NIGHTCRAWLER

NIGHTCRAWLER

NIGHTCRAWLER: A

I guess I would consider this film more or less a character study on the need for money, importance, fame, power and recognition. Jake Gyllenhaal's character of Lou Bloom was already a sociopath from the beginning. I would have liked it more if he had been a well natured person, poisoned through desperation and only cured through temptation. 

Matter of fact, I really wish the beginning scene of the film where he attacks the security guard and steals the watch was not in the movie. I think without it the film would have had a stronger message, relaying how the lure of money, fame, power and recognition can make us do things that we would have otherwise considered evil, immoral or in the least unethical.

Then again, maybe the film's point was that the only way to get to that level of power and money, is to be a sociopath like Lou Bloom and not have the conscious to question your own actions.

With the attack on the security guard and the setup on his employee at the end, I feel secure in my labeling of Lou Bloom as a bad person. Yet without those two moments, its not so black and white to me anymore. It's more grey and I question whether I have a right to see Bloom as a bad person or not, solely based on how he puts money into his pocket. Withholding information from the law is illegal, and wrong in principle. Wrong morally? Seems more circumstantial than general.

Very good film. Showed off Gyllenhaal's versatility as an actor. Some people can only play the good guy or the bad guy in films, having a very difficult time transitioning to the other. I've seen him in many films where he's played a very likable character. He did excellent. He also does excellent here playing an extremely unlikable charact