The pulsating shimmer of Los Angeles at night can seem either like a dreamscape fantasia or a topography of nightmares. In the new film “Nightcrawler” it is both, a land of opportunity and madness and left in some measure for the viewer to unravel.
The directing debut for Dan Gilroy, who also wrote the screenplay, the film enters the world of nighttime crime-scene videographers as a jumping-off point to explore contemporary media culture, self-created personalities in the Internet age and the boundaries of personal ambition. The film has its world premiere as part of the current Toronto International Film Festival, will have its U.S. premiere at the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, and open in theaters on Oct. 31.
Jake Gyllenhaal has a razor-thin scar on the palm of his hand. It’s a permanent souvenir from the set of “Nightcrawler,” the Toronto Film Festival thriller, in which the actor plays a twisted crime paparazzo. On the Los Angeles shoot last fall, director Dan Gilroy was filming Gyllenhaal simmering alone in a house after his character, Lou, suffers a professional setback. “We were in the middle of a scene with a mirror,” Gyllenhaal recalls on a recent afternoon. “I hit the mirror.” The violent act wasn’t in the script, and Gyllenhaal still isn’t sure what propelled him to do it. “It was just a choice in that moment that happened,” says Gyllenhaal, who accidentally sliced open his hand on a shard of glass.
Jake Gyllenhaal is ripped and rough looking.
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