Nightcrawler

A closer look at the story

Nightcrawler follows Lou Bloom, a man desperate for any kind of work, as he plunges into the night-time underworld of Los Angeles. Lou crosses paths with a camera crew that films crashes, fires, murders and every other kind of chaos that might sell, and through them he discovers the dangerous, uncertain and sometimes deadly side of covering the news after dark. He quickly realises that every police siren, every victim and every drop of spilled blood can be turned into cash. Forcing his way into the business of crime reporting, Lou starts steering the stories he captures with a scheme that is unscrupulous, reckless and cunning, all in pursuit of his big break. The boundary between watching events and taking part in them grows ever fainter, until Lou ends up as the main attraction in the very stories he sells. Helping him along is Nina, a seasoned figure in television news. Dan Gilroy wrote and directed this 118-minute crime thriller from 2014. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Lou and Rene Russo plays Nina, with Riz Ahmed, Bill Paxton and Kevin Rahm also in the cast.