Nightcrawler

Saw Nightcrawler (thanks, John!) It was a very timely film about a complete sociopath who chases down car accidents and robberies to sell footage to news programs. He starts out the film as a copper thief, stripping copper cabling from rail yards and selling it to construction sites. Right near the beginning of the film, a rent-a-cop stops him and the protagonist attacks him and kills him, stealing his watch as he does so. That watch is focused on here and there throughout the rest of the film, a symbol of the swirling madness sublimed just under the surface of the protagonist's creepy smile and rapid-fire jargon of business management and self-help lingo. He's monumentally creepy.

In fact, I think he's too creepy. In their haste to make it obvious to the audience what a freak this guy is, they make him into such a howling horror-show that I don't understand how anyone could stand him for more than a few minutes before running in the opposite direction. Then again, I think I've met people like this, who believe that the secret to wealth and happiness is knowing which arms to twist. I regard them with a deep pity that I think would offend them, but I guess I haven't exactly run away from them.

Anyway, this film is quite timely, combining an update of the American Psycho with a heavy dose of cynicism for mainstream media (although, to be frank, the local operation in the film is supposed to be quite rinky-dink.) I've seen the film referenced many times in the more paranoid reaches of Reddit (although increasingly that's becoming the entirety of Reddit, alas.) I was also impressed with the film's sinister use of the internet and information. At one point the protagonist blackmails a woman into sleeping with him based on information readily available online about her. Chilling and important to remember from time to time: you're being watched.

A very nervy little film. Like American Psycho it's almost a dark comedy. Although I never had the stomach to laugh, the protagonist's business-talk is hilarious and freaky. At one point he forms a company composed only of himself and from then on refers to himself as "we" as in "I've noticed your increased work ethic recently and we think that you have great potential for advancement." It would be hilarious if it weren't so gross.

This is a good film. It's unsettling, darkly funny, ugly, and sleek. It does what it needs to do and left me feeling icky afterwards (although I do feel like the film's bullet missed me because I neither create news nor do I watch it so I'm completely outside of this struggle.) But this is no simple, pat little flick, it wants to hit people and scare them, like a cut-rate news team leading with a story of a double-homicide.