• Nightmare Alley is Mexican auteur Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of William Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novel of the same name (and what a brilliant name it is!). There is a 1947 film adaptation from Edmund Goulding starring Tyrone Power that certainly has much in common.
  • Guillermo del Toro’s version opens on Bradley Cooper as Stanton Carlisle burning the body (and home) of his deceased father. There is sun pouring in the window and Carlisle escapes. The shot of the family house in the far distance on the hill certainly resembles Malick’s Days of Heaven.
  • The film is set between 1939 and 1941 for the vast majority of the action. Carlisle is just wondering and stumbles upon a circus and finds a home- “folks here don’t pay no never mind to who you are or what you done.”
  • Guillermo del Toro may dial the set design craftsmanship and artistic use of color back a little from his 2017 Best Picture winner The Shape of Water– but this is period detail that is still vastly superior to 99% of all other films out there. This is also a 150-minute minute long running time- and though it is dark and depressing- the narrative momentum never sputters or stalls.
  • Rich green color in Zeena’s place (Toni Collette). Later the hallways in the posh hotel room of Carlisle and Molly (Rooney Mara) are green and the interiors have mint-colored furnishings.
  • The constant rain and fatalism root this in noir- even if the setting is often the open sky of the rural circus fairgrounds instead of the urban jungle.
  • At the 36-minute mark an iris-in on Mara- a strong use of lighting in the Copacabana later in the film.
  • Period (“chisels them a bit”) and carny ( “shuteye”- when you believe your own lies) dialect – superior writing.
  • Immorality (this is most definitely a moral tale), seediness (opium spiked alcohol) and a jaded audience vehicle for the story (Carlisle’s character). Cooper’s abilities as an actor add a complexity to the film.
  • It is over 60-minutes into the film before the great Cate Blanchett shows up as Dr. Lilith Ritter. The first meeting between Carlisle and Ritter is one of the best in the film as they go at each other in front of a crowd. Later in the film the exchange is “I know you’re no good, and I know that because neither am I” between two of their generations more compelling actors.
  • Most of the casting is spot on. Tim Blake Nelson for the chef’s kiss of a final scene is a masterstroke. Holt McCallany as Anderson is a really inspired choice as well. It is Richard Jenkins as Ezra Grindle that just does not work. Jenkins was perfect in 2017’s The Shape of Water under del Toro. But here – there needs to be a greater fear of Grindle- one needs to feel his power and potential wrath. Jenkins just does not have it. I thought of Michael Douglas first- but ultimately landed on Kevin Spacey. Spacey would be perfect- and may take the movie to a different level.
  • Ritter’s office décor is simply stunning- the chase lounge by the window. The snow falls like a snow globe on the glass in one scene. At the 99-minute mark Cooper and Blanchett are on opposites sides of the chase lounge with snow in the background through the window- certainly one of the film’s best compositions.
  • The film has del Toro’s capacity for violence and evil (especially during the climactic action)—he may be an auteur that tells adult fairy tales- but like the blood spitting out from DiCaprio in Scorsese’s The Aviator in 2004- del Toro is not afraid to get into shadows as well.
  • Rooney and Blanchett in a film together again like 2015’s Carol from Todd Haynes
  • In Grindle’s garden there is a shot with a light and then the hedges symmetrical on the sides of the path- simply one of the best cinematic paintings of 2021 (above). The snow is turned from white to an almost very light mint by del Toro’s coloring detail.
  • Carlisle sets his world on fire (again- that’s his move) and moves on again. The film and story come full circle with his meeting with Tim Blake Nelson. The “Mister, I was born for it” line with Cooper’s desperate laugh-cry is haunting. Bogart’s laughter as Fred C. Dobbs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre comes to mind a little. And unlike the 1947 film, del Toro brilliantly ends the movie right there.
  • Highly Recommend- top ten of the year quality