{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Nightcrawler","description":"Fresh from being serenaded by singing \u2018toons in the last episode, Sean and Cody sprint for the finish line of their \u201cL.A. trilogy\u201d and delve into the heart of darkness\u2014and modern Los Angeles\u2014as they examine this media-savvy 2014 thriller. In Nightcrawler, sleazy ne\u2019er-do-well Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) graduates from Satan\u2019s entrepreneurship program and starts going around L.A. filming bloody car crashes and crime scenes so he can sell the gore-soaked tapes to Channel 6\u2019s program director Nina (Rene Russo). But when he and his camera witness a murder that\u2019s tailor-made to inflame the fears and prejudices of Angelenos, whatever used to pass for journalistic ethics gets sliced, diced and filleted as Lou uses the incident to vault to the top of the city\u2019s grimy underground of freelance stringers. Environmental issues discussed include the geography of crime and its incidence as an environmental threat, how the digital media landscape affects political decisions, and how Los Angeles got to be the way it is, especially after the processes discussed in the recent Chinatown and Who Framed Roger Rabbit episodes. How can cities be designed better to cut down on crime? Why did Los Angeles not only ignore all the ways that can be done, but actively try to thwart them by doing the opposite? Is crime in big cities going up or down, or does it depend on the political beliefs of who you ask? How many \u201cstringers\u201d are there in L.A.? What wild animal is the character of Lou Bloom based on? How does Nightcrawler uniquely illustrate the \u201cSix L.A.s\u201d discussed in the Strange Days episode? How are right-wingers taking over America\u2019s local news TV stations? What\u2019s the connection between Nightcrawler and Chinatown? What legendary science fiction writer did one of the Green Screen hosts have lunch with in 1999? Now having done three L.A. pictures in a row, can we please move on to something else? All these questions are creeping out of the suburbs and coming for your children in this creepy-crawly episode of Green Screen. Nightcrawler (2014) on IMDB: https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt2872718\/ Nightcrawler (2014) on Letterboxd: https:\/\/letterboxd.com\/film\/nightcrawler\/ Next Movie Up: First Cow (2020) Additional Materials About This Episode ","author_name":"Green Screen","author_url":"https:\/\/greenscreenpod.com\/","html":"