Nightcrawler

Review by Bob Ignizio

When we first meet Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), the protagonist of NIGHTCRAWLER, he elicits our sympathy. He's a young, smart, resourceful guy who, despite a being down on his luck, genuinely wants to work. To make ends meet at the moment, he's collecting scrap metal, and not always by legal means. So even when he punches out a security guard who catches him stealing some chain link fence, we're still kind of on his side.

Eventually Louis discovers the twilight world of freelance late-night crime photography. After asking veteran cameraman Joe Loder (Bill Paxton) for a job and being brusquely turned down, Louis finds his entrepreneurial spirit, gets a cheap video camera and a police scanner, and goes into business for himself. Learning the ropes without anyone to teach him is rough, but eventually Louis starts to get footage that interests Channel 6 news director Nina Romina (Rene Russo). He also gets an “intern” willing to navigate while he drives, another down on his luck guy named Rick (Riz Ahmed).

31 Days of Halloween 2013: Frailty

Review by Joseph Anthony

One dark night, 12 years ago, I watched a movie in my living room that made my skin crawl. During the movie the character of Adam Meiks complains that he doesn’t like to watch movies alone. I found myself relating to Adam, as this was one of those rare films when you find yourself wishing you had someone with you.  

FRAILTY is a movie that has gone relatively unnoticed. Directed and staring Bill Paxton, it shows the scariest side of religious fanaticism. Outside of Paxton, who plays father Meiks (we never get a first name), the film stars a young Matthew McConaughey as Fenton Meiks (son of the father Meiks). McConaughey has recently been praised for some of his performances over the last year or so, including MUD, KILLER JOE and MAGIC MIKE. However, McConaughey’s performance in FRAILTY shows he’s always had the ability to play it calm, cool and collected.

2 Guns

Review by Joseph Anthony

2 GUNS, directed by Baltasar Kormakur (CONTRABAND), comes to us as the summer season is winding down. A summer that has shown little mercy on its faithful patrons. Regardless, 2 GUNS comes star studded, guns blazing and as clichéd as possible.

2 GUNS revolves around Bobby Trench (Denzel Washington), a DEA agent and Michael Stigman (Mark Wahlberg), a naval intelligence officer. Both have been given the same assignment of infiltrating a drug cartel by their respective organization, and while both keep their real identity a secret to the other, both are using each other to get closer to the cartel.