When brilliance combines with obsession and mania, it becomes the perfect recipe for a dark adventure. In the new movie Nightcrawler, actor Jake Gyllenhaal blazingly plays Lou Bloom, a compulsive manipulator who is willing to put not only his life, but others’ lives in heart-pounding danger for a pocketful of cash.

Lou is a jobless recluse who ventures through Los Angeles at night, seeking any and all ways to make money. He steals copper wires and sells them for scrap, and viewers immediately get a sense of his psychotic (and frankly, just plain strange) personality. From his eerie, Grinch-esque smile to his piercing beady eyes and weird way of stringing words together, it’s obvious that Lou is not your typical Los Angeles guy. He’s definitely different.

After witnessing a car accident one dark night, Lou speaks to a cameraman who is filming the gruesome aftermath. The man explains his job to Lou: he listens in on police frequencies and rushes to crime scenes to film as much as possible. He then sells the footage to TV news stations. The bloodier the better because, according to the cameraman, “If it bleeds, it leads.”

Immediately, Lou is intrigued. The horrific, money-making job of filming people in pain inspires him, and he becomes obsessed with it. After buying a cheap camera and hiring a shady yet harmless “assistant” who is pretty much willing to do anything to make money as well, Lou dives in and begins the life of a “nightcrawler.”

Not once does Lou consider the legal and moral issues involved in this profession. Instead, he educates himself on the subject to a point where he can easily manipulate the people around him (his assistant Rick as well as producer Nina, who ends up buying his increasingly graphic material) in the most deadly, disturbing ways.

Lou’s crazed yet calm way of speaking, his impulsive actions and his overall persona are creepy and eccentric yet undeniably attractive. Viewers can’t help but grasp the armrests on their seats in anxious anticipation. What will Lou say or do next? Gyllenhaal drives the movie with a striking force and slips into a character that will stay with viewers long after leaving the theater.

The twisting events leave no chance for boredom throughout Nightcrawler. Excitement, shock and fear are prominent within the audience and resonate inside the theater. If it’s not the physical action that keeps viewers on their toes, it’s the ominous, often silent aura built up by Lou’s unsettling presence. The unique camera work is visually stunning, and it almost pulls the audience inside of the movie, as if they were living the heart-racing moments.

The film portrays the darkness that lurks within the corners of modern media and society. It certainly brings forward the issue of over-reporting, depicting it in a raw, immoral light that viewers cannot turn away from. This mirrors the way that people are often drawn to the bloody, unethical video footage aired live on TV. Nightcrawler succeeds in creeping under the viewers’ skin, and making them think twice about the road American society is headed down.

Rating: A

2014

R , 1 hr 57 min

Directed by: Dan Gilroy