Nightcrawler 2014

Christy Lemire, ChristyLemire.com: Crashes and crime scenes are his bread and butter. He is driven. He is innovative. He is happy. He is also a monster - a fiend who preys on people at their weakest and worst moments. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: Howard's intrusive score enhances the sense that Nightcrawler is a movie and nothing more. Which is fine, of course. But the movie's movie-ness makes you aware that a statement is being made without articulating what it is. Read more

Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press: A compelling and altogether impressive directorial debut for screenwriter Dan Gilroy Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: If Billy Wilder's 'Ace in the Hole' and 'Network' had a mutant baby, it would probably look like Dan Gilroy's 'Nightcrawler' Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: It ultimately proves questionable and unconvincing, but in this case, failure to launch is noble. It keeps you creeped out and fascinated. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Dan Gilroy's "Nightcrawler" is a dark dream of a thriller, full of evil that floats like a toxic cloud across an already tainted city. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: The drama feels heightened and overwrought, and yet it works; you can see Nina's cold-eyed desperation, and Lou's creepy rapture as he realizes that he can get a shot that nobody else has. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: A mesmerizing cipher, Lou is a spiritual descendant of Robert De Niro's Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, and of the withholding protagonists in the existential French crime films of Robert Bresson and Jean-Pierre Melville Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: A feast of capital-A acting that's sometimes amusing to watch but not believable for so much as a second. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: First and foremost, the film is a showcase for its wiry and wired star, and for the fascinatingly amoral anti-hero he brings to life. Read more

Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: Nightcrawler is well worth seeing just for Gyllenhaal's spectacularly creepy performance. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: A thick film of sleaze coats every frame of "Nightcrawler," a movie that takes a hard look at media culture and provides Jake Gyllenhaal a terrific opportunity to creep us all out. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: It's a solid first time out in any event, entertainingly obvious at some points, obvious-obvious at others, and jazzed to have a rich subject and a star willing to run with it. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: For a first-time director, Gilroy demonstrates an uncommon assurance, not only in his audacious tonal shifts but in the stellar work he elicits from his cast and crew. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Despite the familiarity of its themes ... Gilroy's clever, skeezy little noir is worth a prowl. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: [Gilroy] wants Louis, who perpetrates some ghastly escapades, to epitomize the sick soul of media exploitation, but he also celebrates him as an entrepreneurial go-getter who is just giving us hypocrites what we secretly (or not-so-secretly) crave. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Writer-director Dan Gilroy wants it both ways - snarling comedy and gripping thriller - and for the most part he gets what he wants. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: It's hard not to be fascinated by the dark places Gyllenhaal goes here. But "Nightcrawler" falls short as social commentary or even psychological yarn. Like Louis, it talks a good game that crumbles as you ponder it. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: 'Nightcrawler' manages to be a scathing look at ambition and journalistic sensationalism while still delivering as a dark thriller. Read more

Preston Jones, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: Nightcrawler serves as a phenomenal showcase for Gyllenhaal, who is never less than riveting . A full package of tics, tension and breathless patter, this self-taught entrepreneur stops at nothing, evoking a Taxi Driver for the TMZ age. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: It's a 21st-century takedown of the media's pandering ''if it bleeds, it leads'' ethos and the ghoulish nightcrawlers who live by it. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, Film.com: A fantastic, sleek and fun satire. Read more

Jordan Mintzer, Hollywood Reporter: Like his erratic protagonist, Gilroy doesn't always know when to settle down or call it quits, and the film's constant shifts of tone can grow tiring, even if the action as a whole never gets boring. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: A smart, engaged film powered by an altogether remarkable performance by Jake Gyllenhaal, it is melodrama grounded in a disturbing reality, an extreme scenario that is troubling because it cuts close to the bone. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: "Nightcrawler" is the kind of movie that rarely hits multiplexes anymore, an edgy, pulpy thriller with a social conscience and a vicious satirical streak. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: It scuttles ahead, wide-eyed, antennae waving, on a journey to the end of the night, and toward a future when nothing will not be shown. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Gilroy ... is directing for the first time here, but he clearly has not only an understanding of actors, but an appreciation for image. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: No matter how extreme or unlikely the scenario, we want to know how Lou will handle it. Gyllenhaal makes this antihero funny, scary and fearlessly strange. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: A modest and effectively executed urban thriller, suspenseful and entertaining in its clammy, overwrought way. Read more

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: Nightcrawler savages the news media's ratings-driven ethic (a most unethical ethic) with such force, it brings to mind Paddy Chayefsky and Sidney Lumet's Network. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: This isn't fun, escapist entertainment but, when it works, it's fascinating and compelling and makes us take a hard look at what TV news is selling and where it's getting the product. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Nightcrawler curves and hisses its way into your head with demonic skill. This is a deliciously twisted piece of work. And Gyllenhaal, coiled and ready to spring, is scarily brilliant. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: "Nightcrawler" executes its ideas with tremendous craft and cool, and the courageous and counterintuitive pairing of its leads - Russo is 60, and Gyllenhaal 33 - produces two electrical, interlocking performances and undeniable erotic chemistry. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: There are moments that are too macabre and outlandish, but Gilroy steers the movie just this side of farce, just this side of Chayefsky, and keeps it all within a realistic framework. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: It seems like a lot of satirical hue and cry about a social problem I'm not sure the nation is currently plagued by. Are local TV news stations really conducting daily bidding wars over the goriest footage random freelancers can bring them? Read more

Kristin Tillotson, Minneapolis Star Tribune: One of the year's most satisfying and original thrillers. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Like an alternate version of Network in which Faye Dunaway cannibalizes the conscientious William Holden character, Nightcrawler cleverly dispenses with any debate about the tyranny of ratings and the erosion of privacy. Read more

Christopher Orr, The Atlantic: Now 33 years old, Gyllenhaal is the same age that De Niro was in Taxi Driver and, like him, he is learning to channel an eerie, inner charisma, offering it up in glimpses and glimmers rather than all at once. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: A movie for the pleasure of movie audiences pretending to be shocked by a story of ghoulish media. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: For his directing debut, Gilroy is out for the contact high of that Mean Streets vibe, and Gyllenhaal and Russo deliver it to him in spades. Read more

Inkoo Kang, TheWrap: "Jon Stewart could learn a thing from Gilroy's rightly ruthless excoriation." Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Gyllenhaal, who summons career-best work, simply couldn't have played this character a few years ago. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Thirty pounds lighter, all cheekbones and bulging eyes, Gyllenhaal plays one of the year's most memorable characters in this dark, provocative drama. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: In real life, nobody could obstruct as much justice as Louis does and get away with it. Still, Nightcrawler is unnerving because we never know just how far Louis will go. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: After a few minutes you know everything about Louis you're going to know; the only surprise in Nightcrawler is the level of grotesqueness it achieves. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: True to its title, creeps under the viewer's skin much like the predatory title character, who restlessly cruises through this modern-day media allegory like Travis Bickle's long-lost, hyper-wired West Coast cousin. Read more