This one is a pretty grim one.
Main character Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is presented accurately pretty quick here. Looks a bit ghoulish, acts a bit dubiously, seems a bit psycho. But other than that, a square head on his shoulders and has a good obtainable business plan! Louis is obviously not the best of people, scrappin’ to make some cash. Looking for a good new job though. And when he sees some stringers (freelance photojournalists), guys who pull up to videorecord a highway car crash, that footage is good for cash from the local news stations. Lou finds a new goal. A new focus. And he dives in completely. And he IS a self-stated quick learner, because boring news b-roll is for suckers!
This is a dirty kind of movie following an American Psycho kinda-skeazy totally “nice” guy on surface but completely soulless not even a millimeter underneath the gaunt facesmile he wears. Ambulance Chasers and News Reporters, just plying their trade, this focuses on the latter. More accurately, graveyard shift News Director Nina (Russo), always looking for the “if it bleeds it leads” footage and the ratings it always garners. Louis is the amoral guy that provides the good stuff, the video footage that people turn their heads away from in disgust while watching out of the corner of their eye, while Network News continues the descent into fear porn for a few extra viewers. Nice when the Producer in the control room calls it out, “We are beyond all broadcast standards.” Yeah. It’s ugly. Louis is a tragedy vampire, always close by so he can capture it on tape. Gyllenhaal does quite suitably in his person-suit delivery, as does Rene Russo in her last desperate attempts as a slipping successful L.A. newsperson. A good small role by Bill Paxton as a veteran nightcrawler, competing for getting the best gruesome footages the local newscasts will buy. It’s kinda hard to find a redeeming character here. Well, at least by the end of it.
