Although
wanking and crying takes up most of my time, I do try to be productive
in the half hour of each day that I'm completely free. Sometimes I like
to take my dog on a walk and other times I enjoy playing Grand Theft
Auto to see how many prostitutes I can kill before having to commit
suicide. Occasionally though, I also like to read books with my latest
effort being Jon Ronson's enjoyably un-comforting The Psychopath Test. The book followed Ronson
on his one-sided adventure into the world of the crazies, whilst
detailing how he suspected they're fucking up society from the top. For
birdwatchers looking to take their weird hobby to the next level, the
book also detailed how one might go about spotting a real life
psychopath in the wild. Turns out they're manipulative, glib, callous,
have rather ambitious long term goals and as such make pretty good
politicians, serial killers and in some cases, step-parents. It also
pointed out that if you've ever panicked about being a psycho whilst
doing something a bit kooky like microwaving the cat, masturbating with
shit, or enjoying a Michael Bay film then you shouldn't worry too much. A
psychopath has literally no interest in how another person might define
them and so you're probably fine.
One person who I think definitely falls into a category that non-experts would refer to as 'a total fucking headcase' would be Jake Gyllenhaal's character of Louis in the thriller Nightcrawler. The
film tells the story of an unblinking loner as he attempts to live the
American Dream through any means necessary. If the British media is to
be believed then for most Americans, the dream is to simply eat
themselves into an early grave whilst avoiding being either shot to
death at school or at home by the police. Louis however is more obsessed
with the traditional definition of taking advantage of opportunities
that might lead to him being more financially successful as he creeps
his way up the career ladder. He starts off by finding and stealing bits
of metal to sell like a cross between Ted Bundy and a Womble, before
finding his true calling of filming accidents for a local news show. Ronson's
book talked a lot about 'The Hare Checklist' which is where he got his
details on how to spot these wacky bastards. Watching the film, it
seemed to me that Louis ticked almost every single box in terms of his
superficial charm, ability to manipulate, lack of empathy, and general
nonchalance for breaking the law. As the film goes on, we see Gyllenhaal
descend into darkness, committing even more worrying acts than simply
making me question my own sexuality by him having the same face as his fit
sister Maggie.
By
the end of 2014, this film began appearing quite highly in a lot of
critics top ten list of the year and I can see why. To summarise, it was
totally fucking brilliant. Of course there are lots of reasons as to
why I might have loved this film more than I love my own family, with
the fact that I couldn't give a pigs dick about my family being only
one. I suppose that the most obvious thing however is Gyllenhaal's
central performance which is like a jittery cross between Travis Bickle, Rupert Pupkin,
and David Brent. He's a weird, obsessive loner who craves success and
attempts to convince people he's normal by puking out rehearsed answers to normal everyday questions. I don't think the film
leaves his side once and at no point do we ever really have a clue what
he's going to do next. As the light bounces off his reptile-egg eyes,
it's hard to figure out what emotion he's feeling beyond a desire to
skull-fuck the human race into a bloodied mess of shit for him to film
for local news. At first he seems pathetic and desperate however during
one diner scene with Rene Russo, he reveals himself to actually be
confident, controlling, and right at the batshit
end of the twat-o-meter. Interestingly, this is the same scene in which
we then see Russo's character switch from being professional and
experienced to vulnerable and, essentially, fucked. There's no doubting
that this is Gyllenhaal's movie however that's not to say that the rest
of the cast isn't great too with Russo also delivering her best
performance in ages. The last thing I saw her in was Thor: The Dark World which, although fine, did have me on the verge of an Odin-sleep at times.
In terms of what the film's subtext is, well Nightcrawler has
more going on below the surface than a swimming duck with dicks for
legs. For me, I think it's a satire on how we're meant to behave in a
world where jobs are scarce and the economy is as fucked as a battered arse in the museum of buggery. If my experience of job hunting is
anything to go by, employers are less interested in humans than they are
dead eyed members of a cult that live to stack shelves and chant about
growth and self-improvement. Gyllenhaal does everything that we're told
to do and thanks to our society having been dipped in shit, it seems that
the only people who will truly prosper are wankers and psychos. He uses
his superficial charm and lack of empathy to acquire an income and even
does quite well as a result of being more than prepared to kill anybody
that might stand in his way. These days, it's less of an American Dream
than it is an American Nightmare. We British might be directionless and
cynical without such a national ambition, but to quote comedian Al Murray,
at least this means 'we're awake'. That's not to say that we're any
better though, with my old boss clearly haven risen through the ranks as a
result of being a sociopath. He genuinely came into work a few hours
after finding out his sister had been murdered and described the
situation as 'a family mishap'. Like I suspect Gyllenhaal's character
would in his position, I can't help but imagine he's simply grateful
that there's now less people to share his inheritance with.
However, as well as holding a circus mirror of crap up to the current state of
employment, the movie also casts it's sinister eye over the state of the
media. In the film, the news is less interested in showing the truth than
it is in sensationalising guff in a chase for the ratings. It's hard
not to find things amusing as the news team start to gush with
excitement over the thought of showing a blood splattered massacre to
innocent families who are presumably relaxing at home. I was watching
the news once when they genuinely announced, ' join us after the break
to find out about the hidden killer in your home'. They then returned
and delivered a ball achingly dull story about bacteria. I mean
seriously... bacteria?! I drink that shit in Yakult! For two minutes I'd
sat gripped to the TV, waiting for them to return, whilst imagining
that Jeffrey Dahmer and Ed Guin were behind my sofa, waiting to jump out, drill holes in my head and make belts out of my nipples. Nightcrawler looks
at the media's liberal use of the truth and then even hints towards our
own morality as a viewer. At the end of the day, they're only trying to
get viewers and it seems the way to do that is by filming somebody's
gruesome final moments. Is Gyllenhaal's headcase
the bad guy for filming it, the news station for paying him, or us for
essentially demanding it? Well obviously Gyllenhaal crosses the line in
how he gets his footage, but I suppose, like a slaggy mouse's fanny, none of us are exactly squeaky clean.
On
top of all of this, I suppose the film could also be seen as a look at
the obsessive nature of filmmaking. If anybody has seen Hearts Of Darkness then they'll know how insane people can get whilst trying to make a movie, with Apocalypse Now almost
killing Martin Sheen. Possibly the closest a Sheen had come to death at
that point until his son Charlie later discovered an addiction to
attention and claimed he was a warlock. Even recently there was the
case of the director being charged with manslaughter after filming on a
railway without permission which ended with a crew member being killed.
Oh, and I suppose there's also the famously documented incidents of
Herzog and Kinski's attempts at making movies together. I'm not
suggesting that any of these people would intentionally put innocent
people at risk of death, but there's certainly a similar, obsessive
quality there to whatever is driving Gyllenhaal's demented fuck-nugget.
In fact there's one scene near the end which may well be one of the
greatest car chases of the last few years, as we essentially sit in the
vehicle that's filming the chase. Not only does this push it closer to
being full-on meta but by adding an extra car, things started to get so
tense that my arse clamped me to the chair like a fucking bulldog clip.
You can visit the blog picture artist at _Moriendus_
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