Had you ever heard the term #fakenews before a few years ago? While i am certain it existed it doesn't seem like it was as widespread as it is today. This movie addresses precisely that point before it was on everyone's lips and is presented in a dark manor by a wonderful performance from Jake Gyllenhaal.
Jake plays the role of Lou Bloom and at the start of the film he is merely a thief who wants to do something real for a living but can't find a job. By accident he stumbles upon a car crash and a film crew that turns up and gets some footage. Intrigued by this type of work he becomes a freelance ambulance chaser of sorts, competing with other such people who work for news stations for footage.
He quickly realizes that the things the networks are most interested in purchasing are the shots that are highly sensationalized and withholding information or even evidence, even to the police, results in better payouts and more viewers for the news stations that hire him. This spirals into additional problems because there are certain instances where he actually interferes with crime scenes or accidents in order to get better footage.
This movie speaks to me because I am one of the many people out there that believe the news media is completely full of S**T. In a recent survey it was determined that more than 70% of Americans believe the media is pushing fake news. Of course that survey in itself could be fake as well.
This movie is wonderfully shot, and although it does drag at times the action comes at a decent pace. Jake Gyllenhaal plays his creepy sociopath character to a "T" and lost a bunch of weight for the role as well.
Director Dan Gilroy stated that "his goal was for audiences to realize that by watching sensationalized news stories, they themselves are encouraging unethical journalism." That is certainly true today as it seems that virtually anything we see on the news is not reporting, but actually creating - which is not what journalism is supposed to be.
Wow man this film sounds awesome ! I really want to watch it, in fact I might do so tonight. Definitely sounds like one I would be totally into, I too know the media is 100% full of shit! Thanks for the review and suggestion 😀
Jake Gyllenhaal was a beast in this movie, it was a shame he was snubbed by the Academy Awards, at least they should have nominated him after this powerful perfomance.
The theme of the film is strong, the thirst for sensationalism has a become a trend in our world, you can clearly see in platforms like Facebook where most of the things that people share or post are about fake things that are fabricated just to generate clicks and misinformed everyone. I like the way this movie dealt with that and touch that boundary between real information and the way the media portraits it.
I really like the theme of the movie which shows off the reality of true journalism and about those fake news. Here in India too we believe that instead of focusing on the reality the journalist tries to spread fake news and focus only on their TRP.
The "thirst" for sensationalism—is it created by media? Or is it media giving Americans what they really want and will [pay] for? Maybe it's both.
The point is, turn it off, don't click on it, and don't share it—if you think it's a problem.
Fantastic, well-made film to be sure. You can do a double whammy watching this plus Network.