Usually when a new trailer lands less than a week before a film is set to hit theaters it reeks of a thinly veiled desperate attempt to gain some eyeballs, but in the case of Nightcrawler, it actually has the goods to back it up. Dan Gilroy’s directorial debut follows Jake Gyllenhaal as Lou Bloom, a shady but passionate go-getter than discovers a talent with capturing horrific, news-worthy events before the police even arrive in a Robert Elswit-lit Los Angeles.
We said in our TIFF review it’s “a gem of a lean, mean film that never let’s its foot off the gas pedal with an iconic antihero in Jake Gyllenhaal’s Lou Bloom who might currently be tops on hardcore cinephiles’ Halloween costume lists come October. Even though there isn’t a conventional plot since the film is more concerned with delivering high octane suspense and extremely high (and warped) entertainment value, you won’t be able to get it out of your head.” The new inventive trailer, backed by Kendrick Lamar‘s Backseat Freestyle, is certainly not shy about touting the film’s praises. Check it out below, along with a great 30-minute talk with Gilroy.
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.
Nightcrawler opens on October 31st.