Jake scared me with his spooky eyeballs. End of review.

Nightcrawler from the very beginning is not a traditional Hollywood film. It certainly does not follow the narrative of one and even though it has the three-act structure we are all familiar with, it spins them around. This is particularly evident in the third act, incredibly suspenseful with a brilliant, almost anti-climax. Suspense is the main key to this film's success, it build and builds to the point where the last twenty minutes of the film are completely unpredictable. Dan Gilroy in his directorial debut here has shown a real understanding of how to keep an audience engaged and following a character who isn't an easy man to spend a great deal of time with. Gilroy's screenplay is fast paced and one of the finest this year. The script focuses the audience on the characters, Louis Bloom particularly yet the supporting characters are just as impressive by Bill Paxton and Rene Russo alike. It doesn't follow the rules of a typical script, we are introduced instantly to a criminal and this man is supposed to be our protagonist. Yet what becomes clear is that there is not a protagonist in Nightcrawler, Jake Gyllenhaal's Louis Bloom is the antagonist. He can be described as nothing less than a psychopath and his portrayal by Gyllenhaal is one of his greatest performances. He is very gaunt here, losing a lot of weight for the role, however that is not the main reason for his impressive performance. Gyllenhaal is an actor who continues to impress me; his work in Enemy from earlier this year was just as brilliant. He has chosen excellent roles in films such as Zodiac, Prisoners and End of Watch. The cinematography is also fantastic, night-time LA has not looked this good since 2011's Drive. All these elements come together to make a captivating piece of filmmaking, a film I expect will be discussed more as time goes on.

Jake Gyllenhaal is the nightcrawler. A nightcrawler is a worm. Bloom, the character played here, is a sociopath. His ambitions and fixations far outweigh common morality. Let's face it, his cohorts in the business aren't much better than he is, but they have a kind of code, and they don't participate in enhancing the crime. When Bloom moves an accident victim for the first time in order to get a better shot, he crosses the line and stays on the other side. He is willing to do anything to get his way and he is a master at monotonous monologue when he is confronted. It's as if he is reading from a book. I heard an interview recently with Gyllenhaal and he recited some of this stuff from memory with almost no emotion. This is a terrific performance by one of our really good actors. The way he is able to slide into every situation unscathed and maintain that sardonic grin is really nonpareil. This is about the voyeurism of the audience which demands this hateful kind of portrayal.