Nightcrawler - Review

Within the dark of night, only few creep the streets lurking within the grimy suburban nighttime hunting for a deeper meaning to life, a calling, something that they can truly feel one within themselves… Wait this is starting to sound too much like a build up to a super hero film and less along the dusty path that ‘Nightcrawler’ really follows along.

Jake Gyllenhaal stars in the gritty Action/Thriller Nightcrawler from longtime writer, first time Director Dan Gilroy. With a few familiar faces, ‘Nightcrawler’ delivers us an insight to the dark side of Camera men looking to make a living getting shots of recent tragedies and selling them to the news just to make a few bucks – These people, simply labeled ‘NightCrawlers’. To be a Nightcrawler, you need to be a special kind of person, and quite frankly on the boarder of insanity… Something that, Gyllenhall portrays with almost perfection.

For the few hardcore fans, many would have seen Jake in the cult sensation ‘Donnie Darko’, and be well aware of the creepiness that the man is capable of portraying. Throughout the film, I had an overwhelming uncomforted feeling as Jake’s character waltzed around dipping himself into any situation possible just to get a sellable piece of film, to finally become someone worthy of knowing, and worthy of being ‘known’.

The film is a dark inside look at what the job entails and just how competitive it is, along side with just what the News will do to attempt to have a thrilling and captivating scoop for its audiences. At times the film was engaging and compelling, yet there where many instances where it felt lacking and slow… The soundtrack was part of the disappointment, with this being shaped; we could have had another ‘Drive’ on our hands. With a plethora of magical cinematography and delicious camera shots, the film its self is stand alone to give any cinema buff a sense of delight as the film greasily slides its story into our minds.

All in all, It is a well recommended watch as the rest of the promising Oscar films start to grace the screens. I would recommend at least seeing this film once, whether or not it will get a mention at the awards is doubtful, but Gyllenhaal does carry the film wholeheartedly.

I give ‘Night Crawler’ a solid 7/10

Reviewed by Mase Shaw - Follow Mase on Twitter@MaseShaw