Nightcrawler - American Psycho 2

Somehow I've managed to have in my possession two Jake Gyllenhaal film at the moment, the first being Nightcrawler, a story in which Gyllenhaal plays mysterious unemployed loner Louis Bloom.  Bloom hits upon the idea of driving around the streets of Los Angeles with a police radio waiting for news of crashes and accidents to come in.  He then races to the scene to film the gory aftermath, selling his footage to whichever local TV station will pay the highest price to feed its sensationalist agenda.

Bloom is introduced to us without backstory or fanfare, he is an everyman, he is Norman Tebbit's web dream - the unemployed man who is getting on his bike and looking for work.  All we know about him is that he is here and he is motivated to succeed.  We have no idea why or what made him this way, all we know is that he has bought into the very essence of the capitalist dream, if it makes money then it has to be good.  Bloom will do and say anything to become a success - the American Dream made flesh.

In this sense the film has very similar themes to American Psycho, adjusted for the modern age of sensationalist news coverage.  Bloom represents the American Dream distilled into its purest form.  Bloom has read all the self-help books and can recite the words of aspirational speakers when talking to the people around him.  Bloom has become something other than human though.  In his striving to be the best, to maximise his potential, to live the American Dream, he has lost all empathy.  Bloom propositions his producer Nina (Rene Russo), blackmailing her for sex but dressing it up as market forces - the Capitalist Utopia at work.

In the middle of this is of course Gyllenhaal, giving a tour-de-force in acting as the wide-eyed and terrifyingly driven Bloom.  For Bloom nothing is more important than money, his career and the market forces that will drive him to success.  Thankfully the film did get an Oscar nomination (for screenplay), but I think before his career is done Gyllenhaal will be deserving of more than his current single nomination for acting (for Brokeback Mountain).

Disturbing, well-acted and well-shot with an eerie atmosphere of a society gone wrong, Nightcrawler is an excellent film that that might easily have crept under your radar.  I encourage you to seek it out.