Nightcrawler (2014) poster
2014 · thriller · crime

Nightcrawler

Directed by Dan Gilroy1h 58m2014
ElsewhereIMDb7.8662kRT95%Metacritic76TMDB7.712k
  • sombre
  • intense
  • bleak
  • cold
Movie DNA

Sombre, steady, measured thriller / crime, grounded in texture. Nihilistic, intimate, cold, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

When Lou Bloom, desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story. Aiding him in his effort is Nina, a TV-news veteran.

Our read · Nightcrawler (2014) reads as a sombre, steady, grounded thriller · crime entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

Where the cast leads
Fingerprint

The shape of Nightcrawler

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want a chilling character study of ambition and media ethics in L.A. nights.

ends unsettlingit leaves you shakena slow buildgrips by minute 15attention 4/5earns its length
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upgraphic violence

Skip it tonightYou can't stomach amoral protagonists or graphic crime scene footage.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
Your take
Rate it
star-clip-1-0star-clip-2-0star-clip-3-0star-clip-4-0star-clip-5-0
React
Discussion

Discussion

cmd enter to post

What does your Movie DNA look like?

Rate a few films you've seen. We map your taste across the same twelve axes and find the films you'll actually want to watch tonight.

Calibrate yourself