“Fun, exciting and beautifully dark. Jake Gyllenhaal shines in this like no other.”
SPOILER FREE When Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), a driven man desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story. Aiding him in his effort is Nina, a TV-news veteran.
It’s a spark of original filmmaking. When so many ideas have been revamped and redone, I can’t tell you how nice it was to be faced with something so new and fresh. The film opens with a character that is clearly very determined to find what he’s passionate for, and give it 100%. Jake Gyllenhaal lost 20 pounds to play the role of Lou Bloom and it’s definitely a role that nobody has ever seen before. Jake Gyllenhaal is outstanding, hands down the best performance I have seen from him in his entire career. The character is clearly quite autistic and struggles to read signals given by other people, but also so determined to find something that he loves. However, he really grabs a passion for video journalism after seeing other people do it; and manages to get himself some money from a local news station.
The film really examines closely, the way you can build up your own private business of video journalism and at the start, portrays it quite glamorously. With the help of his friend; Rick (Riz Ahmed) who helps Lou to get to any potential news story (car crash, criminal arrest etc.) before any other journalists. What was so intriguing, was how the film really tried to be as interesting as it possibly could, and it certainly succeeded. From the moment you are introduced to Lou, he has your interest as a character because he’s so different. That very first scene in Robert Zemeckis’ ‘Forrest Gump’ when he starts offering a chocolate to a stranger instantly has your attention because it goes against the norm. The way that Lou barters with other people when trying to sell products is so uncomfortably pushy, it actually feels rather foreign. But here we have a way into the character and it has our attention. It’s rather easy to like a character that has our attention, and the film never lets go of that.
The scene where Lou is interviewing Rick for a job as his personal GPS is solid gold, and as you’re introduced to this new character; the film invites you to start liking him as soon as possible. Rick is a very vulnerable character, another easy window in, to be interested in what happens to him.
As the film progresses, you see more and more of Lou as a character. Since he is the glue that holds the film all together you realise further who he actually is. Even though there is great interest into who Lou is as a character, you know all along that there is something no quite right with him, and this is shown further and further into the film. There’s something about him that you really like, and you care what happens to him; but it’s apparent that there is something very twisted about him, and he goes too far to achieve his goals. We are witnessed to Lou pushing Rick to breaking points, and manipulating crime scenes/traffic collisions in order to get the most money for his work on Television; it’s so interesting in a sickening way, but repulsive nonetheless.
This film is all about strong characters. Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed play their characters beautifully and there was no point throughout that didn’t have my interest. I was fully engaged all the way through and have almost nothing bad to say about the film. It’s one of the strongest performances I’ve seen all year and I can’t wait to see how the film does commercially.
★★★★
Hudson-Cook 