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This extremely creepy character is a great tool for
commentary on the news media. I had the same affection for the character as I
had for Dexter. The main character is not a good person but he is completely
hypnotic. This movie gets a green light from me for excellent storytelling on
an unsavory subject. I wanted to take a shower after watching it.
Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a common thief who stumbles
on a car accident. An independent news videographer, Joe (Bill Paxton), is
filming and Lou overhears that you can make money by showing up at these horrific
accidents and violent crimes. He quickly gets a camera and starts shoving his
way into this industry. He hires an Intern, Rick (Riz Ahmed), to help park the
car and get some second camera footage. As Lou becomes more successful, he
starts to switch from filming the news to choreographing the footage to make a
better product that sells better.
Lou's driven nature is one of his biggest character traits
but it’s not tempered by any sort of ethics. He talks a great game of high
moral standard but it really is only to better his own standing, which I think
makes his connection with the news network perfect. Often I feel that they use
sensationalism to blow news stories out of proportion to better their ratings. Really
liked how Lou is the embodiment of that mindset.
Another good relationship in the film is between Nina (ReneRusso) and Frank (Kevin Rahm). Nina is an aging news person who really relies
on the sensationalism to keep her job. Frank is there as a moral or ethical
compass. The film uses him to show how far out of the desperation is to drive
ratings and at what cost those ratings come.
Sometimes when a writer directs their own film, the movie
suffers. This film is an exception. Most of writer/director Dan Gilroy's experience
is in writing but this film is an excellent movie to start off a great future
in the director’s chair.
This movie can be fit into the category of news drama and
joins movies like Network or Natural Born Killers. All of them speak to the
evils of sensationalistic news but this one does it in a new way that is more
elegant than others in this category. Take a look at this film and get up close
and personal to the car collision that is our network news.
What other movie character has made your skin crawl but you
were unable to stop watching?
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