This article was originally published in AC, Nov. 2014

Unit photography by Chuck Zlotnick

Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a sociopath with ambition, an autodidact and entrepreneur who transitions from a life of two-bit thievery into a career as a freelance cameraman whose grisly footage of traffic accidents and crime scenes raises the ratings of local station KWLA and the stock of station manager Nina Romina (Rene Russo) — as well as the hackles of the Los Angeles Police Dept. As his business booms, Lou brings on an intern, Rick (Riz Ahmed), with whom he scours the night and unhesitatingly crosses the line from “news gathering” into “news making.”