Nightcrawler (2014)
- To accurately portray their role in Nightcrawler, Jake Gyllenhaal spent weeks conducting hands-on research and rehearsing directly with director Dan Gilroy.
- Nightcrawler utilized mostly practical sets and locations to ground the story, a specific choice insisted upon by Dan Gilroy.
Nightcrawler is a 2014 American neo-noir crime thriller written and directed by Dan Gilroy in his directorial debut. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Louis Bloom, a driven, socially maladjusted loner in Los Angeles who discovers the lucrative world of freelance crime journalism โ racing to crime scenes and accidents to film graphic footage that he sells to local television news stations. As Louis's ambition and disregard for ethical boundaries escalate, he begins manipulating crime scenes, withholding evidence from police, and ultimately engineering situations that will produce the most sensational footage.
Jake Gyllenhaal lost 30 pounds for the role, giving Louis a gaunt, wide-eyed intensity that was simultaneously unsettling and magnetic. His portrayal of Louis as a polite, self-educated sociopath who speaks in motivational business jargon while committing increasingly monstrous acts was a career-best performance that many considered a major Academy Award snub when he was not nominated. Dan Gilroy's screenplay was a savage satire of local television news culture, where the mantra "if it bleeds, it leads" incentivizes exactly the kind of predatory behavior Louis embodies.
Rene Russo, as the news director who becomes Louis's buyer and reluctant accomplice, was equally compelling as a professional whose own desperation makes her complicit. Robert Elswit's nighttime Los Angeles cinematography โ all sodium-vapor streetlights and the cold glow of police tape โ created one of the most evocative visual portraits of the city at night. Nightcrawler earned $50 million worldwide on an $8.5 million budget and received the Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
