Nightcrawler - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray SteelBook

Any story worth a damn knows that it’s only as good as its subject. And if that subject is an unrepentant, irredeemable sociopath, the movie had better be engrossing and engaging to make up for the unpleasantness that the viewer is about to be subjected to. Nightcrawler pulls off the impossible, in presenting us with Louis “Lou” Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), a small-time criminal, a thief, who is, at once, devoid of emotion, but also in love with himself. He’s a contradiction of humanity but is, sadly, a very real depiction of what evil generally looks like. He doesn’t twirl his mustache, and he doesn’t cackle with glee. He thinks he’s a good person. And, in many ways, he is… he’s hardworking, he’s driven, he’s very smart, but he’s nowhere near as smart as he believes, which makes him all the more dangerous. But, ultimately, he’s a ruthless person who will stop at nothing, not even blurring the line between inaction and murder, if it means getting what he wants.

Nightcrawler is a rare beast of a movie that’s both an engrossing character study as well as a larger portrait of what news media has become. As local TV news manager Nina Romina (Rene Russo) explains her vision, “Think of our newscast as a screaming woman running down the street with her throat cut.” One fateful night, Lou witnesses a car crash and sees a freelance news crew respond to the scene, grabbing quick footage of it and selling it to the highest bidder. He tries to pick the brain of the cameraman in charge, Joe Loder (Bill Paxton), but is blown off. Lou decides he can do this on his own, under his own operation, because he’s got something most people don’t. Or, rather, he lacks something most people have. He has no shame. He can get the grisly camera angles, the closeups of the blood and guts most people wouldn’t have the nerve to get. He doesn’t mind being yelled at or scolded because he has the “best” footage, one that the news and its viewers can gobble up in all their bloodlust.

There is a story that unfolds, through a series of vignettes, an episodic journey into darkness, as Lou refines his vision and becomes a player in the industry. He happens upon a big, bloody scoop and sits on crucial evidence so that he can get multiple stories out of one incident, a game of one-upmanship. The irony of Nightcrawler is that, while Lou does ruffle some feathers, particularly from local police investigators, he’s also seen by many in the news industry as exactly what he presents himself to them, and not as the monster that he really is.

Dan Gilroy (brother of Tony Gilroy, who penned some of the best arcs on Andor) somehow avoids the salaciousness that the story portrays. Nightcrawler is about these things, not of them. And it’s difficult to portray without appearing hypocritical, while it casually observes without passive judgment. It’s not a finger-wagging tale of righteousness. Nightcrawler presents a disturbing story about a chilling person willing to do whatever it takes to succeed, and it's up to the viewer to decide how to process it.

Nightcrawler is one of the best films of its type, and it’s not an easy watch. It’s not particularly gruesome in its portrayal of bloodshed or in gore, but it does so clinically, through the eyes of a sociopath, which makes the events significantly more brutal in our mind’s eye. We’re not just viewing violence; we’re spending time in the head of someone truly despicable, and when the movie wraps up, we’re glad to be free.

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Nightcrawler hits 4K UHD Blu-ray via Shout! Factory in a two-disc release, housed in a beautifully-designed Steelbook case, featuring new cover artwork. We see Lou’s trusted muscle car with a camcorder atop the hood, in a painted rendering of one of his various jobs. On the reverse side, a car is flipped and engulfed in flames. The film is available in both 2160p resolution and 1080p resolution on each respective disc.

Nightcrawler was shot on a combination of formats to give it a unique, distinctive look. Nighttime sequences, where the story seems to find comfort in the shadows, hidden from the world, were shot digitally. Daytime scenes, which feel almost oppressive in how overlit they seem to feel, were shot on 35mm film. The transfer was completed using a 4K scan of the film’s DI negative, and the results are generally quite good. Surprisingly, the digitally-shot segments seem to look better, but this appears to be an artistic choice, as the story embraces the darkness and the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles. The Dolby Vision HDR grading really benefits the digital nighttime sequences, with black levels taking on a stygian, hellish void of humanity. Details, throughout, are sharply rendered, and skin tones look lush and healthy, even on Gyllenhaal’s gaunt, skeletal frame.

The new Dolby Atmos mix included with Nightcrawler isn’t particularly aggressive, but it sure is immersive. Most sound effects are firmly on the front-end of the soundstage, however atmospherics, along with James Newton Howard’s wonderful score, envelop the entirety of the soundstage. Gunshots, for example, ring out on the front speakers, then echo through the tops and rears, while some more obvious effects, like squealing tires during a car chase, travel from front to back. The included DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround mix is no slouch, however, but the Dolby Atmos mix feels a bit wider and more spacious in realization. Despite having such a complicated, nuanced sound design, it is quite a talky picture, and dialogue is always favored throughout the mix, clear and audible, and given priority above all else.

Most features are found on the second Blu-ray disc included, but both the 4K and Blu-ray disc include audio commentary tracks. Beyond that, there are a pair of featurettes and a trailer.

4K Disc

• Audio Commentary - Film Historian Joe von Appen
• Audio Commentary - Writer/Director Dan Gilroy, Producer Tony Gilroy, and Editor John Gilroy

Blu-ray Disc

• Audio Commentary - Film Historian Joe von Appen
• Audio Commentary - Writer/Director Dan Gilroy, Producer Tony Gilroy, and Editor John Gilroy
• Making The News (HD 14:17) - Interview with Composer James Newton Howard
• If It Bleeds, It Leads (HD 5:16) – Making Nightcrawler
• Trailer

Nightcrawler is a brilliant, brutal film that pulls zero punches in its portrayal of a world that allows an unrepentant sociopath like Lou to find a niche that ordinary people consume along with their breakfast. People like Lou didn’t create this world, but they can thrive in it if they find their calling, because they lack the shame required to shy away from it. Dan Gilroy’s script twists and turns through the nighttime streets of Los Angeles, and Jake Gyllenhaal gives a brilliant performance, bringing its study of mundane evil to life. Though somewhat lacking in terms of supplemental features, boasting a few new ones, it looks and sounds terrific. Nightcrawler from Shout! Factory on 4K is Highly Recommended.