First Word

Rating: *** I like to focus my movie reviews on those films that something stood out in terms of storytelling. Nightcrawler starring Jake Gyllenhaal was a stand-out movie for its quirky characters and unorthodox story about a freelance video producer whose methods to capture the story are .... well -- questionable. The snappy, smart and very manipulative dialog just stole the film. Jake's young, driven and slightly autistic character is a sight to watch. Listening to him alone is a cross between every cliché self-help book and general business strategy plastered all over the Internet. If you've read these books or been inspired by them, Jake's character takes it to an interesting extreme. The movie was unique and different. Taking human actions to the ends of bad behavior, Jake's character is such a sociopath it's shocking. He descends into his power grab on the streets of LA and starts off innocent enough, but soon falls down into passionate greed to move to...