing movies that is savagely critical about the media these days and what rampant ambition can do to some one. Lou Bloom serves as vehicle for the film to explore what moral compromises individual and institutional actors are willing to make in pursuit of success and profits. In a haunting and unforgettable performance, Jake Gyllenhaal plays a personification of the moral decay within an industry wide, and society at large that seems led solely by sensationalism and greed.
More than just a wacky drama-action film, Nightcrawler is a heady and relevant commentary that delves into themes of capitalism, morality in media — or lack thereof — as well as the market price for human suffering. It forces us to confront uncomfortable truths about the society we live in, particularly how effective media can sway public opinion and what that means for us when we essentially consume sensationalist news.
"Nightcrawler is not just a movie about a sociopath journalist, it is also an indictment of the societal ills that allow this kind of behavior to thrive." Even well after the credits have rolled, the film stays with the viewer; forcing one to question their own choices and setting in which they live."Nightcrawler' still remains a hallmark of modern cinema that offers an unsettling window into the dark side of Polite Society Capitalism."