Nightcrawler

A few weeks ago it looked like "Nightcrawler" was poised to break into the Academy Awards Best Picture race as the film and star, Jake Gyllenhaal, continued to gather impressive pre-Oscar recognition, including Golden Globe and SAG mentions for Gyllenhaal as well as a Producers Guild nod for the movie.

Alas, when the nominations were announced, it received only one: For Dan Gilroy's satiric original screenplay. Did it deserve more? After a second viewing, this time on HDTV, my vote is: probably not -- although it's definitely worth a watch.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Lou, a creepy, pushy and abrasive hustler in Gilroy's fast-paced thriller. He reminded me of Rupert Pupkin (Robert DeNiro) in Scorcese's "The King of Comedy," in that you feel the need to take a shower after a few scenes. Lou is a petty thief with grandiose ideas of success, and when he stumbles upon a crew of photogs shooting a car wreck, he is fascinated. As soon as he realizes he can make money off the misfortunes and tragedy of others, this self-proclaimed, "fast learner" is hooked.

Lou soon charms a na�ve young man (an affecting Riz Ahmed) to be his intern and the two join the ranks of the "nightcrawlers." But Lou's ambitions blow past ethics once he gets a taste of just how much money he can get for "urban" footage where "white victims are hurt by minorities," and will stop at nothing to get the scoop and the shot, even breaking and entering or moving bodies If that means the piece will be framed the way he envisions it.

Gyllenhaal impressively dives into the role, mustering all the sleaze he can but also giving Lou that magnetism that convinces us he's worth the trip into the moral abyss. Rene Russo perfectly embodies the soullessness of a news director at a low-rated Los Angeles station desperate for anything lurid and/or exploitative. "Think of our newscast as a screaming woman running down the street with her throat cut," she spits. Russo's character is what Faye Dunaway's Diana Christensen in "Network" would be like if 20 years had passed and she, shockingly, had yet to get herself assassinated.

In the end, "Nightcrawler" just doesn't have enough bite to sustain the balance between intense drama and black comedy. It seems to want to remain grounded in reality so it refuses to go balls out crazy, so when Lou does something the filmmaker wants us to think is unforgivable at the end, we not only saw it coming, we had hoped something more stakes raising would follow.

The Blu-ray boasts a solid video presentation where the murky cinematography, by Robert Elswit, gives us a deliciously seedy L.A. reminiscent of Andrzej Bartkowiak's work on Sidney Lumet's only L.A. film, "The Morning After." The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio is solid and enhances the viewing experience.

The disc features an enthusiastic audio commentary with the trilogy of Gilroys (writer/director Dan, producer Tony and editor John) that provides copious details on every aspect of the pic with a mix of honesty and self-congratulations. The lone featurette, "If It Bleeds, It Leads" is good but ridiculously short at a whole five minutes.

"Nightcrawler"
Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD
$19.99
http://www.universalstudiosentertainment.com/nightcrawler/