STACK Magazine April 2015 Issue 126

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030 APRIL 2015 JB Hi-Fi
COMING SOON Hitting the JB shelves in May
The Gambler
Mark Wahlberg as a
literature professor with
a gambling problem? You
bet. The perennial tough
guy headlines this remake
of the 1974 drama.
Unbroken
Angelina Jolie directs
this ambitious wartime
true story that chronicles
Olympic athlete Louis
Zamperini's harrowing
experience as a POW.
The Imitation
Game
Benedict Cumberbatch
plays Alan Turing, the
math genius who cracked
the German's enigma
code during World War II.
American
Sniper
Bradley Cooper is
terrific as military
marksman Chris Kyl
in Clint Eastwood's
gripping biopic.
Expose the underbelly of Los Angeles
and dark things will crawl out. One
of these things is Louis Bloom (Jake
Gyllenhaal), a slimy sociopath and
common thief who turns ambulance chasing into
a business. Armed with a camcorder and a police
scanner, Lou lurks around accident and crime scenes
to shoot the grisly footage he can sell to anchorwoman
Nina (Renee Russo) for her trashy news network. "If
it bleeds, it leads" is the nightcrawler motto, and the
more sensational the footage, the higher its value, with
little regard for the real cost in human lives. Before
long, Lou is interfering with evidence and overstepping
the boundaries of police-line tape in order to beat his
competitors to the money shots. Writer-director Dan
Gilroy's film is both a scathing critique and dark satire
on gutter journalism and the greedy media and public
who feed it; a scene in which Russo virtually salivates
over shots of murder victims with ratings in mind
says it all. Gyllenhaal is fantastic as the opportunistic,
scumbag protagonist; a gaunt and soulless loner with
more than a touch of Travis Bickle-like madness behind
his cold goldfish eyes. His angular, skeletal features
lend him the appearance of an angel of death hovering
on the periphery of newsworthy carnage. Set against
the glittering backdrop of the LA nightscape, this
stylish '70s-style exploration of the nocturnal pursuits
of America's bottom feeders is one of those arthouse-
thriller gems like Prisoners, Cold in July and Drive that
deserved to reach a much wider audience – and now
it can, when the DVD and Blu-ray arrives in JB Hi-Fi
stores on April 1. (See page 36)
NIGHTCRAWLER
DISC of the month:
Miles Teller doesn't possess
the traditional looks of a
Hollywood heartthrob – a car
accident at the age of 20 left
him with facial scarring and
the somewhat lumpen look
of a rugby player who's been
beaten up a few times. And yet
this rising star has been a lady
killer and party dude on screen
in several comedies, prior to attracting the attention
of even more female fans following his powerhouse
performance as the ambitious young drummer in
Whiplash .
The Pennsylvania-born actor had jammed in bands
and played the drums for his church youth group whilst
in high school, but Teller was determined to bring
authenticity to his role in Whiplash (you can't really
fake playing the drums), training with musician Nate
Lang for two months and performing at least 99 per
cent of the strenuous drumming you see onscreen.
"Living in somebody else's pain for an actor man, it's
actually nice when you get to feel that emotion. That's
what I like," says Teller of his career philosophy.
Teller may have less than a dozen films on his CV
to date, but like contemporary Paul Dano, he has that
'interesting' it-factor that stands out in a cast. After
appearing in a handful of short films, he made his
big screen debut in the downer drama Rabbit Hole
(2010) alongside Nicole Kidman, who has remained
an avid Teller fan. Growing up watching comedies
like Superbad and Wedding Crashers provided the
groundwork for roles in party movies Project X (2012)
and 21 & Over (2013), which earned him comparisons
to a young Vince Vaughn.
He danced up a storm in the 2011 remake of
Footloose (reprising the character he'd played in the
stage production); got the opportunity to explore his
sensitive side in rom-coms The Spectacular Now
(2013), That Awkward Moment (2014) and Two Night
Stand (2014); and flexed some muscle as an action
man in YA blockbusters Divergent (2014) and Insurgent
(2015).
"I'm still waiting for my first big Hollywood
paycheck... maybe I'll play a superhero," mused Teller.
Well, that moment has arrived. We'll be seeing him
this August as Reed Richards – aka Mr. Fantastic – in
the reboot of Fantastic Four.
Whiplash (2014)
Divergent (2014)
That Awkward Moment (2014)
The Spectacular Now (2013)
21 & Over (2013)
MILES TELLER
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