What Nightcrawler's ultimately looking at, and really hits home with its ending, is the notion of work ethic. In a twist on the usual in-it-to-win-it ideal, Lou's personal mantra (or so he says) is that "if you want to win the lottery, you have to make the money to buy a ticket." It seems like a rather healthy thought, reminding that success isn't just based on luck, but hard work as well. But when you actually look at its application in the film it becomes a pretty sick joke. At no point does Bloom actually make the money to buy his way into the lottery of the TV news business; from the off his professional life is built around stealing. Whether he's aware of this contradiction, making it part of his false exterior, or actually believes it is unclear, but either way it's central to Lou's character. His warped idea of what it takes to get ahead in life is so skewed from the norm, and yet it's that very trait, uninhibited by morality, that ultimately leads to his happy ending. Throughout the film Lou spouts textbook phrases about working hard to achieve, which once he's illegally got his foot in the door he does, but at the compromise of any sense of moral code. It isn't his knowledge of framing (which the film's cinematography mirrors) or cutthroat management technique, but the breaking of the law that gets him ahead; he understands that to win all you need is the will to do what the other guy wouldn't. Which is actually a quote about Keyser Söze from The Usual Suspects. Things aren't always as they seem. What did you make of Nightcrawler? Did we miss any key elements about the film in this discussion? Let us know in the comments below.
