Nightcrawler (2014) - See Anything Wrong?

★★★☆☆

To be honest I don’t like this kind of film that appears to be quite dark and sick, and in praise of selfishness and dishonesty, but just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean ‘Nightcrawler’ is bad. On the contrary, it’s worth a checkout for certain unless you’re a person in favor of politically correct comforting. The story’s fresh and original. The score’s terrific and precise. Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance’s creepy and convincing, like nothing he’s ever done before. Feels like he deserves a win at the Oscars, but surprisingly he was left without a nomination. I can only think of Death Cab For Cutie’s grumble in their new single, ‘how could something so fair be so cruel?’

‘Nightcrawler’ is not a pleasant film after all. It obliges us to see the dark side of humanity, and how it gets to justify in a world where people care more about their wallet than their spirit; more about how they can survive than how they should live either for themselves or others. The question is, how are we supposed to position ourselves in a big bad world out there? Are we gonna a hero in someone’s life, or a villain feeding on his flesh and blood? It’s hard to decide though, because the difference between a hero and a villain is getting pretty vague nowadays. And people often like to mistake a villain for a hero, or the other way round, just like what happens in the film. How pathetic!

The truth is naked that like those shady characters in the story, we’re all kind of lost in the deep dark abyss looking optimistically for kindness and integrity. Yet we see nothing wrong about it!