I Did Not Realize Jake Gyllenhaal Has Been In So Many Good Thrillers

Summary

• Gyllenhaal shines in dark thrillers like Zodiac and Nightcrawler, proving his versatility in Hollywood.
• “Presumed Innocent” marks Gyllenhaal’s TV debut, adding to his streak of acclaimed performances.
• Gyllenhaal’s portrayal of complex characters like Louis Bloom in Nightcrawler showcases his brilliance as an actor.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s latest project Presumed Innocent is yet another great thriller in the celebrated actor’s filmography. Gyllenhaal has become one of the most recognizable movie stars on the planet who has surprisingly yet to win an Academy Award or an Emmy for his efforts. Presumed Innocent marks Gyllenhaal’s television and streaming debut, which is shocking in and of itself considering the actor earned his first professional acting credit with 1991’s City Slickers. Presumed Innocent’s positive Rotten Tomatoes score continues Gyllenhaal’s recent streak of starring in critically acclaimed movies, and now, television series.

I can still remember the first time watching Donnie Darko and being captivated by Gyllenhaal’s embodiment of his peculiar titular character, which was fascinating to analyze. For many people who did not first discover Gyllenhaal through 1999’s October Sky, the classic drama that made him a rising movie star, 2001’s Donnie Darko was likely viewers’ first encounter with Gyllenhaal. Through Gyllenhaal’s magnetism, audiences saw Donnie in many genuine albeit unrelatable forms, convincingly portraying the inner brilliance and sensitivity of Donnie’s true self while also enduring his crass behavior and adolescent stubbornness. The cult classic would become the first of many great Gyllenhaal thrillers.

Presumed Innocent Is Jake Gyllenhaal’s Latest Great Thriller

Gyllenhaal has starred in some exceptional modern thrillers

When people think of Gyllenhaal nowadays, his most recent blockbuster projects immediately come to mind, including Amazon’s Road House remake and his role as Quentin Black / Magneto in Spider-Man: Far from Home. For me, I can’t unsee Gyllenhaal in the numerous thrillers he’s starred in, such as David Fincher’s Zodiac, Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners, and Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler. Gyllenhaal has proven himself to be one of the most capable and versatile leading men in Hollywood, but his best work typically comes in dark, atmospheric thrillers that began with Richard Kelly’s incomparable Donnie Darko.

Some of Gyllenhaal’s other great thrillers include Nocturnal Animals, End of Watch, The Guilty, and Enemy, which was also directed by Dune director Denis Villeneuve. Presumed Innocent can now be added to that list after its first two episodes premiered exclusively on Apple TV+ on June 12, 2024. The latest series from David E. Kelly (Big Little Lies, Love & Death, The Undoing), Presumed Innocent places Gyllenhaal’s Rusty Sabich, an attorney who leads the investigation of the murder of a former employee, in the crosshairs as he becomes a suspect in the case. Rusty is exposed to have been engaged in an extramarital affair with the deceased, Carolyn Polhemus, played by Renate Reinsve.

Jake Gyllenhaal Has Shined Best During His Career In Dark Thrillers

Nightcrawler, Prisoners, and Zodiac are some of his greatest movies

Nightcrawler, Zodiac, Prisoners, and Donnie Darko are among my top Gyllenhaal movies, all of which belong in the thriller genre. Nightcrawler is arguably Gyllenhaal’s career-best performance as Louis Bloom, a desperate and isolated con man who is so full of charisma and sociopathic intelligence that he ends up becoming the perfect type of person who can succeed as a freelancing breaking news videographer. The unsettling edge that Gyllenhaal is able to give to Louis in Nightcrawler is convincing and unforced, resulting in what feels like a deeply disturbed individual who finds success in one of the lowest forms of American news/entertainment.

I believe Gyllenhaal deserved an Oscar nomination for Nightcrawler, a film that only received one nomination for Best Original Screenplay despite being one of the most critically acclaimed movies of 2014. In Prisoners, Gyllenhaal also provides layers of edginess and underlying aggression in his portrayal of Detective Loki, matching the explosive passion and sharp pain demonstrated by Hugh Jackson’s Keller Dover, whose young daughter has gone missing. Gyllenhaal’s proven that he can star in run-of-the-mill rom-coms (Love and Other Drugs) and formulaic action flicks (Everest, Ambulance), but Presumed Innocent reaffirms his masterful grip on dark thrillers.

Which Thriller Is Jake Gyllenhaal’s Best?

It’s hard to choose one above the rest

The film-obsessed adolescent in me would jump to say that Donnie Darko is Gyllenhaal’s greatest thriller, although as far as his overall performances go, Nightcrawler is simply impressive and would not be as great without him. There is almost a Christian Bale-Patrick Bateman of American Psycho quality to Louis Bloom that Gyllenhaal completely nails and that few actors would be able to pull off with as much conviction. Zodiac certainly has a case for being the best thriller at large that Gyllenhaal has starred in because of the reverting story and the direction of David Fincher. The same could be said of Prisoners. Still, I think if Nightcrawler didn’t exist, Donnie Darko could make a great case for being his best and most important thriller even with the new addition of Presumed Innocent.