Review – Nightcrawler

Ever since hearing one of the voices on a Treme episode commentary track identify Davis McAlary as one of the show’s heroes, I’ve come to realize that I’m completely out of touch with American society in general and popular culture in particular. I feel I can no longer reliably tell the good guys from the assholes. Thus I doubt my ability to provide you with an accurate assessment of Jake Gyllenhaal’s character in this odd picture. He starts out as a creepy scrap metal thief and ends up as a creepy yet highly successful independent news videographer. The guy made me uncomfortable throughout the entire movie, and he seemed to have the same effect on the other characters. Yet he has no internal character arc at all. Other than exploring the icky world of guys who record accidents and crime scenes for a living (and occasionally pontificating about the cynical nature of the media), I didn’t see a lot of point to any of this. Mildly amusing