Nightcrawler

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Dan Gilroy/Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton and Riz Ahmed

We've grown accustomed to seeing Jake Gyllenhaal in films where he is confronted by creepy characters or situations. Donnie Darko, Zodiac and this year's Enemy are but a few that come to mind. In Nightcrawler, Gyllenhaal has the rare opportunity to actually play a creep. And as he takes on this new career challenge, he proves he is quite adept at playing a character who gets under one's skin.

His character, Louis Bloom, reminds me somewhat of Robert DeNiro's Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver; he is humorless and earnest and when he tries to sustain an ordinary conversation, he is awkward and more than just a little unnerving. And like Travis Bickle, you know something dark, angry and maybe violent is seething beneath a deceptively self-possessed demeanor.

When we first see Louis, he is using a bolt cutter to remove a chain link fence near some train tracks. When he is confronted by a security guard, Louis offers a feeble excuse about being lost. His gaze rests on a watch the security guard wears, which he covets. After the guard scoffs at Louis' reason for being on the premises, he is attacked brutally. We see the outcome of the melee in the next scene, as Louis sports the security guard's watch.

After selling his scrap metal to an unscrupulous buyer, Louis comes upon a crash scene on an L.A. freeway. He stops to find two police officers trying to extricate an injured driver from a car. He also sees a cameraman, Joe Loder (Bill Paxton) filming the scene. Louis learns Joe is capturing footage of the crash to sell to local T.V. news stations. While Joe is in his van gathering his camera equipment for his next opportunity, Louis approaches him and asks if he might need help. Joe gives him the brush-off but it is obvious from Louis' eyes as he watches the van pull away that the incident has made an impact on him.

After seeing Joe's footage on the local news, he sets out to buy his own camera and to fund his new found enterprise, he steals a bicycle to sell to a pawn broker. Unable to get his preferred price for the bike, he instead trades for a home video camera and a police scanner.

Louis then tries his hand at capturing his own footage when his police scanner leads him to a crime scene involving domestic violence. He boldly approaches the epicenter of the scene as police officers tend to a bleeding victim. Louis aggressively thrusts his camera over the victim to capture grisly footage. After the police force him back, Louis returns to his car but not before a rival cameraman vents his frustration at him for thwarting his own attempts to film.

Later that evening, Louis visits a local T.V. station, intending to sell his modest footage. He meets a producer named Nina Romina (an excellent Rene Russo) who buys his footage for a modest fee. Though Nina's colleague has reservations about the footage being appropriate for television, she is hardly troubled or disturbed by the video. Her focus on ratings leaves her blind to ethical considerations.

Nina encourages Louis to find more footage and to consider her first when marketing it, to which he agrees. An unholy partnership forms; both parties hungry for success and willfully oblivious to scruples.

At this point in the film, we've grown accustomed to Louis' bizarre chatter about success, which he drones about in a robotic fashion. He is happy to offer his views to anyone who will listen, including Nina.

As Louis submits more footage, he hires a young apprentice named Rick (Riz Ahmed); a down and out homeless person with a shaky work history. Excited by Louis' offer of employment, he too listens to his employer's clinically expressed ideas about business.

As the footage sales climb, Louis upgrades his vehicle to a brand new muscle car and acquires new camera equipment and a computer to edit his videos. And as the two men become experienced in the ways of filming, Louis becomes more ambitious and even less concerned about how he gathers his footage.

Flush with success, he invites Nina out to dinner one night. While she considers the dinner something strictly professional, Louis interprets it as something romantic. When Nina rebuffs his amorous intentions, Louis reminds her how his footage has been instrumental in reviving her career while also making subtle, unkind comments about her age and the fact that her professional life has been sporadic. He also makes demands for higher footage fees and more brazenly, insists she introduce him to the news production staff. Nina is repelled by his aggressive, roughshod tactics but is subtly taken by his initiative. Louis is the reflection she sees looking back at her in the mirror.

Louis' ambition and his shockingly unethical approach to his work lead him to an incident he cunningly manipulates for his own gain, which involves filming a murder in progress. Rather than turn over evidence which might incriminate the assailants, he withholds it to prolong potential money-making opportunities. In a unconscionable attempt to collect the reward on the suspects and film the footage of their arrest, he follows them after learning their whereabouts from the license plate number in his footage. His plan leads to a deadly shoot-out and a car-chase that ends fatally for several parties. But it is what he films that heralds his descent into total ethical and moral bankruptcy.

The film ends cynically; not only will Louis will remain impervious to arrest and prosecution, he will also prosper.

Gilroy's story is taut and bleak and wonderfully plotted. It is easy to see how a sociopathic opportunist like Louis might easily find success via the news media, with its declining standards of taste and integrity.

Gyllenhaal keeps the audience on edge with his portrayal of Louis' unpredictable, menacing personality. Gyllenhaal's wide, alert eyes are a perfect vehicle for conveying an eagerness to learn (which he accomplishes with disturbing ease and speed) and a dangerous volatility. Rene Russo is the biggest surprise in the film. Her world-weariness and insecurities are worn on her face like lacerations. She is smart but we see that years of working in the news media has left her with a mercenary attitude toward her job, which is finely attuned to ratings imperatives. She and Louis are simpatico in their approach to their work. I don't think I've seen a better performance from Russo. Her career has mostly been relegated to Hollywood-movie-babe roles where all that was asked of her was to smirk and look sexy. Here she shows a range and a darkness I didn't think she had.
Riz Ahmed was also quite good as the conscience Louis so sorely needs but appallingly lacks.

The film makes a powerful and pessimistic point about American opportunism; its intolerance for competition and its debilitating effect on character. It also says something about how the capitalist system abets the unethical agendas of those who see illicit conquest as a means to success.

Nightcrawler might leave you feeling like you need a good scrubbing with hot water and soap. But it is also an intriguing film; one that left me hoping life doesn't always resemble the grim make believe on movie screens.

Edge of Tomorrow

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Doug Liman Starring: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton and Brendan Gleeson

Tom Cruise, a sci-fi story, Summer movie season...sound familiar? Given his track record the last few years, it would be reasonable to expect one more tiresome Cruise movie but I was surprised to find he disappointed me--in the most pleasing way. Edge of Tomorrow isn't an assault on the ears and eyes with techno-mayhem straining movie-screen borders, but an exciting, edgy thriller with brains and heart. Sure, it has its moments of destruction and violence but with a terrific script by Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, and John Henry Butterworth; based on the novel All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, it is all a part of the story-fabric rather than an end.

Tom Cruise plays Major Cage, a PR military officer of sorts whose sole responsibility is luring recruits for a war with an alien race called Mimics who have occupied most of Europe though they are contained for the moment. Cage travels to London to meet with General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson), who commands the British/American forces in the war. Brigham orders Cage to join the D-Day-like invasion of the beaches of France to film the combat for recruitment purposes. Cage balks at the idea; demonstrating an appalling lack of spine. Before he can leave the building, Brigham has him tasered and arrested for desertion. Cage wakes to find himself being ordered about by a tough Master-Sargeant named Farell (played amusingly by Bill Paxton) on a military base (formerly Heathrow Airport). Cage is treated as a deserter and stripped of his rank while forced to join a shabby unit who are scheduled to join the invasion force the next day.

His brothers-in-arms have little respect or patience for his un-trained, ill-prepared condition and let him know it; mocking him at every turn. Cage continues to resist the deployment but it proceeds as planned as the aircraft transporting the unit takes enemy fire, forcing the soldiers to leap willy-nilly from the craft's interior.
On the beach, destruction and chaos reign as soldiers are crushed by flying craft shot down from the sky and riddled with enemy rounds. Cage wanders about, afraid and tentative until he comes face to face with the alien enemy: a kind of octopus/spider hybrid; all tentacles and spinning, lethal aggression. While the tentacled creatures batter the humans about, including Cage, he manages to kill a nastier, bigger Mimic known as an Alpha, which drenches him in blood. Cage is also killed in the process. Or is he?

In time Cage learns that Mimic blood has given him the ability to re-live the day from the moment he arrives at the Heathrow base and in doing so, he learns the invasion will fail regardless of military intervention. He tries to convince the soldiers in his unit of his ability and what it means for them but it all has little effect.

While reliving the invasion, Cage meets a soldier who has become the face of the resistance; a no-nonsense woman named Rita (Emily Blunt), who can be seen in recruitment posters with the nickname "Full Metal Bitch."
After several loops where Cage saves Rita from a Mimic attack, she says to him "come and see me when you wake-up." Cage manages to find Rita during her rigorous training with Mimic-facsimiles. She is wary of him at first but understands his predicament. We learn thereafter that she too had his ability once but a blood transfusion dispelled the alien hemoglobin, rendering her unable to loop. Rita explains to Cage that the Mimics are controlled by a centralized mind called an Omega and because his blood has mingled with the aliens, they can attach a transponder--designed by Rita's tech go-to guy Dr. Carter (Noah Taylor)--to Cage that will allow them to locate the Omega. Rita also explains that if the Omega isn't destroyed, the Mimics will win the war because an enemy that knows the future can anticipate any attack. The Omega sends them on a wild-goose chase to a false location but after more looping and Cage's Mimic-ispired visions, they locate the alien mind, which rests underwater inside the subterranean chambers of the Louvre. In a clever twist, Cage also loses his ability to loop, which adds a tense, exciting wrinkle to their final mission.

The film is well-paced, very well-acted and exceptionally plotted. Because Cage relives one particular day, a la Groundhog Day, opportunities for humor abound and pervade what is mostly a dramatic, sci-fi story. It is amusing to see Cage anticipate Master-Sargent Farell's commands and befuddle his hostile unit with facts about their lives.

Blunt and Cruise share some glowing onscreen chemistry. It is refreshing to see Blunt's character as decisive and proactive while Cruise's Cage often follows her lead. Cage and Rita eventually establish an egalitarian bond that runs contrary to the male-always-leads default setting common in most Hollywood action films.

The skein the film creates with its wonderful plot is kept tangle-free though it also keeps one alert. I really liked the ending, which returns the story to something more human after the intensity of the climax. I also had to chuckle, seeing Paris and the Louvre reduced to stone detritus and the Eiffel Tower woefully toppled onto its side. Why Paris seems to always be the whipping boy in many sci-fi action movies is a mystery. I guess Hollywood filmmakers feel American audiences would rather the French suffer the devastation of an alien invasion than New Yorkers or Angelenos.

Doug Liman has given us Go with it's multiple threaded storyline and the hyper-kinetic Bourne Identity and here he gives us a little of both. One can only hope the rest of the Summer offerings will be as entertaining and intelligent. I left the theater feeling the current movie season at the multiplex might not be a bummer after-all. But it's only June.

Million Dollar Arm

*Spoiler Alert**

Director: Craig Gillespie, Starring: Jon Hamm, Alan Arkin, Bill Paxton, Lake Bell, Aasif Mandvi, Suraj Sharma

Based on relatively recent events, Million Dollar Arm tells the story of a sports agent named JB (John Hamm), whose agency has seen better days and better clients. JB has just lost a potentially lucrative client; a top NFL linebacker, to a rival agency. Lacking other prospects to represent, JB hatches a scheme to find and train Indian cricket bowlers to become Major League Baseball pitching hopefuls. With the help of a very powerful and wealthy investor, JB, an Indian-American associate named Aash (Aasif Mandvi) and Ray (Alan Arkin), a retired scout whose skepticism is worn on his sleeve, fly to India; their success far from guaranteed.

To facilitate his plan JB creates a show called Million Dollar Arm, where contestants compete by demonstrating powerful arms and fast pitches. The winners are given the chance to travel to America to train and try-out for a spot on a Major League Baseball roster.

JB is courted aggressively by a short, gregarious Indian man named Amit (Pitobash), who claims to be a big baseball fan, though his knowledge of the game is sketchy at best. Offering his services for free, JB takes him on as an assistant and before long, both men and newly arrived Ray begin holding try-outs on the travelling show.

The contestants are a disappointing lot at first; most and almost all demonstrating feeble arm strength. But after a tour of a few cities, JB manages to find a few strong candidates; one of them with a comically unorthodox pitching stance. Ultimately, two winners emerge; Rinku (Life of Pi's Suraj Sharma) and Dinesh (Madhur Mittal).

In scenes sure to stimulate the tear ducts, Rinku and Dinesh say goodbye to their respective families. Rinku's mother asks JB (via Amit's interpretation) to look out for her son, a promise he intends to keep.

Dinesh, Rinku and Amit manage to create trouble for themselves in America when they accidentally set off a fire alarm in their hotel, earning them an ejection from the the place. Unable to place them elsewhere, JB reluctantly takes them into his own home.

The three Indian men find life in JB's home perplexing and the pace hectic. They inquire about his family; an issue JB is only happily to dismiss as something foreign to his bachelor lifestyle. They also find JB's hurry-up, time-management skills more than a little off-putting.
JB makes a deal with a USC baseball coach, Tom House (Bill Paxton)--renowned for his whiz-bang talent for developing pitchers--to bring the two prospects to Major League readiness in a year's time. The time-table is an unreasonable condition imposed by the investor; one both House and JB warily acknowledge.

Dinesh and Rinku find pitching rough-going and show little flair for the finer points but House informs JB that though the two young men have their rough edges, they show determination and genuine ability.

JB meanwhile is ever-menaced by his business' near-insolvency; clients demonstrably lacking. He also begins to put his business pursuits ahead of his relationship with Dinesh and Rinku, who he often neglects. The men find a sympathetic spirit in JB's tenant Brenda (Lake Bell), who is quick to identify the boy's troubles as a lack of care on JB's part; which he begins slowly to address. But later, JB's business and marketing concerns get the better of him as Dinesh and Rinku fail a critical try-out before Major League Scouts. Thinking himself finished, he comes to realize how badly he mistreated both men and Amit, not to mention his prospect-for-love Brenda. Ever tenacious, JB risks everything to give the two Indian pitchers a second try-out in more favorable conditions. Finding no takers and no further financial investment, he manages to find one scout who will give Dinesh and Rinku another shot.

Is Million Dollar Arm formulaic? Definitely. Is it sentimental? You bet. But it also has charm by the ton, which the cast deftly provides. The scenes with Sharma, Pitobash, Mittal and Hamm generate warmth and on-screen chemistry while Lake Bell's quirky sexyness and humor bring a much-needed dose of estrogen to the proceedings. Hamm and Bell are an unlikely pairing but they spark together. Alan Arkin is always fun, and is again as JB's curmudgeonly foil. And for what little time Bill Paxton is on-screen, he makes up for as a very convincing coach who provides compassionate, fatherly guidance to Dinesh and Rinkure as the pressure to succeed mounts.

Is this stellar film-making? This is Disney. Take that how you will. But I must say I had more fun and found more humanity in Million Dollar Arm than the two-hour, insufferable carnage carnival known as Godzilla. The latter gleefully disposes of humans while the former at least reminds us people still populate the planet, and sometimes in funny, touching ways.