Nightcrawler (2014)

Dan Gilroy's Nightcrawler works like an anti-establishment version of neo-noir films like Drive. Caustic, quite funny, atmospheric - and even quite realistic, Nightcrawler sets out to explore the rotten heart of media and, perhaps, work. On the nocturnal streets of LA, a guy called Lou prowls in a car. He looks for - material. He goes to the location of some gruesome crime scene or accident scene to take photos that he sells to a media company. By tuning into the police radio, he learns where the evening's action is. He tries to get as much money as he can for these images, while the media company obviously tries to haggle with him. L.A is all night, neon and grit. Lou is a shadowy figure with the most harried face you've ever seen in a movie. He looks half-dead. He's on the streets to earn his buck and starts to exploit a younger kid as an 'assistent'. The point, of course, is to extract as much value as possible out of the poor youngster who's dersperate for money. The kid cannot say no to this "internship", as Lou calls it. Scruples? Not a hint. Again, there is the thing about bargaining positions. Dog eat dog - and while at eating the other dog, entrepreneurial pride is not lacking: "I work for myself". Be your own boss, be on top of the game. The media company for its part is living on gruesome images that the audience 'wants', so there's demand, for sure. "I want something the audience can't turn their eyes away from." Demand = the ratings, the ratings. The ideal images: where the truly gritty stuff is happening, here and now. And the here and now, the sense of true crime or bloody stuff going on, can be manipulated - invented, or produced. Nightcrawler engages in a critique of sensationalist images, but also the network of forces that keep up such a yearning for sensations happening in real time, how such sensationalism is engineered and upheld. The critique sometimes veers into simplistic preaching, but I am not too bothered, because Nightcrawler keeps up its strange, nocturnal atmosphere throughout in a way that is almost tactile. Disquieting stuff all the way. - - - This week, I've been reading in the newspaper about a new trend. Instead of rushing to help when people witness an accident, they snap photos. Just as in Nightcrawler...