Things That Crawl in the Night

Neo-Noir tour de force .. Poster courtesy of Wikipedia

by Trebor Snillor
THE LATEST

I’m at Arboretum Starbucks in Lakewood.. I can only assume that Knox Street Starbucks wants fewer customers – they took out most of their tables and all their comfortable seating. They were aiming at something with that remodel, I know not what. Since my last blog entry, my 1995 GE Washer expired on me. I’m now getting used to a new Whirlpool “high efficiency” machine that makes weird shushing noises. It does get the clothes clean with less water and detergent – guess I’ll get used to it. I’m also enjoying a new Cuisinart Extreme Brew coffee maker. My house is becoming the everything-new house but not necessarily because I want it to.

This hot, baking summer is approaching its end – can’t say I’ll miss the heat and dryness. Bring on Labor Day and Halloween.

NIGHTCRAWLER

Yesterday, I watched a neo-noir thriller from 2014. The film, Nightcrawler, was a low budget independent film that flew under the radar of Oscar or Golden Globes. It is nonetheless one of the best movies I’ve seen in many months. I was on the edge of my seat for all 117 minutes of this remarkable movie. Jake Gyllenhaal plays a videographer, Lois Bloom, who hawks footage of accidents and shootings to a local TV news station. Rene Russo plays the morally ambiguous Station Manager who encourages Lois to take ever greater risks in capturing footage that is grisly, authentic and news-grabbing. Lois is also morally compromised in his single-minded drive to succeed as the King of Gruesome Footage.

There are so many things to like about this film.. Gyllenhaal lost 30 pounds for this role. He morphs into a slender, polyester weasel with a frightening hypnotic stare. He pursues a relationship with Russo, a woman old enough to be his mother. The air between them is erotically charged although in fact they never even kiss on screen. The overall movie made me think of Postman Always Rings Twice with the romance-fueled evil doings. First-time director Dan Gilroy had camera angles of a seedy, steamy otherworldly Los Angeles that made me think of Blue Velvet.

One review that I read said that the movie is darkly comic. I never laughed at any of the proceedings although in retrospect it is funny. It’s also a serious indictment against the news industry if any measure of it is true. Lastly, I will warn you away from this movie if you like to see justice prevail in the end. The ending of this movie is as shocking and duplicitous as the proceedings leading up to it. It’s almost an allegory for life – not just the news industry. We have to hope that Karma will catch up to them later. If you have two hours to watch pure evil unfold, catch Nightcrawler on Netflix.

STARBUCKS REDUX

This Starbucks is nice and new -- gets a pretty decent crowd of people. I'm in a nice window seat with a 180 degree view. For some reason this new Starbucks could afford tables the other one could not. Bloggers of the world unite -- we must be accommodated with good lighting and confortable seating.

© 2015 Snillor Productions