After taking home the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director for The Shape of Water, acclaimed director Guillermo Del Toro returns with his remake of 1947’s film noir Nightmare Alley. Updating William Lindsay Gresham’s novel, Nightmare Alley is an intense neo noir, a devious rags to riches tale that’s like funhouse version of Horatio Alger. Nightmare Alley is at once one of the most beautiful films made this year but also features some of the ugliest characters that descend further and further into darkness as they dive deeper into their lust and greed.
Stan Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) is a drifter who just happens to find himself at a carnival. Down on his luck with empty pockets and empty stomach, Stan is hired by carny Clem Hoatley (Willem Dafoe) to help take down the big tents and move the show to its next destination. Soon, Stan is a member of the carny tribe, learning the acts of his carnival brethren and trying to make his own act. He befriends Zeena (Toni Collette) and Pete (David Strathairn), a married mentalist duo, and Pete soon teaches Stan the rules of his mentalism game.
The first half of Nightmare Alley stays within the confines of the dingy carnival, and it’s apparent that Guillermo Del Toro is fascinated by this subculture. While he’s enamored by the aesthetics with some incredible sets that bring out the artistry of classic carny posters and attractions, the director is also willing to show the ugly side of the carnival. There’s an unflinching look at the poor souls brought onto the carnival to geek, a ghastly act that involves a broken man, typically an addict, biting the heads off of live chickens. Nightmare Alley goes into great detail as to how a man like Clem can take a broken man and further break him down to the point that he’s willing to partake in something so gruesome. And even some of the veteran carnies are broken, most notably David Strathairn’s Pete who has abandoned his mentalist show and opted to dive deep into the bottle.
But Stan isn’t content with the life under the big tent and has his sights on taking his newly developed act to more affluent audiences. He elopes with Molly (Rooney Mara) and the couple leaves behind the carnival to work their mentalism act in grand ballrooms. In Stan, you have a character who is at once ambitious and ruthless. He studies his surroundings and is constantly picking up new tricks as well as convincing others as to his grand plans to take acts to the next level. In Molly, you have a kind-hearted soul who grew up in the carnival with her now-deceased father. The carnival’s strongman Bruno (Ron Perlman) pledged to look after Molly, and he doesn’t trust Stan. But the cocksure Stan doesn’t care about what others think, and his arrogance will push him to ignore multiple warnings about the limits of his act.
It’s at one of their shows that Stan meets Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), an alluring and mysterious psychiatrist. As Stan starts to take his act to private shows for wealthy and powerful clients, Lilith uses her professional knowledge to help Stan be more convincing in his shell game of mentalism and ESP. Eventually, Stan is hired by the reclusive millionaire Ezra Grindel (Richard Jenkins), a cruel man teeming with deep regrets for his violent past. But Stan has turned his back on the well-established rules of the carny, and it’s only a matter of time before his luck runs out.
Once Nightmare Alley leaves the carnival behind, Stan and Molly enter a new world of glitz and glamour, and the incredible set design becomes sleeker and more elegant. It’s in this world that Cate Blanchett’s Lilith operates, sensually smoking a cigarette with a wry smile as she sets forth to manipulate Stan and his immense ego. Cate Blanchett is already one of the premiere actresses of her generation, and her work in Nightmare Alley is simply astounding. If one were to compile a list of the modern actresses capable of playing a classic femme fatale, Cate Blanchett would have to be at the top of the list.
Written by Del Toro and Kim Morgan, Nightmare Alley has a fatalism that pulses throughout the film. The setup in the beginning takes a bit too long, but it still operates to pull you further into this odd subculture and establishes the code by which these carnies live. The story takes us through two disparate worlds, the top and lower rungs of class. Like any great noir, the story gives Stan multiple chances to get out of the downward spiral we all can see he’s on, but his ego and ambition will continually get the better of him. When the events of Nightmare Alley truly spiral out of control, it’s an engaging and shocking turn of events culminating in an ending as bleak and tragic as I can recall in recent memory. Combined with the immaculate production design and the stunning cinematography of Dan Laustsen, Nightmare Alley always has something vibrant and captivating to overcome its few weak elements.
Nightmare Alley is a thrilling, atmospheric journey into darkness. It’s just the latest example of the genius of Guillermo Del Toro, operating with a story that most film lovers will be able to see where it’s going yet still has the capacity to land some big twists and shocking moments. This is a bleak, fatalistic work of cinema that is one of the most beautiful productions of the year. It’s that contradiction that marks one of the trademarks of Guillermo Del Toro’s acclaimed career – this obsessive pairing of the hideous and gorgeous. Because in the world of Guillermo Del Toro, it’s not the deformed freaks that are the monsters; it’s the darkness that lies within the hearts of man.
Nightmare Alley
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Summary
The great Guillermo Del Toro remakes 1947’s Nightmare Alley into a visually stunning and thematically bleak neo noir, taking its characters from the lowly life of a carny to an upscale penthouse before descending them into relentless darkness.