In one of his best scenes, as he pushes his theory of the killer with an unruffled Mark Ruffalo's Inspector Dave Toschi, Gyllenhaal bends forward, expression open and imploring. You get the sense from Gyllenhaal's twitching eye alone that he is a real character the physical characteristic is not of consequence plot-wise, and is never remarked upon. It is incredible what this tick alone conveys - weariness, a lack of patience, even a whole past we don't know about, and never learn of. Playing Detective Loki, Gyllenhaal deploys a subtle eye twitch throughout the entire movie, a somehow not-quite-normal tick that explodes when he is frustrated. But even his neutral expression can be used to an advantage, as it is in 2013's Prisoners. Even when delivering a viral, biting critique of Gilroy's pronunciation of "melancholy," his eyes hang lazy and disinterested. Part of what makes Gyllenhaal's crazy eyes stand out so much is that his resting expression is particularly placid, almost a stoner calm. While Lou unnerves everyone around him with his robotic business-babble, it is in his eyes that we see him embrace something that lies beyond morality. In another scene, when he loses his composure in the bathroom after getting scooped by a competitor, Gyllenhaal's lower lids scrunch, making his normally wide eyes beady, locked with their reflection in unmasked fury. One of the most powerful scenes in the movie comes when he rearranges a body in a bloody car crash to get a better shot disturbingly, his eyes bulge behind his camera, drunk on the image of his own orchestration. Likewise, we come to understand Lou's lack of morals through his eyes first and foremost. When he informs a news producer that she will see him again, she replies "I believe you," sold as much by his intense, predatory expression as we are. That attention to the disturbing, hungry soul of his character extends to his eyes they are glossy with entitled frustration for most of the film. In preparation for the performance, Gyllenhaal reportedly lost 20 pounds, striving to look like a starving coyote. Gyllenhaal's Velvet Buzzsaw performance has echoes in his earlier work with Gilroy, when he played the tragedy-chasing videographer Lou in Nightcrawler. The whole display is so overwhelming, so turned-up-to-11, that I almost understand why Gyllenhaal's characters so often wear sunglasses - he's like the X-Man Cyclops, whose powers rest behind a sheen of black glass until unleashed. His eyebrows stretch, making his face larger. His entire face contorts into a memeable expression of pleading, so unlike his resting face that it makes my cheeks hurt vicariously. In the pivotal scene in which Gyllenhaal appeals to a disbelieving colleague (there is always This Scene in Gyllenhaal's crazy-eye movies), his irises are swallowed by the whites of his eyes.
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