Nightcrawler (2014) * * *

Directed by:  Dan Gilroy

Starring:  Jake Gyllenhaal, Riz Ahmed, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton

Louis Bloom (Gyllenhaal) is a sociopath who stumbles across the perfect career as a "nightcrawler", a term for a free lance video cameraman who listens intently to police scanners and sells footage of grisly car crashes and homicides to the highest bidding TV stations.    Bloom is scary, not necessarily because he behaves violently towards others, but because we imagine the lengths he will go to satisfy his egotistical career goals.    "It's not that I know people.   It's that I don't like them," he tells his assistant Ricky (Ahmed), who begins to understand the true nature of his boss all too well.

Bloom behaves cordially, almost too cordially,  and with a disarming smile for everyone he meets.    If Norman Bates were not satisfied with running the motel and ventured out into the streets of Los Angeles, he would likely behave like Bloom.     We witness the ingratiating Louis turn into manipulative and scheming Louis on numerous occasions, especially when attempting to entice the news director he works with (Russo) to sleep with him.     She tries the old line, "I wouldn't want to ruin our friendship," in order to dissuade him.    Louis responds with, "What if you telling me no ruins our friendship?"    Guys, I must say this may be the perfect comeback line for that age-old excuse.    If a woman tries to lay it on you, channel Louis Bloom and see how it goes.    Or better yet, don't.

Nightcrawler succeeds primarily because of Gyllenhaal's relentless performance.     Slight of build, but not slight of ambition, we see Louis learn the art of nightcrawling.     If you think he would be above staging a crime scene or perhaps messing with the brakes of a competitor's van so that it would be involved in a gruesome accident, then you would be wrong.    Gyllenhaal is tightly wound, almost sounding like a walking, talking MBA online course when discussing his goals and future prospects.    He never assaults anyone or turns into a psychotic killer.    However, we also know he is so beyond ordinary human feelings that what remains is a shell of a person.    In the TV news business, where the unspoken (and sometimes spoken) rule is "If it bleeds, it leads",  a nightcrawler's job, in a sense, is to film the most blood so it will capture the lead story slot.    

This is the perfect job for Louis, who isn't bothered by gore, violence, or ruthlessness.    The only thing that seems to rankle him is when his news director chastises him for not giving her better material.     That is enough to make him smash his bathroom mirror.     Nightcrawler is a character study about the type of person MBA online or even classroom courses seem to spit out.    We hear the MBAspeak about motivation, goals, personal development, performance reviews, and longterm business plans.    What we don't hear, especially from Louis, is any semblance that there is a human being inside.    Louis, and many like him, are flesh, blood, and smiles, but there is really no one home.     Certain aspects of Nightcrawler play like black comedy, a la Network, in which we think some of the satire is over the top, but upon reflection we realize that it is just barely ahead of the facts.