Continuing “Southpaw Week” here at The Nerd Punch, we came to the conclusion that Southpaw looks so good partially because of Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead. So we present to you an (sorta)exhaustively obtained list of our favorite Gyllenhaal films.
Siri Karri – Nightcrawler
Jake Gyllenhaal has been in a lot of great movies and but most of them were a result of great writing. He was great in Source Code, Zodiac, and Brokeback Mountain but they weren’t “his” films so to speak.
Nightcrawler had a relatively uninteresting premise (sleazy journalism) that was completely carried by Gyllenhaal’s performance. His portrayal of Louis Bloom, a chilling misanthrope, was unbelievable.
Bloom is an unemployed young man with street smarts in spades. He’s intelligent, articulate and he always knows what to say in any situation. But he doesn’t blink; he always looks like he’s scanning people similar to a robot. It’s scary to watch most people fall in love with him while the few people who see through his facade are ignored.
It’s the study of someone who isn’t necessarily immoral (he does immoral things) but in fact amoral. This may be the nerdiest comparison of all time, but I’d compare him to the character of Griffith from the animated series Berserk; not evil but is determined to achieve his goals no matter what the cost.
It’s scary because we all know someone like this.
Because the plot is character driven (rather than the plot driving the characters) it’s very difficult to see the twists coming. I am a cynic who inherited my father’s preternatural ability to predict plot twists yet I was blown away each time.
That’s saying something.
Jason Yoakam – Donnie Darko
Donnie Darko is undoubtedly one of Gyllenhal’s most defining roles. For those who haven’t seen it, it is the surreal and thought-provoking story of a troubled teenage boy whose reality becomes increasingly bizarre after narrowly being saved from a life-threatening accident by a large man-sized bunny.
As the film progresses you find yourself asking if Donnie is insane or if his visions are actually really happening. Then, when it ends you will have to watch it again to try to make sense of it. Donnie Darko is the kind of film that you know makes complete sense to the writers, but you can never quite get a handle on what’s happening or why things are happening. With each watching you slowly start to unravel the one more piece of the plot until you realize that every single moment of this film was carefully crafted to lead up to one inevitable ending.
Adding to the unsettling aesthetic of this film is the setting. The film takes place in 1988 in Middlesex, VA, a suburban community that seems normal and yet at the same time surreal. Much of the comic relief in the movie is found through poking fun at the absurdity of this town and with it suburban America as a whole.
I found Donnie Darko during a rebellious time in my life and maybe that’s why this film resonated with me so much at the time. Although Donnie seems to be insane, the viewer gets taken along for the ride and realizes over time that it is really the world he lives in that is crazy.
If you haven’t seen it, I would definitely recommend that you give Donnie Darko a watch, and then go watch it a few more times so that you can actually understand it. You will not be disappointed.
David Gallick – Zodiac (2007)
My dear colleague, Siri, mentioned that Zodiac could not be called a film that belongs solely to Gyllenhaal, and he’s right. This is a movie that is so, so much more than the sum of one person. This movie, along with Brokeback Mountain two years earlier, marked Gyllenhaal’s accent to the realm of great actors, but he’s barely a presence in the first half of it.
Let’s rewind a bit, ok? David Fincher’s movie is really two stories. First, we have the major police investigation into California’s “Zodiac” killings in the late 1960s. When all the leads run dry, that first tale ends, and it’s replaced with Robert Graysmith’s (Gyllenhaal) amature sleuthing. While either of these stories would be compelling on their own, its the combination of the two that make Zodiac amazing.
Time and story points are meticulously plotted out as the case stretches from weeks, to years, to decades, mirroring the detail to which the detectives, reporters, and the killer put into their work. This is a film about precise, oriented people, made by those with the same obsessive qualities, and the results are thrilling to behold.
But looking beyond Fincher and screenwriter James Vanderbilt and the awesome stuff that they are doing here, we have the actors. Oh, the actors! Robert Downey, Jr., one year away from playing Tony Stark for the first time, is basically giving an audition for the part, but with significantly more cravats and denim jackets. Fellow Avenger, Mark Ruffalo plays the sanest of the three main investigators while still giving his Detective Toschi an underlying air of relentless determination and optimism. And finally Gyllenhaal, who dominates the massive second half, gives a performance of a lifetime as he quests for his white whale and slowly descends into something like madness.
What I’m saying is that while Gyllenhaal is great and is listed first on the IMDb page, this is far from his movie. This truly is an ensemble piece that highlights the work of three great actors and one of our best living directors, along with a bunch of other talented people who I am failing to mention here. Zodiac isn’t a movie that a ton of people have seen (it lost to Wild Hogs on its opening weekend by $26 million. Let that sink in.), but goddmanit, you should fuckin’ watch it.
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