Directed by : Dan Gilroy
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2872718/
Jake Gyllenhaal is exceptional in this must watch movie, if you like creepy-unusual character oriented movies.
Read at your own risk, spoilers ahead…
Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), is desperate to find work and when he lands himself into crime journalism, he forgets the ethics and starts working his way up the ladder. He is helped in it by Nina (Rene Russo), a T.V news veteran who accepts all the videos he brings up to her.
There’s a certain creepiness in Louis Bloom character, kudos to the way Jake shed weight and made this possible. You can easily notice it in his long eyes whenever someone said something that wasn’t as per what he wanted to hear, specially in night car scenes.
Plenty of dark humor, how Louis tries to find his way in into any profession he could, his amazing learning things quickly talent which you see as the movie goes on. At almost no point we see Louis show emotion to any human being, even the conversation he has with Nina in mexican restaurant is more of a wanting someone to have sex with plus making use of his work that had made Nina’s recognition increase at news channel with rise of their ratings. Only time we see Louis care about someone, is when he is watering his plants at his home.
Notice how Louis is ironing his clothes while watching a comedy show on tv, and suddenly he gives a creepy laugh looking at other side as if there was some other person present there to share that moment with him. The ending dialogue of Louis during the long conversation with Nina at restaurant was hilarious too. Also, when Nina doesn’t agree to pay better amount to Louis, how he stamps his authority over her with Nina stand-still listening to all he is saying, was one of best scenes of movie.
The way Louis interviews Rick (Riz Ahmed) makes you think he must had applied for some job in past where the interviewer presented himself the way he is doing now. The salary negotiation scene in latter half of film is superb. There is a certain creepy tone even in the way Louis talks or the dialogues he has, but the one that I loved, and he made sure of emphasizing it more while saying to Rick ‘What if my problem wasn’t that I don’t understand people but that I don’t like them?’.
There are many more moments where you feel scared of meeting a person like Louis in real, like the scene where he brakes fail a fellow competitor and then shoots his video, love the way director pans face of Louis looking at him. Another is the end scene, where Louis wants to get rid of Rick and traps him into death and once again shoots his video instead of helping him survive. Even in one of the crime scene house, he didn’t care to help a old man who was still breathing. Or in a scene when asked if there was a baby in the room, Louis sounds disappointed not to find one.
Only flaw I found in the film was, Louis got away too easily in the end. How about he finds a harder way to get out of police and detective after him for breaking laws.
The screenplay is tight and pacy, most of the time we see the movie through point of view of Louis, getting to know how it would be to do the wrong thing and yet enjoy it. The director keeps the proceedings engaging and not easy to predict, you never know what might come up next. Also, he presents the ugly side of news presentation, like in the scene where Nina proves her point right saying people should see blood shed reporting at breakfast so that they can talk about it later on and it would that way stay longer with them.
He even builds sexual environment between Louis and Nina wonderfully. Infact the last video we see Louis show her, it felt like Nina was getting seduced watching a video which may make her channel and tv show so popular. And I liked the idea of not showing anything physically to viewers between them, keeping us to guess.
Dialogues were very well written, ‘A Friend is a gift you give to yourself’ always cracks me up.
Jake Gyllenhaal delivers excellent performance. He makes you hate his character and yet enjoy the weird activities he does. I would be surprised if I don’t see him make a oscar nomination next year. Yes, his character was kinda of one dimensional, we never see his past life or family or any sensitive part of his life. But I felt that was well done, otherwise it would had made resemblance with De Niro from Taxi Driver. It was good that Louis was always un-caring in entire movie.
Rene Russo does her supporting role very well too. She does actually look beautiful enough to make Louis say to her ‘I like older women’.
If you are into creepy and unusual character movies, then you gotta watch Jake Gyllenhaal in this movie, more than likely you will enjoy it a lot.
Verdict : 4/5
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2872718/
Jake Gyllenhaal is exceptional in this must watch movie, if you like creepy-unusual character oriented movies.
Read at your own risk, spoilers ahead…
Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), is desperate to find work and when he lands himself into crime journalism, he forgets the ethics and starts working his way up the ladder. He is helped in it by Nina (Rene Russo), a T.V news veteran who accepts all the videos he brings up to her.
There’s a certain creepiness in Louis Bloom character, kudos to the way Jake shed weight and made this possible. You can easily notice it in his long eyes whenever someone said something that wasn’t as per what he wanted to hear, specially in night car scenes.
Plenty of dark humor, how Louis tries to find his way in into any profession he could, his amazing learning things quickly talent which you see as the movie goes on. At almost no point we see Louis show emotion to any human being, even the conversation he has with Nina in mexican restaurant is more of a wanting someone to have sex with plus making use of his work that had made Nina’s recognition increase at news channel with rise of their ratings. Only time we see Louis care about someone, is when he is watering his plants at his home.
Notice how Louis is ironing his clothes while watching a comedy show on tv, and suddenly he gives a creepy laugh looking at other side as if there was some other person present there to share that moment with him. The ending dialogue of Louis during the long conversation with Nina at restaurant was hilarious too. Also, when Nina doesn’t agree to pay better amount to Louis, how he stamps his authority over her with Nina stand-still listening to all he is saying, was one of best scenes of movie.
The way Louis interviews Rick (Riz Ahmed) makes you think he must had applied for some job in past where the interviewer presented himself the way he is doing now. The salary negotiation scene in latter half of film is superb. There is a certain creepy tone even in the way Louis talks or the dialogues he has, but the one that I loved, and he made sure of emphasizing it more while saying to Rick ‘What if my problem wasn’t that I don’t understand people but that I don’t like them?’.
There are many more moments where you feel scared of meeting a person like Louis in real, like the scene where he brakes fail a fellow competitor and then shoots his video, love the way director pans face of Louis looking at him. Another is the end scene, where Louis wants to get rid of Rick and traps him into death and once again shoots his video instead of helping him survive. Even in one of the crime scene house, he didn’t care to help a old man who was still breathing. Or in a scene when asked if there was a baby in the room, Louis sounds disappointed not to find one.
Only flaw I found in the film was, Louis got away too easily in the end. How about he finds a harder way to get out of police and detective after him for breaking laws.
The screenplay is tight and pacy, most of the time we see the movie through point of view of Louis, getting to know how it would be to do the wrong thing and yet enjoy it. The director keeps the proceedings engaging and not easy to predict, you never know what might come up next. Also, he presents the ugly side of news presentation, like in the scene where Nina proves her point right saying people should see blood shed reporting at breakfast so that they can talk about it later on and it would that way stay longer with them.
He even builds sexual environment between Louis and Nina wonderfully. Infact the last video we see Louis show her, it felt like Nina was getting seduced watching a video which may make her channel and tv show so popular. And I liked the idea of not showing anything physically to viewers between them, keeping us to guess.
Dialogues were very well written, ‘A Friend is a gift you give to yourself’ always cracks me up.
Jake Gyllenhaal delivers excellent performance. He makes you hate his character and yet enjoy the weird activities he does. I would be surprised if I don’t see him make a oscar nomination next year. Yes, his character was kinda of one dimensional, we never see his past life or family or any sensitive part of his life. But I felt that was well done, otherwise it would had made resemblance with De Niro from Taxi Driver. It was good that Louis was always un-caring in entire movie.
Rene Russo does her supporting role very well too. She does actually look beautiful enough to make Louis say to her ‘I like older women’.
If you are into creepy and unusual character movies, then you gotta watch Jake Gyllenhaal in this movie, more than likely you will enjoy it a lot.
Verdict : 4/5
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