Nightcrawler arrived with a plethora of comparisons. Empire proclaimed it as "this year's Drive", while comparisons between Jake Gyllenhaal's Lou Bloom and Taxi Driver's Travis Bickle were rife. And while that's certainly fair praise of Tony Gilroy's directorial debut, highlighting the similarities skirt by a lot of Nightcrawler's brilliance. What makes Lou different to Travis is that in the very first scene the monster lurking underneath that meticulously presented exterior is revealed, with Bloom attacking and presumably killing a security guard. The film is less about how far he can go, but when he'll go that far again. The monster in Bickle is slowly unravelled throughout the film, and he only ends up a hero through sheer dumb luck, whereas Lou has actively built his image up around him; by the film's ending everything is his design. It's refreshing that the film, which is on the face of it a dissection of the media's hunger for gore, defies expectations and goes incredibly introverted, dealing more with Bloom's psyche. Gyllenhaal is incredible, and his inevitable Oscar snub will stand as one of the biggest mistakes of the upcoming awards season. Oh, and while it has the same eighties style-reference as Drive, there's one big distinction to be made between it and Nicolas Winding Refn's cult hit; Nightcrawler's better. For a greater dissection of Nightcrawler's themes, take a look at What Does The Ending Of Nightcrawler Really Mean?
