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).
