The Nightcrawler – Review by Wenchao

Review of Nightcrawler

Chen Wenchao

  Just as we can see from the title of the film, the protagonist Lou is an antihero who is immersed in the dark night and tries to record every dark side of the society in order to get success in his own career.

At the beginning of the film, he is just a thief who makes a living by stealing some copper wire at night. In other words, he is a nobody who acts on his own, has no job, no family or friends. But even at that situation, he is still conceited. When he failed to sell the things he stole to the manager at a price he wanted, he even claimed that their “business relationship” need to be changed and that is the last offer he can accept.

Actually, It’s not difficult to find his positive character: he is a brainy quick-learner and has persuasive style of conversation.
What really impressed me is that he learns so fast from a complete beginner to a professional, sensitive freelance. He knows to buy a device which can intercepts the police’s latest information and hire an assistant who actually play the role as a navigator. It’s clear that even his counterpart who has already worked for many years didn’t thought about that way.

Later in the film, driven by his ambition and eagerness to success, he became even more cold-blooded and cruel. I would say what he chased is not the money but the success in his field. After he got much money through the job as a freelance cameraman, he still stayed in his small apartment and watered the flower as usual. All his profit was used to buy better devices(camera, car or even assistant) which can help him go further. One thing to notice is that why he bought a striking red sports car rather than a van. I would argue the car implies his aggressiveness and bloodthirsty.

To sum up, once he found his own stage, then nothing can stop him. Because of that almost crazy belief in the work which he loves and is good at, he erases everything gets in his way including law and moral. To some extent, I would say just as the title implies Lou crawl his way up to the top of society alone in the darkness, which may be seen a dark version of the realization of “American dream”.