Nightcrawler Review.

As a lover of Jake Gylenhaal I knew I was going to have to see Nightcrawler. My boyfriend and I went last weekend so I thought I'd let you guys know what I thought of it. 

From the trailer and movie posters it looked as though it had a bit of a Drive vibe going on- and I sort of had to get that out of my head quite early on as its a very different type of film. 

The movie follows Lou Bloom- whom at the beginning is a guy struggling to get a job and stealing from building sites to survive. Circumstances soon change as he becomes a Nightcrawler- something I had never heard of before. We see Lou driving at white knuckle speeds around L.A following police radios to try and get footage from the scenes of car crashes and attacks around the city. As that description suggests its a grim and morbid job that at times feels quite sickening, with other Nightcrawlers stating that "if it bleeds, it leads". They then sell this footage to the highest bidding news stations- the more affluent the victim the more they pay. The film is a very negative portrayal of the media, something that just keeps cropping up in films at the minute, as it shows the bloodthirsty ruthlessness of these stations. Possibly the best quip from the film is when Lou gets some advice on what to film;

"...the best and clearest way that I can phrase it to you, Lou, to capture the spirit of what we air is to think of our newscast as a screaming woman, running down the street with her throat cut."

 Although I did enjoy this film, for me personally I felt that something was missing. I'm a sucker for a film with a likable yet flawed character which is something you most certainly won't find in Nightcrawler. However, that is not to criticise Gyllenhaal's performance- he's fantastic. Lou is a manipulative, cold-hearted anti-hero. These traits are easily portrayed, Gyllenhaal excels at creating a character that is also chilling and borderline manic- he is superb.

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Overall, I would recommend you go and see this if you haven't already. Its a suspenseful and at times humorous noir,and Gyllenhaal will leave you on edge with his depiction of Lou. This film has left me excited to see what he'll do next, as I feel he keeps choosing more and more interesting and dynamic roles. I think we have a lot more to see from Jake Gyllenhaal.

Gone Girl Movie Review.

If you also follow me over on my You Tube channel you might have already seen my review of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl- I mentioned over there that I would also review the film once I'd seen it. Sorry the review is a little on the late side but the film is still on in cinemas so if you haven't seen it yet there's still time!

If you've already watched my video you'll know what I thought of the book. Although I did enjoy it, I was a passionate hater of the ending (along with most people) and felt it let the book down, so I was interested to see how this would translate into a film.

The story follows the marriage of Nick and Amy- a country mouse/city mouse combo that starts to turn ugly. The film shows us quite a negative and brutal portrayal of marriage, which is one of the most interesting aspects of the book. I was glad to see that their complicated and manipulative relationship came across so well in the film- its small nuances like this that can be lost in the transition from page to screen. Director David Fincher is more than used to this transition having already directed Fight Club and Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, both of which, much like Gone Girl, were hugely successful novels before their appearance in cinemas. Fincher's style works perfectly here as he creates yet another moody, intelligent and suspenseful film, with of course a killer twist!

There was an awful lot of hype and build up surrounding this film, as there always is when a popular novel makes its way onto the silver screen. When a book has been so widely read its really important to get the casting right, and in my opinion this movie was spot on. Ben Affleck plays a fantastic Nick- he was exactly how I had imagined. Rosamund Pike, relatively unknown until now- I had only seen her as Jane from Joe Wright's Pride and Prejudice- also gave a stellar performance. Amy is an incredibly multi-faceted character and she got every side of her across- something that can be hard to do on screen and in such depth.

If you still haven't made the trip to the cinema to see Gone Girl you definitely should! Although I wasn't a huge lover of the book, I think it made a far better film- something I never usually say! What did you think? Let me know down in the comments, especially if you've read the book too!