Nightmare Alley (2021)
“No matter where you turn. No man can outrun God, Stan”.
Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water) returns to the cinema screen with a re-imagining of a 1947 film of the same name and from the same source novel written by William Gresham a year earlier. I’d loosely describe it as a colourised film noir set just before the onset of World War II and as the film’s first Act ends we are transported two years later into 1941. As with the noir label above, and as with the films of del Toro as a whole, it’s difficult to fully pinpoint a category or genre for this magnificent film, but with spoilers as always at a bare minimum, here’s a basic entry point and premise:
Circling around the central character of “Stanton Carlisle” (see below) are a host of hardworking grifters, show people, hucksters and con artists who all inhabit a travelling circus and carnival of wonders akin to a historic Barnum and Bailey carnival. You have an “Electric Girl”, archetypal strongmen, dwarves, seers, soothsayers and rather distressingly, a caged and bedraggled human being known simply as the “Geek”. Ostensibly owned and run by “Clement Hoatley” (Willem Dafoe), he is surrounded by a seemingly loyal family within his carnival and star turns are provided by “Zeena Krumbein” (Toni Collette) as a clairvoyant or seer who is aided and abetted with cheat codes and notebooks full of lifelong cons by her husband “Peter Krumbein” (David Strathairn). Whilst our central character falls in love with the Electric Girl in the shape of “Molly Cahill” (Rooney Mara), a host of small supporting cameo roles fall to Richard Jenkins as “Ezra Grindle”, Mary Steenburgen as “Felicia Kimball” and Ron Pearlman as “Bruno”. There are two further characters worthy of a fuller introduction as they intertwine as the film begins its 2nd Act in 1941.
“Stanton Carlisle” (Bradley Cooper). Walking away from a burning house in the very first frames of the film is perhaps the perfect analogy for a man walking away from a life in flames, out of control and in need of a fresh start far away from the burning embers of an old life. A bus ride takes Stanton or “Stan” to the aforementioned carnival whereby he stumbles, hook or by crook, into the employ of the carnival owner and quickly enchanted by the literal tricks of the carnival trade and the manipulation of a willing audience to either believe their lying eyes or dumb enough to be openly duped. As well as trying desperately to ignite the affections of Molly the Electric Girl (their dance on a spinning carousel ride is a highlight of the film) it becomes apparent that the archetypal tall, dark stranger and interloper on an existential escape from self is curating yet another new life with newly acquired huckster/conman type skills and a life far away from eking a living with a travelling carnival. Now a self described “Mentalist” in league with his Electric Girl, he is cornered by a psychologist “Lilith Ritter” (Cate Blanchett) at one of his popular shows, and it soon becomes apparent that the accomplished conman may have bitten off more than he can chew.
At a running time of nearly 150 minutes, Nightmare Alley is a long and winding tale of duplicity, secrets and cons wrapped into an existentially dark, bleak and brooding story brilliantly illuminated by its ostensible marquee star Bradley Cooper. Whilst not as thunderously unhinged as in Silver Linings Playbook or A Star is Born, Cooper is fantastic here as the secretive Stanton Carlisle, permanently smoking and permanently on the look out for the next con or next play in a life brilliantly depicted by Guillermo del Toro. Whilst the film is particularly bleak, brooding and blackly dark, huge kudos should go to Dan Lausten (Cinematography) and particularly the production design of Tamara Deverell and art direction of Brandt Gordon for a beautifully looking, if existentially bleak film that I liked throughout but didn’t love immediately as I did with del Toro’s wonderful Pan’s Labyrinth or The Shape of Water.
My immediate reaction is that with further viewings I will indeed love this film on a par with those two classics named above, but time will tell.
It always does.
“Nightmare Alley” can also be found within my 7 volumes of “Essential Film Reviews Collection” on Amazon with each and every volume free to read should you have a Kindle “Unlimited” package. All 9 of my self-published books can also be read for free on Kindle (but go on, treat yourself to a paperback or hardback version!) and should you watch my short Youtube video linked in the middle of this article you’ll also find links to my Patreon and Buy Me A Coffee and other ways of supporting my work as an independent writer.
"The Essential Film Reviews Collection VOL.1" - link to Amazon
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.