Kurt Loder Reviews Nightcrawler and Horns

Nightcrawler is a steely LA noir that trains a searchlight on the TV news business, and flushes out some of its creepiest denizens. Gyllenhaal gives an intense, gripping performance. His Louis is an icy sociopath, living in solitary contentment with a laptop and a big-screen TV (both stolen, presumably), his only companion a sad potted plant. The actor says he lost nearly 30 pounds for the role, and his cadaverous, dead-eyed countenance is the movie's most disturbing element. Writer-director Dan Gilroy is already a well-regarded screenwriter (he scripted The Bourne Legacy with his brother, Tony Gilroy). Here, directing his first movie, he reveals a sleek, fully formed style, greatly enhanced by meticulous editing (by his other brother, John Gilroy) and by James Newton Howard's subtly ominous score, writes Kurt Loder.