Films/DVD Asylum

"The Nightcrawler:" seriously creepy performance, indeed, from Jake Gylenhaal.

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Perhaps too much so. There is no one to like in this film and we get to know nothing about the lead character except that he's…. creepy. In "The Taxi Driver," DeNiro similarly was disturbing, but he had an understandable hatred of night scum, though he also veered into craziness in general. But he saw himself, ultimately, as a knight in shining armor. Gylenhaal's character, however, unabashedly is self-focused--- a not-too-well-concealed whipping boy for an American who puts career and success above all else.
The film wasn't filmed particularly well, the editing allowed the film to drag in places, and the direction was unexceptional (what you'd expect from a first-time out guy).
This is what happens all too often these days when Hollywood tries for a "deep" film. A far better film, with a sterling performance, is "Kill the Messenger."
Though Renner is an emerging star, this film wasn't widely released. I wonder if the anti-government message of it had anything to do with its shallow release? At any rate, it's FAR superior to the mediocre crawler.

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