Nightmare Alley

Del Toro Is in His Element with This Gorgeous and Chilling Noir. Fans of the director and the noir genre will find plenty to enjoy in this new adaptation of William Lindsay Gresham’s novel.

In most of Guillermo del Toro movies, the “monsters” are misunderstood and it’s the humans who are the real beasts. While The Pale Man from Pan’s Labyrinth may haunt our dreams, the film’s villain is Captain Vidal. In The Shape of Water, The Amphibian Man is the romantic lead while Richard Strickland is the true monster. But if you take away the supernatural, what do you have left? Del Toro answers that question with his new adaptation of William Lindsay Gresham’s dark, twisted novel Nightmare Alley. Working in a similar thematic vein despite the lack of supernatural creatures, the film allows del Toro to fully explore monstrous humanity through the character study of his doomed protagonist. The film is immaculately crafted, almost to its own detriment as it never seems as filthy as the souls of its grifters. Nevertheless, if you love del Toro’s previous work and the noir genre, you’ll be instantly enraptured by Nightmare Alley.

Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) is a drifter who finds his way to working for a carnival in 1939. There, he starts picking up on the tricks of the trade, especially from veteran performing couple Zeena (Toni Collette) and Pete (David Strathairn). Stanton also falls for fellow carny Molly (Rooney Mara) and convinces her that with tricks he’s learned from Zeena and Pete they could make a go of it in much classier establishments than a traveling circus. A couple years later, Stanton and Molly are performing the act, but Stanton still wants more. He gets his opportunity to fleece the wealthy with “spook shows” (pretending he can communicate with the dead) with the help of scheming psychologist Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), who records her patients and then passes on the info to Stanton. However, as Stanton and Lilith get closer, their latest con threatens to doom Stanton to a fate worse than death.

Genres:Crime, drama, Thriller

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Cast:Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett,Toni Collette