One of my students the other day said that they thought that Jake Gyllenhaal would make a fantastic Joker, to be honest; I’m inclined to agree with him. And all of the evidence to support this can be found in Gyllenhaal’s new film ‘Nightcrawler’.
Unfortunately, for fans of X-men, this is not a spin-off film featuring the blue-skinned teleporter with a German accent, but thankfully this film is much cooler.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Louis Bloom, a down on his luck guy with self-help guru positivity who, desperate for work, starts forcing his way into L.A. crime journalism by filming local crime events and selling the footage to one of the local news broadcasters. Eventually Gyllenhaal’s character moves from being an observer of the crimes to an active participant as he tries to cement his value and worth to local TV news veteran Nina Romina (played by Rene Russo). Louis Bloom does admit that “he never really had a formal education” however what he does have is an amazing ability to research and retain copious amounts of facts and figures that he always uses to his advantage.
Ultimately the movie seeks to answer that question we have all wondered at one point or another: What if self-help guru Tony Robbins was an emaciated insomniac with borderline autism who free-lances as a sociopathic asshole cameraman? Now that might sound like I’m selling the film very well but I cannot emphasise enough just how much Jake Gyllenhaal sells this character to the audience. Everything is in the performance here, from his gaunt appearance, sunken dark eyes, the intonations in his voice and delivery and just that look that he could snap at any point and do unspeakable acts of violence.
The film itself would really have fallen apart without a good supporting cast so thankfully you have Rene Russo matching Gyllenhaal in performance. She is so strong and determined yet so vulnerable at other times. There is a moment in the film when she and Gyllenhaal are sitting down for dinner and he is just using textbook business tactics to negotiate her into sleeping with him. Your jaw will drop a couple of times during this scene but mostly you’ll have an overwhelming desire to shower after this scene because you feel so violated and dirty.
Beyond the performances, one of the other great aspects of the film is its dark visual style. The film is set in Los Angeles but this is not the kind of Los Angeles that we are used to seeing in Hollywood films. This is the dark and gritty side of L.A. with director Dan Gilroy focusing on the dark recesses and crevices of the streets, even during stark daylight L.A. looks course and unwelcoming.
I believe this is an Oscar-worthy performance from Gyllenhaal and I do hope he does win accolades for this performance however the truth is this may be too dark a role for the Academy to acknowledge which is unfortunate for Gyllenhaal, if no one else.
Nightcrawler gets five out of five Joker-petitions.
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