Nightcrawler / YMMV

Award Snub: At the Academy Awards, Jake Gyllenhaal's performance was completely glossed over in the Best Actor category, while the film itself was eventually expected to earn a Best Picture nomination after being cited by various guild awards (including the Producers Guild of America) even if it only got a Best Original Screenplay nomination.
Complete Monster: Louis "Lou" Bloom is what is known as a "Nightcrawler", a reporter who prowls the nights for the most gruesome footage he can gather. Louis is also a total sociopath who opens the film by attacking and perhaps murdering a security guard for his watch. Once he discovers the money in reporting, Louis devotes himself wholeheartedly to the endeavor. He blackmails his boss into sleeping with him once his position is secure, knowing that she needs his footage. Lou sabotages the brakes of a van belonging to a rival so he can film said rival dying on a stretcher. Lou later reports gang violence as a home invasion so he can create a panic-laden story of urban crime creeping into the suburbs, and later engineers a confrontation with the police in a crowded diner so he can film the resulting carnage as gang members, police and innocent civilians die. Finally, Lou follows a car chase and when one of the gang members crashes, Lou lies to his assistant Rick that the gangster is dead, causing Rick to be shot dead by the gangster once he goes over to film the body; the motive was Rick wanted more of the profits. A media sensation with his new company of Video Production News, Lou covers his lack of humanity with a seemingly friendly mask, all the while promising his new employees he'd never ask any of them to do something he wouldn't do himself.
Diagnosed by the Audience: It's never outright stated, but Lou seems to be a sociopath. He has absolutely no empathy for anyone and cares only about his own success. While he presents himself as a friendly go-getter, it's clear that all of his personal interactions with people are just him trying to manipulate them into furthering his goals. Rick states that Lou doesn't understand people, but Lou counters that he understands people, he just doesn't like them, and has zero compunctions with hurting them. Additionally, he's constantly smiling and talks in overly formal sentences, and seems to be unable to read when someone's annoyed with him.
Expectation Lowerer: In some ways Lou is almost an Escapist Character; his "job" is a pretty exciting and adrenaline packed one, but he's such a reprehensible person the audience cannot help but feel a bit better about themselves watching him in action.
Hilarious in Hindsight: After all the jokes after getting this film confused with the Marvel character, Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed would go on to appear in Marvel adaptations within a year of each other, coincidentally both playing villains connected to Spider-Man ^note.
Jerkass Woobie: Rick. He really tries to be a good assistant to Louis, but he's coldly admonished for even the slightest slip-ups, he's paid pocket change compared to what Louis makes for each crime scene they film, and he's forced to sleep in a garage for most of the film. And at the climax, Louis gets him killed for an incredibly petty reason. He does continue to go along with Louis's schemes even when given opportunities to back out, however, especially when he's offered more money, but when he actually does try to back out, he's too scared to stand up to him. Ultimately, his greed and desperation dig him in deeper, and his cowardice and fear prevent him from getting out.
Memetic Mutation: The inevitable jokes about the other Nightcrawler.
Misaimed Fandom: Despite being a sociopathic Villain Protagonist with no narration to explain any of his thoughts, some audience members (mostly male) ended up rooting for or even relating to Lou Bloom due to his unrepentant behavior and emotional detachment from people not being deterred by his charisma, with another plus maybe even being the fact he gets away with it all, which may make the movie feel like an odd power fantasy of sorts for lonely insecure men along the same lines of Taxi Driver. As a result, he's sometimes considered part of the infamous "Literally me" batch of characters consisting of other charismatic psychopaths such as Patrick Bateman and Tyler Durden.
Moral Event Horizon: Louis' Establishing Character Moment is trespassing on private property to steal scrap metal and mugging the security guard for his wristwatch, setting him firmly in Villain Protagonist territory. If that didn’t convince you, roughly halfway through the film it's demonstrated more explicitly how far Louis is willing to go for good footage by sabotaging Joe's van to eliminate his competition in a car crash, which he then proceeds to callously record, setting up his subsequent ruthless actions in the film.
Narm: The scene in which Lou screams and breaks his mirror can get a little over the top for some people.
Signature Scene: When brushing his teeth in one scene, the calm and collected Lou suddenly has an enraged outburst where he yells at his reflection and then shatters the mirror. It's frequently brought when praising Jake Gyllenhaal's range and talent as an actor, with many viewers not even knowing which film it originally came from.
Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: In a movie where everybody is just either corrupt or a morally gray individual jumping off the slippery slope, it can naturally be pretty hard to find a character to root for.

YMMV / Nightcrawler

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