84% on Rotten Tomatoes
I'm not going to say the plot of this, but all I need to say to you to sell you this movie is: time travel.
I seriously think this is one of THE BEST time travel films out there. The only thing standing in between this film and the #1 spot for the best time travel film I have seen, is Back to the Future. But in terms of serious time travel dramas, this is definitely the best.
Now I LOVE me some time travel. I've always loved the concept of time travel, and loved reading about all the different theories, paradoxes, and alternate timeline explanations for time travel stories. One of my favourite books is on time travel (The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - but for the love of God DON'T watch the film), and while X-Men: Days of Future Past was one of my favourite films last year, I guess you can't really label it a time travel film (it's more a superhero action film than true time travel).
This film though... it's amazing. It is the epitome of time travel and time travel paradoxes. The entire film is just one amazing adventure leading up to a huge mind blow.
Ethan Hawke is the main character and he does a great job in this, but Sarah Snook is the one that absolutely steals the spotlight. She is completely AMAZING in this, and I'm really excited to see her future performances.
The opening is quite interesting, because it introduces you to this world of time traveling, but some may think that the rest of the first act is quite boring. This was the part of the movie where I started to question myself like, "Is this film really about time travel?", and even my mum and brother asked me, "I thought you said this was a time travel film. Where's the time travel?"
Now, it definitely does take quite a bit of build up, but even though I was questioning where the time travel was, the first act was still very very interesting to me. There is hardly any action and it is more of a recount of events, but Sarah Snook's performance was so amazing that she alone holds your attention. Whilst this section of the film is the longest and has the least amount of time travel, I think story-wise it is the best part of the film because (and without saying too much for fear of spoilers), it really helps to establish the characters, establish the setting and establish the story.
The second and third act was when the mind blow started to happen, but the very end of the film was extremely weak. I know why they included it, because they needed a plot device to carry the film through, but it was just extremely weak and quite a bit of a cop out.
Nonetheless, this film is incredibly amazing, with a really really interesting storyline, a really great, pure and classic time travel paradox/theory/situation, and it is a MUST SEE! Everyone NEEDS to see this. It's no longer in cinemas, but it really doesn't matter. See it for the TIME TRAVEL! I guarantee you will enjoy it. Your mind will be blown. Your life will change. You will be a better person.
95% on Rotten Tomatoes
No, this film has nothing to do with one of the coolest X-Men characters that ever existed (although how cool would that be!), but don't worry, it's still a good film!
Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a thief who discovers the art of photography. Specifically, photographing and documenting vicious and gruesome crimes across the town so that he could sell his footage to the news channel with the biggest wallet. Over time, he picks up the skills to succeed in this trade, but as the world of media and sensational news gets more and more demanding, he soon blurs the line between being an observer of crime and being a participant of crime.
Jake Gyllenhaal here is amazing. He completely transformed himself; he lost A LOT of weight (through his own initiative), he completely changed his body and facial language, he rarely blinked, and he overall just became an extremely creepy shell of the actor we know and love.
I think this film introduces some really great conundrums that we face in this day and age, and it really makes you think. We are living in the information age; the digital era. At the click of a button, we can get information delivered to us the second it becomes known. With the internet, we are now more than ever connected to what is happening around us. As a result, the media competes for information like vultures competing for a carcass. The media may be cold hearted, but they are just doing what they can to earn money. The media may be feeding us with non-news such as the latest celebrity rumours or the latest fashion trends, but they are just playing to what society wants from them. And when it comes to serious crimes, the media knows how to target certain demographics. White people only tune in to news about white victims? Then who cares about vitims in minority groups! Our target population wants drama, blood, guts and gore? Then who cares about sensitive information! Who cares about informing the police when we can inform the public!
These are all very real and applicable issues being dealt with in the film. So much so that when the news about the Parramatta shooting occurred, I got a bit worried seeing video footage of the shooting from a nearby rooftop. After watching Nightcrawler, I'm a bit concerned that the person shooting that footage actually knew what was about to happen. And instead of stopping it, maybe they just decided to film it so they could cash it in to the news channel with the biggest offer (in this case, 7 News).
The film is really scary in this sense, because this stuff could actually happen in real life. Jake Gyllenhaal's performance also does not help in your feeling of unease, because even when he smiles he looks like a freak who could murder you.
I will say that the film was actually a bit slow, and there are quite a few scenes that drag on a bit, but it is still a good watch and you don't need to see this on the big screen or anything as there's no real need for great quality. But the idea and themes are really good and it is worth a watch for anyone who is interested but not too sure if they should watch it.
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