The film works best as a slick suspenseful thriller…

‘Nightcrawler’ is no ‘Taxi Driver’, and Lou while a reflection of our full and empty times isn’t really a product of it.

The City of Angels is photographed with breathtaking virtuosity by Robert Elswit. A sonorous music score by James Newton Howard adds to the film’s impact.

The film ends on a strange but wholly believable note though it seems like it could stick out as the only sore point in an otherwise pulsating film. That said, Nightcrawler is one of the best films to have come out this year and despite all the big budget entertainers and A-list directors coming out with films that make more noise before release and leave you feeling underwhelmed, Nightcrawler is a sleeper hit. Forget everything else that’s on in the theatres right now and watch this masterpiece of a film.

Perhaps what keeps one glued to Nightcrawler is the marvel that one is bound to feel at one’s inability to dislike such a clearly diabolic character.

There’s something beguilingly vulnerable in the wide blue eyes of Louis Bloom and though you will find him likeable at first, its his (and Gyllenhaal’s) ability to gain your trust that will leave you disturbed.

Nightcrawler is tense and appalling, yet strangely funny, intriguing and engaging at the same time. Watch it.

It’s a disturbingly stark and sufficiently suffocating look at the stuff that makes monsters of men. Recommended watching for every student of human nature.

A reflection of the present times when television and their ‘breaking news’ have become a part and parcel of our lives, Nightcrawler is an excellent study about a man who wants to deliver at all costs. What I particularly liked about the screenplay is the fact that it is as much of a character study of the man in question as it is a commentary on today’s world.

The film is directed by first timer Dan Gilroy (the brother of Tony Gilroy of the Bourne movies), yet it feels like it’s made by an auteur with a ton of experience. Despite heavy themes embedded within the narrative the film is a black comedy, and in fact a lot of fun. Some of it is even a horror movie, but whatever the shift in tone the intrigue level is always at full throttle.

There aren’t a lot of movies like Nightcrawler out there. The concept is fresh, the characters are well-etched and the pacing is rather perfect. The best thing about the movie is the fact that it can be watched time and again, and it will still manage to haunt you afterwards.

The most frightening thing about Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler – even more than those sallow, sunken cheeks, those googly eyes, and that unkempt hair tied into a greasy bun – is his smile.