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I was like, Gyllenhall was the bubbleboy from the dumbass 90s movie. But seriously he's kickin rear end right now. This one, and the Villeneuve movies, and so on. gently caress.
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Jun 20, 2015 05:50
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Jake Gyllenhaal was already super disturbing in Donnie Darko, at the beginning of his career, so the potential has always definitely been there. In other news, saw the movie last night and it is just amazing. Lou Bloom really was the perfect personification of ruthless capitalism, an emotionless entity which seems entirely alien to human nature but that is nevertheless uniquely adapted to exploiting all of our weaknesses to further its own goals. One scene that hasn't been mentioned much but that I thought was absolutely phenomenal was during the date with Nina, the way Lou negotiates and pressures the sex deal out of her. If you think about it, Bloom never threatens any bodily harm, never threatens to fabricate a reason for her to get fired from the station; Bloom simply points out the fact that without him her contract at the station will most likely not be renewed, and that she certainly will never amount to anything greater. And I think that is just superb, because you can easily put the blame squarely on Nina for her own situation since, in the end, it was entirely her choice to accept Bloom's deal. If she had said no, then her life would have been exactly the same as it was before meeting him, with the caveat that she would now know that she could've had more, and to get it all she had to do was just do this one thing that she didn't like, just give up one small part of her dignity. But we have this blindside, this weakness, where we can't unsee the riches they've shown us, we can't forget, and now everything we have is diminished by comparison: we feel the loss of what we never had. Nina's situation was nominally the same before and after Bloom's proposal, but as soon as it was made she was already so afraid of losing it that, in essence, there was no difference between that and Bloom threatening to hit her or get her fired. He blackmailed her by doing absolutely nothing. You can see this in action again when he "promotes" Rick, and asks him to name his price and Rick proceeds to literally negotiate against himself. At the end of the scene Rick asks, rhetorically, "I could've asked for more, couldn't I?" and Bloom remorselessly says "Yes". In any other movie this would have been a slapstick moment, with the audience laughing at Rick's bumbling incompetence, but in Nightcrawler you just feel absolutely terrible for Rick because his actions are the result of this terrible fear. loving genius movie.
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Aug 31, 2015 16:52
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Just the whole concept of Gyllenhaal's character being a personification of what's wrong with unregulated capitalism and that being what makes him villainous is great. Gyllenhaal's drive isn't malicious, it's simply pursuit of his success by any means necessary.
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Aug 31, 2015 17:04
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Everything between Lou and Rick is just gold. Riz Ahmed kills that role.
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Aug 31, 2015 17:24
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He's a little tough to buy as a Mexican guy but he's so good I don't even care. I wish I saw him in more, I'm surprised he isn't in Tyrant or whatever.
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Aug 31, 2015 17:30
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I don't even mind that he's getting hoovered up into the Star Wars machine, I just want to see him in more movies.
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Aug 31, 2015 17:33
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Same but also Mads Mikkelsen and Alan Tudyk
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Aug 31, 2015 17:56
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I'm watching this movie now and gently caress it's amazing. Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed are comedy gold together. I'm not sure how this movie is going to end, but holy poo poo I can't wait to get there! EDIT: Wow that certainly was an ending. SalTheBard fucked around with this message at 06:15 on Sep 8, 2015 |
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Sep 8, 2015 04:59
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While this movie was fantastic, in the last few years of my life I've suffered a lot of financial hardship while interacting with people who spout Bloom's bullshit, so a nerve was certainly hit and part of me was hoping for some catharsis of him getting his. But I did enjoy myself and was reminded of The Player, right down to the futile police interrogation scene and the happy ending for the immoral protagonist.
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Sep 14, 2015 06:05
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ProfZoom posted:While this movie was fantastic, in the last few years of my life I've suffered a lot of financial hardship while interacting with people who spout Bloom's bullshit, so a nerve was certainly hit and part of me was hoping for some catharsis of him getting his. Yeah, I think the movie really sets us up to look forward to his failure, and the revelation that he just wins is pretty great. I hate it, but anything else would be bullshit, because the whole point is that this immoral, bullshit-spewing greed-driven strategy is effective in our socitey. You know, in this allegory, he is the corporations, and it would be a fairy taleif the corporations were portrayed as failing because of karma. This is ahorror movie, and like in most horror movies, evil isn't really wiped out in the end, because it's harder to destroy than innocence. When I saw this, I was like "Holy poo poo. That's the end. He's still out there and his philosphy is spreading." This movie has basically the same ending as The Ring. but instead of a far-fetched ghost story, it's an origin story of modern corporate America. edit: But yes I know exactly what you mean about it hitting almost too close to home.
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Sep 14, 2015 07:36
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This film isn't really about corporate America though. I mean, the news stations enable Bloom, but their employee are shown to be perpetrators and resistors (and victims) of his works. The critique here is about the system and how it rewards extreme behavior. Corporations are a part of it, but the film emphasizes that society is at least equally responsible for generating sets of perverse incentives.
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Sep 14, 2015 08:15
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Yeah he doesn't really need the networks to be involved at all. He could just upload everything on youtube and people would be subscribing for that poo poo just like that.
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Sep 14, 2015 09:35
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Vegetable posted:This film isn't really about corporate America though. I mean, the news stations enable Bloom, but their employee are shown to be perpetrators and resistors (and victims) of his works. Well, I'm claiming that Gyllenhaal's character is a metaphor for an American corporation, not that the corporations in the movie are doing the things that I said.You are right that what I described does not literally happen in the movie. I completely agree that society is responsible for generating perverse incentives. Conservative politicians like to make implications that human nature and the free market won't create perverse incentives or reward immoral behavior, and are much preferable to regulation and oversight. They claim that if Riz Ahmed's character was actually good at his job, his value to him employer would result in him being rewarded, and that if he's not compensated enough, he could seek a company that would better appreciate his skills. This movie blatantly rejects that and says "no, deregulation and lack of oversight lead to exploitation; to the worker being chewed up and spit out by the corporate system."
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Sep 14, 2015 13:52
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ProfZoom posted:While this movie was fantastic, in the last few years of my life I've suffered a lot of financial hardship while interacting with people who spout Bloom's bullshit, so a nerve was certainly hit and part of me was hoping for some catharsis of him getting his. I never would've thought of The Player, but that's a great comparison. Kinda makes me want to watch it again.
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Sep 14, 2015 14:24
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Just watched this on Netflix because my husband wanted to watch it, but he fell asleep for the horror house segment and now I'm posting on a message board about much I loved it. What an excellent film.
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Sep 20, 2015 03:55
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