Reviews have started pouring in for Jake Gyllenhaal in the new film "Nightcrawler," where he plays a freelance TV news cameraman named Lou Bloom.

Bloom is an obsessive newshound, eagerly chasing any story on the frontlines to sell his footage and photos to a television news director, played by Rene Russo. However, his fixation of getting as close as possible to the news stories he covers sends Bloom over the edge of moral boundaries, propping up bodies and arranging the wounded to best be captured on film. In his desperation, Bloom begins to invent crimes to cover, just so he can get the inside scoop.

The writer and Russo's husband, Dan Gilroy, also used this project to make his directorial debut. While he may be new to filmmaking, "Nightcrawler" is still scoring rave reviews from critics.

"'Nightcrawler' curves and hisses its way into your head with demonic skill," famous Rolling Stone reviewer Peter Travers said, giving the film three-and-a-half stars out of four. "When the laughs come, they stick in your throat. This is a deliciously twisted piece of work. And Gyllenhaal, coiled and ready to spring, is scarily brilliant. He truly is a monster for our time."

However, some feel that Gilroy's writing was unclear in its direction, but Gyllenhaal's delivery of the haphazard material saves the movie.

"Gilroy ... is making his directorial debut, and it's an uneven one," New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman said. "His screenplay was apparently written in a frenzy after watching 'Network' too many times. The writing's regrettably broad, as is his direction. ... Fortunately, Gyllenhaal is the ideal tour guide through the voyeuristic nightmare meant to reflect our culture's inevitable decline. No matter how extreme or unlikely the scenario, we want to know how Lou will handle it. Gyllenhaal makes this antihero funny, scary and fearlessly strange."

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