Analyzing Evil: Lou Bloom From Nightcrawler 

"An alien who learnt to be human by watching corporate training videos", Wow, excellent writing!

His last line stuck with me, its when he's talking to his new crew at the end. "Remember, I will never ask you to do something that I wouldn't do myself"

"I would never ask you to do anything, I wouldn´t do myself." -Lou Bloom At first it sounds like very generous, upliftiing words coming from your boss, until you realize he is a psychopath.

Imagine being friends with Jake Gyllenhaal in real life. You'll just never know if he's a genuine fun guy to be around or the biggest sociopath alive who has mastered human interaction. This man can act.

My favorite part of this film is how Lou's eyes are constantly staring, not looking, but staring. Everytime he blinks is like he's trying to convince the audience that he's normal/human

I like how he's clearly a fucked up guy but the movie treats the whole thing like a success story

He does the sociopathic stare, very well. The eyes are just slightly wider than normal. As if the sociopath is trying to absorb as much information, about the person they're studying, as possible

What a wholesome ambitious young man.

Jake´s eyes are a big part of his acting, more so than his complete aprearance. Here in Nightcrawler and in Prisoners, his eyes alone tell a deep and oceans apart diferent history from each role.

The fact that Lou finds true success in his profession is easily the most unnerving part about this whole film.

Lou’s first line of dialogue, “I’m lost”. Tells us everything we need to know with two words.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s Oscar snub was absolutely criminal. His performance here is easily among the best in cinematic history.

It's almost as if he's been alone most of his life, watched tons of content on the internet, observed/developed an idea on how people interact, and this movie is him starting to employ those ideas.

This is one of Jake's best movies just for his acting alone. Legitimately lost myself in Lou Bloom and forgot it was an actor as I watched the movie

"Unperson" is such a good way to describe him. As the film goes on we slowly get to see and learn exactly how empty he is, and that there is nothing inside of him. Initially it seems like he was maybe just an awkward, misguided guy but we learn that he's actually a dangerously unstable and deadly precise machine more than a person.

He doesn't "smooth talk" his way out of the fence stealing. He is later wearing the security guards watch. So he either assaulted or murdered him

Lou is what Patrick Bateman wouldve been had he not been born into wealth and been inundated with the ongoings of the corporate world.

One thing I noticed too is that when he first introduces himself to Rick, he calls himself Louis and is sure to correct Rick when he calls him "Lou". As the film goes on, he starts to call and introduce himself as Lou as he learns it is more personable when interacting with people to use the more informal version of his name. Maybe I'm overthinking it though.

Something i noticed about Louis, or “Lou”, is even though he lacks social skills, he understands negotiating and bargaining proving how narcissistic he is and how he only believes in fending for himself.

I still am in shock from his souless, inhuman actions towards the guy he was working with for all that time. The dead, unreactive gaze from him as he films the last moments of the man who he has intentionally ushered unto Death, with such a lack of care about what he has done, only focused on the footage and the job...truly disturbing to watch. That scene caught me off guard so much. That was the moment I realised that Lou is not even really human. He is just the manifestation of desire and will, of a human predator, living only to further his own purpose, with zero regard for anyone other than himself. Your analysis is spot on pretty much.

"I’d like to think if you’re seeing me you’re having the worst day of your life" -Lou Bloom

Lou seems like a nice young man

At first I found the music selection for some gruesome scenes to be odd considering what other movies have used, but then I realized it was all from Lou’s perspective. It made me truly realize that he doesn’t think like or register things like a human.

Lou Bloom is straight from the uncanny valley, spot on describing his personality and behaviour as representative of someone trying to mimic being a human

One of the things I love about this movie is that the sociopathic villain wins in the end. It's what happens in real life, unfortunately

This character is everything in the "sigma grindset" memes

My favorite part of this film is when Lou looks straight into the camera breaking the 4th wall and says: "Yes it's me, I am the Nightcrawler"

I watched this whole movie going in blind with my girlfriend a few years ago and i was SO confused at the end trying to figure out how he got his Nightcrawler powers and how this tied into the x men universe 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

Nightcrawler is a modern day masterpiece. Not a day goes by without me wondering why Jake was snubbed for this masterful performance. Truly gifted and hardworking actor.

Lou’s “mask slip” in front of the mirror is genuinely one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen in film. I don’t really feel the need to elaborate.

The best thing about this character is that he is not the typical evil guy. He's not a murderous sociopath like in the horror movies. He doesn't really enjoy killing people. He doesn't doesn't that. That kind of people is so rare you wouldn't have to worry about them. He isn't even like a drug lord, so that you would meet him only if you are already involved with drugs. He's a normal reporter, you could have met them any day. If he's given a chance and a reason he would not think twice about killing you. You can only imagine how many people around you are like this. They could be everywhere, and you wouldn't know because they had no reason to show their true selves.

Lou is basically what you get when a human grow up without any human interaction or meaningful relation.

I think we do get glimpses of the real Lou Bloom a few times: When he screams and shatters the mirror (as noted) Chastising Nina and complaining about her sexual performance Telling Rick “ maybe the problem isn’t that I don’t understand people, it’s that I don’t like them.”

The human coyote. How Gyllenhaal didn't win an Oscar for this role is beyond me.

I love how Lou always has his eyes wide open, like a wide lens in a camera.

Lou Bloom from Nightcrawler and Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men are - in my opinion - creatures and embodiments of our deep human nature. Not humans, but a heterogeneous mass of what makes us humans. Our identity, our instincts, our best and worst aspects. The same way both characters kept tracking their goal - relentlessly - reminds me of a sandstorm. You can't stop it, you can't dodge it, and it will come back again and again.

He seems to be the physical representation of the city he’s in, Los Angeles. Soulless, manipulating, evil, driven, learning, shifting, changing. Or I could have had too many of these things...

What scared me personally about Lou is his seemingly unmotivated persistence to succeed at a seemingly random profession he chose to set his sights on. He's almost inhuman in how dead-set he is to make it in journalism. Any other protagonist in any other movie would have some sort of drive or emotional reason for going to such lengths that would at least elevate them to anti-hero status, but Lou is basically a force of pure will that attached itself to news production and set out to win no matter the cost.

It’s crazy how scary he is, even though he is not physically intimidating at all. He’s not big, he’s not a fighter, he doesn’t even carry guns yet i’d be more terrified of him than any other villain tbh. That’s what makes him so scary, he just lurks in the shadows and has zero remorse and empathy, he doesn’t need guns or force, he for some reason just always gets what he wants with luck in his favor.

Would love to see/hear a conversation between Lou Bloom and Patrick Bateman at Dorsia.

One of the most realistic psychopaths in cinema, along with Anton Chigurh.

One thing I love about the movie is Lou's wardrobe. It starts off as this kind of take on the urban hipster look, with the man bun and collard shirts, but the color palette is so bland and the clothes are so Ill fitting.

Jake Gyllenhaal is a legend. The guys acting range is just ridiculous. And it’s weird how in this film Lou isn’t normal but yet the world and the people within it somehow open up to him. Loved this film, it’s a classic in my book.

His posture changes whenever he has or not the grip of the situation. The tone of voice, his mannerisms, the way he talks, how he talks and what he wants all depends whether he has or not the advantage towards someone or something.

I love characters like this one, the most terrific evil is the evil that's believable and real. A suggestion of mine would be Baby Jane Hudson from 'What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?'. It's a rather old movie but I remember watching it once with my older sister and it was pretty disturbing to me.

Here in Brazil this movie is called "O Abutre" (The Vulture) and man, that title fits like a glove

I love how Jake Gylenthal keeps his eyes so wide open and barely blinkz throughout. Its like his head is a camera and he doesnt want to miss a single frame.

The extreme intelligence and learning skills made him probably the most dangerous and unsettling person. Also i noticed that at the beginning he is lost and drag himself without a plan but in the second half of the movie,he has stored all the information and start to plan getting a dozen steps ahead of everyone,even the police. The things he order to nina when he is negotiating the "horror house" tape are not negotiable because are essential for his plan of track the killers and set up the scene. He starts as a guy with a camera and ends as a director

The Vile Eye: "Welcome to 32nd episode of analyzing evil." Me: "This video's only 30 seconds!?"

Lou feels like what the player character of a video game looks like to the NPCs. As if the player has little to no guidance at first going off of past experience, but learning the boundaries and the systems of the world and the game. Once he realises the rules, he optimizes his chances for further success in the game. Never showing a care for anyone else, because after all, they are just NPCs in a video game. Edit: add to that the emotionless face. Being a first person game, the developers didn't need to develop facial animations for the player character i.e. Lou.

I see a lot of actors these days play characters but still act as themselves. Jake Gyllenhaal is truly one of the rare ones that can fully embrace his character and turn into a completely different person. He makes people forget that he's still Jake Gyllenhaal outside of the movie and not Lou Bloom. This applies to any other movie he's also done.

"He seems like an alien who learned how to be a human". Very well put! I like your descriptions, and your way with words. ;)

Something I noticed about him that nobody seems to have touched on is that he never knew anybody in the film, there were no friends, family, acquaintances or even animals that he knew from the outset of the film. He was introduced to them at the same time as the viewer. This, coupled with the opening scene at a railroad track gave me the impression that he had only arrived in LA recently from parts unknown. He was studying the city as much as he was studying its citizens and culture.

I wonder why he didn't mention that Lou attacked that security guard in the very beginning and the camera cuts away leaving us with the idea that Lou might be a murderer right from the get go?

I love that you look at the more subtle evil of characters like Lou and nurse Ratched and not just the obvious evil of serial killers and nazis. Great series, hope to see much more.

I've seen this a number of times, it is EXCELLENT! Truly one of the best characters Gyllenhall has portrayed going back to Donnie Darko! Yet, I still go back and forth trying to decide if he is supposed to be slightly on the Autism spectrum on top of having the classic traits of sociopathy ( at least Hollywood's Stereotypical concept of it ), or if he's just Straight Up the poster boy for Sociopathy ( bordering on Psychopathy ) and Antisocial Personality Disorder. It is a complex character with rather straight forward motives, which makes it fun because the more you watch it the more of subtle layers you can pick up on. And see the subtext of the story I believe the writer threw in about the sickness of our media and how it's furthering social decay. Whether intentional or not. And Lou is just like the personification of Raw Ambition Unleashed. As one has to wonder what kind of a morally and even spiritually Bankrupt person Mainstream Media tends to attract to it. Someone who is willing to push Negativity, to push Fear, lies, Govt or Establishment propaganda to the masses, knowing full well it leads to angst, rage, division, distrust of institutions, a loss of faith and hope in society ... JUST TO GET THOSE RATINGS, CELEBRITY and that BIG CORPORATE PAYCHECK! All without a single care or sense of responsibility for the damage it has been and continues to cause. Especially now in the age of MONEY FOR CLICKS. Encouraging Fake And or Misleading Headlines that often aren't even congruent With the copy of the story. Or knowing that it might lead to people electing A crook who lies to them, Flagrantly abuses authority, and appears by all forms of logic and reason to be INTENTIONALLY WORKING TO DESTABILIZE AND DESTROY OUR COUNTRY!! Creating Endless Suffering... Something their Lies and deceit directly led to (granted that latter part hadn't yet occurred when this was made). That takes a sick and soulless person.

This almost sounds like you're describing Zuckerberg

This movie is a fantastic critique on today's mass media. Very recommended watch.

Thank you for summing up this character so aptly. Especially the part of Lou not having any kind of personality himself. I felt that was the creepiest part of his character was the soulless way he did everything in the movie.

What an outstanding performance. I am so glad that I saw a random shot on youtube of the first interview and decided to watch the movie. One of the best I have ever seen :)

I mean, the fact it’s a real career/job is strange in and of itself.

Jake Gyllenhall is one of my favourite actors ever,his acting excels when he portays mentally troubled individuals

After watching the first 30 seconds of this video I paused it and renewed my netflix subscription. I could already tell this was up my alley. I just now finished watching it and holy shit! I knew Jake was good, but this is TOP tier. Absolutely incredible. I'm going to start watching some of my other not-yet-seen movies whose villains have been covered on analyzing evil. You have terrific taste. Spot-on analysis as always. Hope you're well and thank you for doing what you do.

So essentially, Bloom is the anthropomorphic analogy of Artificial Intelligence. Lovely

His performance reminds me a lot of Christian Bale's in American Psycho. Both characters are very similar in the way they act. Both seem completely empty (Bateman in American Psycho even says that there is no real him) and seem like aliens trying to emulate human behaviour and only partially succeding. They repeat rehearsed phrases they heard before thinking that's what a normal person would say, but everything seems forced and artificial because there is no real emotion or soul behind it. Truly masterful and scary performances.

This movie is an underrated masterpiece. Everyone should watch this at least once

That thumbnail with Lou grinning could easily be in the context of a horror movie

This felt like an alien pretending to be a human.

Fuck yeah, this is the character I didn’t know I wanted most

I had a young superior in one of my past jobs, exactly like Lou. All the same sociopathy, lack of empathy and the will to manipulate, only without the wit and the intelligence.

Of course you didn't miss anything, are you kidding me?? This was, as usual, superb. Thank you for the top quality, top-shelf psychoanalyses you continue to offer up. We love it!

Holy hell! I am a Criminology Major, and MY GOD was that well put! What an amazing depiction of the sociopath, and I've never seen the movie ‼️‼️‼️‼️

I think we see the true him a lot; the Curious Child, the Grateful Spurned Man...It feels like it seems like there's nothing there just because what is there, what is so evidently there, isn't enough. But it is there. He's not a robot. He's a carnivore.

"If you want to win the lottery, you have to have the money to buy a ticket."

Personality downloaded, I’m gonna rock this for a week

The lighting in this film is unbelievable. Really highlights Lou’s stare in every scene and it’s absolutely frightening lol. Truly a menacing character

This movie and Jarhead showed me how an amazingly good actor Jake is.

In summary: Lou is the embodiment of the “Trade Offer” meme

I like the way he introduces himself as Louis bloom to Rick showing he has authority and position of power and remained profiessinal but with others he uses lou trying to develop a freiendship and closer relationship to gain there trust

he seems like he just got his eyes and is excited to try them out.

“Creating for himself a carefully crafted image of a man who doesn’t even really exist.” Chills my dude. Good work.

His gaze was the most unsettling part of this whole film, demanding and crazy and penetrating. He's the true image of a psychopath - manipulative, lacks empathy or sympathy, driven, evil, intelligent. Just the way he speaks, like a true gentleman, respectful and smooth while threatening you chills me. But he's as much human as any of us. That's what scares me the most.

Daym, what an amazing analysis. Subscribed

His passion and desperation is attractive to me.

This is one of my favorite movie characters of how real it feels. Something like the dark knight Joker is good in its own right but its exaggerated and theatrical, this scarily feels like that one creepy quiet neighbor you have. Both great in their own ways.

Lou Bloom is the personification of the phrase "If it bleeds, it leads."

Lou's eyes unnerved me SO MUCH throughout the whole movie like no one else's in any other movie I've ever seen. So cold and... soulless. Speaks volumes of how good of an actor Jake is :)

Jake Gyllenhaal deserved an Oscar for this role 💯

I absolutely love the way the screenplay introduces him and gradually shifts your perspective as the movie progresses and tells you more about his character. In the beginning he checks all the check marks of a good underdog. He's a bit odd, socially inept man who can't hold a job, who doesn't fit in the society, and who lives in a small rundown apartment just wanting to succeed in life. But the more you learn about him and the further he goes in that pursuit of success, the more terrifying and distant he becomes.

Yea, I thought he was supposed to be the personification of "corporation," doing everything for the business above everything else. Even sacrificing human life if it's profitable.

Just finished watching the movie He's literally me

My favorite thing about the movie is the last line. “Remember, I wouldn’t tell you to do something I wouldn’t do myself.” Knowing Lou, this is appalling.

I am amazed on how Jake Gyllenhaal can look so... soulless. It is just amazing. Still upset that he wasn't even nominated for that roll

"impressive, see lou bloom's card" - pat bateman

I swear this guy blinks like twice the whole movie

Gotta love the channel keep the context coming‼️💯

I heard a theory that Lou is soposed to be a living, breathing corporation. Makes sense I think.

I like that he is a step ahead of everyone in this movie. As wise as a serpent would be a good way to describe him but definitely not harmless as a dove.

“What if my problem isn’t that I don’t understand people, but that I don’t like them.” - Lou Bloom ✋🏼🎤

Wow this was a great video. I've come across this movie a lot over the years but was never interested enough to watch it. Now i will.