Agreed? Good.
What a despicable weirdo he plays in Nightcrawler. The film makes you question how much of what you are presented on the news is actually real and what has been manipulated for the sake of ratings.
This is not the first film about the exploitation of tragedy by the media. Billy Wilder already tried his hand at this in the brilliant but underrated Ace in the Hole (watch it!). Back then it was a newspaper reporter that milked his story for all that it's worth, Nowadays, as an extra, there is also speed to consider. Everyone has a camera phone and being faster than the rest is pivotal.
But of course, once you have mastered the speed part, your new problem is how to make what you deliver more appealing to the people you are trying to sell your footage to?
Louis "Lou" Bloom, who has an eye for a good scene, stops being content with however a, say, car accident, looks as is. To put the victim(s) in the best light possible (very literally), he simply pulls a bleeding body closer to where it should be for maximum impact. Also, to make bullet holes in a fridge more shocking, he adds the all-important human element, by placing the family photos on the fridge just so before filming the holes.
And it gets only more ethically questionable from there. He starts to not only manipulate the scene of the crime, but orchestrates one himself, waiting with camera out for tragedy to unfold. In the aftermath, when questioned by police about his involvement and his footage, he tells them, us and himself that he only did his job. And he gets away with it.
What an asshole.
8/10
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