Nightcrawler is a 2014 film directed by Dan Gilroy, and starring Jake Gyllenhaal. It follows a freelance video journalist documenting crime and accidents in Los Angeles. I really liked this thriller, and it’s got a great main character, some excellent action, and a premise you don’t usually see in thriller movies like this.

Nightcrawler follows Louis Bloom, a workaholic petty thief. However, after coming across a car accident one night, Louis decides to go into a different profession, nightcrawling, or freelance journalists who record videos of accidents and crimes in order to sell them to tv news stations. Over time however, Louis begins manipulating the crimes rather than just recording them.

This movie has an excellent protagonist. Jake Gyllenhaal is fantastic as Louis. He’s unpredictable, charming, and always mysterious and unnerving. Additionally, seeing him turn into a monster by the end of the film is scary, and he’s a terrifying protagonist and antihero. In particular, the mirror scene. Throughout the whole movie he’s portrayed as this genius, composed, manipulative character. But after failing to captare an accident before a rival crew records it, he freaks out and punches a mirror, and lets the audience temporarily see the real Louis, and how absolutely crazy he is. Additionally, the car chase scene at the end is great, as Louis and his partner stay on the tail of a police car chasing a criminal through the streets of L.A.

A small complaint I had with this movie is that scenes seem to either last too long, or too short. For example, the scene where Louis and his partner are talking about a raise, although it foreshadows his partner’s eventual death, seems a little too long, when compared to either the car chase scene, or the mirror scene, both of which are fantastic, and over as soon as they start. Now that being said, the movie’s pacing itself over all is fine.

I liked Nightcrawler quite a bit. It feels like Taxi Driver meets Heat, and it absolutely works. It’s available to watch on Netflix, and I’d absolutely recommend it.