Nightmare Alley is a 2021 neo-noir thriller about Stanton Carlisle who goes from down-on-his-luck carny to determined and aspiring showman, and we follow his journey of success, manipulation, and wealth.
Moviegoers always get excited whenever acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro releases a new feature. After the triumphant success of Oscar-winning The Shape of Water, he has finally returned with his latest film titled Nightmare Alley, which is a new adaptation of William Lindsay Gresham’s novel with the same name after the 1947 version. It has a huge cast of amazingly talented actors such as Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen, Tim Blake Nelson, and David Strathairn. Del Toro continues to prove why he’s one of the best directors currently working in the industry.
Nightmare Alley focuses on our lead protagonist named Stanton Carlisle (Cooper) who goes from down-on-his-luck carny to determined and aspiring showman, and we follow his journey of success, manipulation, and wealth. It’s an intriguing neo-noir thriller that truly showcases once again Del Toro’s amazing talent as both a storyteller and filmmaker. If you have been a fan of the director’s previous work, you will probably enjoy it as well.
There’s a lot to appreciate about Nightmare Alley, and it makes you want to praise the cast and crew for their hard work on set. It’s always nice to see a film with so much passion in every frame of the story. It’s absolutely stunning to look at, especially the art direction and production design. From start to finish, the director makes sure his movies have beautiful cinematography that wonderfully portrays his unique visual style in front of the camera. The musical score is also mesmerizing, and it adds a lot of emotional depth to the premise and characters. It is going to be interesting when people will compare the cinematic look between the new and original versions of Nightmare Alley. However, it’s impressive nonetheless that Del Toro is able to bring his distinct style of direction into a classic from the 1940s.
The acting performances are all top-notch, particularly Cooper, Blanchett, Dafoe, and Collette. While writing a script, it’s important for the audience to be invested in the main protagonist’s growth throughout with lots of character development. Luckily, that’s something Del Toro succeeds with the help of his co-writer Kim Morgan. It’s quite compelling to see his evolution. The first act is not all that fascinating compared to the second and third acts, because the intro is heavily focused on setting up the world and tone of the film. It does take a while to get going, but then it eventually gets better and better. It’s very long, with a runtime of 150 minutes, so you should know what you’re getting into. It does have pacing issues during the beginning, but hopefully it’s a flaw that you’re able to forgive in order to experience a highly riveting neo-noir feature.
Nightmare Alley is yet again another brilliant film from Guillermo Del Toro. It’s admittedly not the best feature he has made throughout his career, but it’s still most certainly worth checking out for its cast, cinematography, art direction, and production design. It’s already getting a ton of award buzz, and it’s well-deserved.