To detour into awards talk for a second, Jake Gyllenhaal presents a very interesting case. The raves for his upcoming nocturnal thriller “Nightcrawler” have been huge, and Gyllenhaal has lapped up most of the praise too. “Gyllenhaal is a revelation once again,” our reviewer from Toronto wrote, “And the control of his instrument is a wonderful thing to witness. The character is unhinged, but precisely pitched.” The plaudits for the young actor have been universal, but the question remains, can Open Road take Gyllenhaal to the Oscar race even if most critics agree that he should be there? Our awards expert places him in the "looking strong" category, but right now it appears that he’s anything but a sure bet. It’ll be interesting to see how that pans out.
In the meantime, Open Road has released another new clip from the film (see the first one here). In it, Gyllenhaal’s character, Lou Bloom, slowly learns the ropes of sensationalist TV journalism from his editor, played by Rene Russo. Here’s the official synopsis:
NIGHTCRAWLER is a pulse-pounding thriller set in the nocturnal underbelly of contemporary Los Angeles. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Lou Bloom, a driven young man desperate for work who discovers the high-speed world of L.A. crime journalism. Finding a group of freelance camera crews who film crashes, fires, murder and other mayhem, Lou muscles into the cut-throat, dangerous realm of nightcrawling — where each police siren wail equals a possible windfall and victims are converted into dollars and cents. Aided by Rene Russo as Nina, a veteran of the blood-sport that is local TV news, Lou blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story.
Written and directed by veteran screenwriter Dan Gilroy, who makes his directorial debut here, “Nightcrawler” stars Gyllenhaal, Russo, Bill Paxton, and Riz Ahmed, and lands in theaters on October 31st. Watch the new clip below and check out some new photos too.
