Nightcrawler (8/10): Dan Gilroy and Jake Gyllenhaal channeling Scorsese and De Niro

“That's my job, that's what I do, I'd like to think if you're seeing me you're having the worst day of your life.”

Dan Gilroy’s feature debut is not only an impressive and dark character study of a persistent and ambitious man, but it also is a social critique of our culture’s obsession over bloody and graphic news stories. It would be easy for Gilroy to center his screenplay on the cheap criticism of today’s TV news stations motto, “If it bleeds, it leads,” but it goes beyond that and makes us wonder why we as an audience eat up those news stories. There is a reason why the media feeds us these graphic stories and it is because we have this morbid fascination for these kind of stories. That is exactly what Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo’s characters represent in this amoral and dark film. It’s not only a criticism towards criminal journalism, but a sharp critique on our society’s fascination with graphic and bloody images. Robert Elswit captures this dark mood through his camera lense to give us a different and stylish view of Los Angeles than what we are used to seeing on film. 

Nightcrawler reminded me a lot of Scorsese’s work in Taxi Driver. Jake Gyllenhaal’s Louis Bloom seems to be in some distant way related to De Niro’s Travis Bickle. Both these characters are dark and psychotic, while at the same time having some sort of charm that attracts us to them. Bloom is a determined and ambitious young man who becomes fascinated with the possibilities in the journalistic world. He likes to drive around at night and is drawn to violence. Unlike Travis Bickle, he has no sympathy for anyone and simply wants to make a career out of his freelancing camera work. The more violence he can capture in his camera, the better opportunities he will have to succeed. There are no moral boundaries when it comes to his work and the transformation he goes through in the film is subtilely played by Gyllenhaal. Jake Gyllenhaal is at his best when he plays these sort of dark characters that move around at night (Prisoners, Zodiac, and Donnie Darko come to mind). 

Rene Russo also delivers an impressive performance and plays a huge role in Bloom’s ascendence as a nightcrawler. The power shift between her character and Bloom is portrayed really well in this film. She seems to be in control of the relationship during their first encounters in the news station, but as Bloom rapidly ascends in the business he takes control of his own destiny. There is an interesting dynamic going on between these two characters and in the end they aren’t too different from each other putting their careers before others. How these two actors were ignored by the Academy for their performances is beyond me, but this film wouldn’t have worked as well as it did if it weren’t for those two powerhouse performances. Bill Paxton and Riz Ahmed also give interesting supporting performance. Ahmed (who was also great in Four Lions) plays Rick, a personal assistant of Bloom who is easily manipulated by him, and Paxton is a night journalist who Bloom perceives as his competition. The cast in this film deliver solid roles, but it’s Jake Gyllenhaal who carries the film with his impressive physical transformation. As big of a star as he is, he disappears and becomes this amoral man who will stop at nothing to get to the crime scene first. He gives a magnetic performance and as an audience you never know what to expect next from him. Kudos to Dan Gilroy on his feature debut for delivering such a wonderful thriller and having had the vision to cast Gyllenhaal for a role he was meant to play.

My Review: Thor: The Dark World (6/10)

"You must be truly desperate to come to me for help."

Marvel Universe Season 2 Episode 2

The second phase of the Marvel universe began this summer with Iron Man 3 which was a film I enjoyed very much, but really hasn't seemed to stick with me. I'm afraid the same problem can be said about Thor: The Dark World, which was an entertaining movie but I don't think I'd enjoy it as much on a second viewing. Most of these films are fun and exciting as you experience them for the first time, but the magic seems to vanish for me after a few weeks. Perhaps The Avengers was so great that these sequels don't seem to live up to the standard set by Joss Whedon. I still had a great time in the movies and enjoyed the sequel to Thor considering I wasn't blown away by the first film either. By now Thor knows exactly who he is and doesn't have to prove anything to anyone, so we get to see him in action with his might hammer quite a bit. At times the film has a sort of Star Wars vibe to it mixed with The Lord of the Rings (with Jane reminding me of Frodo), but the final action scene suffers from something we've seen in way too many superhero films recently: buildings getting completely destroyed and blown up. It also mixes some elements near the end that we've seen in Jumper, but all in all the film succeeds thanks to the great chemistry between Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston. The way they played off each other and interacted was the highlight of the film, and Hiddleston was extremely funny here. I wasn't a huge fan of his in the first Thor, but after The Avengers I began to enjoy his performance, and his character in this sequel is better than ever. I wasn't blown away by the action scenes, but I did like the smaller comedic and light moments which the film had to offer. The film is entertaining enough to garner at least one watch.

The film picks up after the events of The Avengers with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) back in Asgard serving his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) trying to restore peace to the nine realms that his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) has altered. Loki is sentenced to prison after his mother Frigga (Rene Russo) insists he shouldn't be killed. It turns out to be a good decision because Thor will need his service after the city is attacked by a race of beings known as the Dark Elves. Their leader, Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), is searching for a weapon known as the Aether which had been taken away from him thousands of years ago by Odin's father. Since the aether couldn't be destroyed, the Asgardians had to hide it. In the meantime Jane (Natalie Portman), who hasn't seen or heard from Thor since he left two years ago, along with her assistant Darcy (Kat Dennings) discover an anomaly very similar to the one that had brought Thor to Earth in the past. When she goes to investigate she is sucked by some sort of wormhole and ends up right next to the place where the aether had been hidden. After Heimdall (Idris Elba) warns Thor that Jane has disappeared, he goes after her, but somehow Jane has awaken Malekith which is what provoked his attack in Asgard in the first place.

Thor: The Dark World is pretty generic and follows a similar formula of most superhero films. That is the reason why so many scenes remind us of other scenes we've seen in other action films. I was never at the edge of my seat during any of the action scenes, but I did have a great time with the light and funny moments. Some people actually enjoyed the action sequences in this film, but it really didn't do anything new for me. The highlight of the film for me was Tom Hiddleston and the scenes he was in were probably the most memorable of the movie. Jamie Alexander, Zachary Levi, and Ray Stevenson all return for their supporting roles here as Thor's soldier/warriors but their characters aren't really developed too much. It is strange to see a summer blockbuster film in November but I guess that the timing was right considering all the superhero films that came out this year. Thor doesn't stand out (and I guess none really did this year), but it is still an entertaining movie. This Marvel universe is growing so fast with all these films that at times it feels like a TV series. So I guess it was a good idea that they brought in the Game of Thrones director, Alan Taylor. He has made an enjoyable film.