Direction: Guillermo Del Toro
Country: USA
Cleverly helmed by Guillermo Del Toro, Nightmare Alley is less fantastic than The Shape of Water (2017) but more atmospherically noir in the true sense of a thriller. Based on the novel by William Lindsay Gresham, which had been adapted to the screen in 1947 by Edmund Goulding, the film boasts an amazing cast with A-listers, an intriguing energy and alluring visuals.
By following the obscure path of Stan Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) - a manipulative, remorseless and tremendously greedy con artist - one comes to the conclusion that the miasma of misplaced morality that permeates this story can be fascinating and disturbing in an equal manner. Stan joins a bizarre traveling-show as a carny, first working with Clem (Willem Dafoe), whose number consists of a caged man/beast who decapitates a hen with his teeth, and then with the clairvoyant Zeena (Toni Colette) and her alcoholic husband, Pete (David Strathairn). After learning the tricks of Mentalism with the latter, he leaves the fair with his good-natured sweetheart, Molly (Rooney Mara), in search for their own gigs.
Two years later, they’re holding a fruitful show in Chicago, but his ambitious nature leads him to a dangerous, if financially rewarding, pact with Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), a seductive psychologist who had defied his psychic abilities in the first time they crossed paths.
There’s nothing really groundbreaking here, even considering that this dark and lurid thriller comes from a director who has firmly established himself as an innovator. Nightmare Alley plays more like an ever-shifting, lopsided endeavor that finds the right magic to catch us in a villainously astute manner. It boasts a great conclusion, by the way.
