2014 in Review: Hollywood Puts the Media Under the Microscope
Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler
Hollywood has always had an uneasy relationship with the press. For every team of crusading journalists in movies like All the President’s Men, there are the amoral monsters in such films as Ace in the Hole, Network, and Broadcast News, all of which paint newspapers, TV stations, and media conglomerates as corrupt and irresponsible, more interested in a good story than the truth.
So it’s no surprise that multiple movies from this year — from indies like Nightcrawler to franchise blockbusters like The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 — explored the power of the media. But what’s interesting about the 2014 version of this theme is that the media was treated as neither the hero nor the villain. Instead, its corrosive influence was taken as a given, and the narrative interest came in how that power could be manipulated by the characters to suit their own ends. Often this year, coming out on top in a movie plot meant winning the messaging war.
Take Nightcrawler, which in many ways is an heir to Network, in which writer Paddy Chayefsky painted broadcast TV as a cynical, nearly murderous enterprise. What’s different about Nightcrawler, though, is that the shock of the film isn’t that Jake Gyllenhaal’s Lou Bloom is an unscrupulous crime-scene vulture, or even that he’s willing to let criminals go free in order to later film their capture. The true horror is the way he uses his lack of morals to climb the corporate ladder. As writer-director Dan Gilroy put it to Slashfilm, “I believe that people like Lou are increasingly rewarded for what they do. … You will often find people with some sociopathic tendencies who are succeeding on a corporate level.” And succeed he does: Rene Russo’s news producer is shocked by his behavior but more than willing to aid and abet it to get the footage she needs in a competitive TV world. In Network, at least there are a few characters who bemoan the media’s increasingly unscrupulous ways; in Nightcrawler, those oppositional voices are little more than a faint murmur.
Other movies took a more macro look at the media. Gina Prince-Bythewood’s Beyond the Lights transcends its romantic-melodrama trappings with a smart and incisive look at image and identity: Gugu Mbatha-Raw gives a stunning performance in the film as Noni, a talented British pop star trapped in the artificial, sexed-up personality that her record company (and the press) has forced upon her. Noni’s handlers — and even her mother, played by Minnie Driver — control every element of life and image, threatening to push her away from music forever. But a moving romance with cop Nate Parker (who, as an aspiring politician, is also pressured to send out the “right” impression to people) helps her gradually find a way to communicate her true self to the world.
Watch the trailer for Gone Girl:
Similarly, the battle of the sexes in Gone Girl is partly fought through the media: The public image of Ben Affleck’s character goes from desperate husband to philandering murderer — all thanks to an inappropriate smile during a press event. Meanwhile, his wife, played by Rosamund Pike, cooks up a revenge scheme that hinges upon the press and police believing that she was the innocent victim of his violent abuse. Much of the film’s conclusion revolves around a battle for control of the message: Affleck’s attorney (Tyler Perry) attempts damage control with a candid TV interview, but Pike emerges victorious by publicly announcing her pregnancy on a Nancy Grace-style talk show.
Even the blockbusters got in on the action. Edge of Tomorrow began with Tom Cruise playing a PR man serving as a spokesman for the war against aliens, while co-star Emily Blunt played a war hero whose iconic image adorned recruiting posters. Meanwhile, much of the latest Hunger Games involved the struggle to morph Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss into an appropriate figurehead for the revolution, with the film making clear that winning over hearts and minds is just as important as blowing things up.
Jennifer Lawrence in Mockingjay - Part 1
All of these films took for granted that in the post-Fox News/MSNBC landscape, the media is a tool for shaping a message, rather than a means for reporting the truth. Perhaps that’s a sad threshold to have crossed: that we simply accept that news and events can be manipulated to serve whatever purpose, with the public following suit. But maybe it also speaks to an increasingly media-savvy audience that knows that the truth comes down to whoever has control of the story. And if Hollywood’s to be believed, the nightcrawlers have taken over the media for good.
Image credit: AP Photo/Lionsgate, Murray Close
