By: Andrew Wing

Nightmare Alley is a 2021 American neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water) from a screenplay by del Toro and Kim Morgan, based on the 1946 novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham. The film features an ensemble cast including Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born, Silver Linings Playbook), Cate Blanchett (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Blue Jasmine), Toni Collette (Little Miss Sunshine, Hereditary), Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project, The Lighthouse), Richard Jenkins (Step Brothers, The Visitor), Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Carol, A Ghost Story), Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Sons of Anarchy), Mary Steenburgen (Step Brothers, Happiest Season), and David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck, Nomadland).

It is the second feature film adaptation of Gresham’s novel, following the 1947 version. The film focuses on Stan Carlisle (Cooper), an ambitious carny who hooks up with corrupt psychiatrist Dr. Lilith Ritter (Blanchett), who proves to be as dangerous as he is.

Del Toro serves as a producer on the film, alongside J. Miles Dale (produced The Shape of Water) and Bradley Cooper (produced, wrote, directed, and starred in A Star Is Born). Del Toro first announced development of the project in December 2017, and this is first film since The Shape of Water (2017). Frequent collaborator Dan Laustsen serves as the film’s cinematographer, while Nathan Johnson (Looper, Knives Out) replaces Alexandre Desplat (The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Shape of Water) as the film’s composer. Principal photography began in January 2020 in Toronto, Ontario, but was shut down in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Production resumed in September 2020 and concluded that December.

Nightmare Alley had its world premiere at Alice Tully Hall in New York City on December 1, 2021, and was theatrically released in the United States on December 17, 2021, by Searchlight Pictures. It was named one of the top ten films of 2021 by the National Board of Review and American Film Institute. It also received eight nominations at the 27th Critics’ Choice Awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Del Toro. Despite the accolades, it was a box-office disappointment in its opening weekend and has grossed a total of $5.6 million worldwide (against a $60 million production budget which is the highest for any Searchlight release), likely resulting in a financial loss.

THE GOOD

To my readers, you have no idea how excited I have been for this movie. Guillermo del Toro is one of my favorite directors and this is his first film since his Best Picture-winning film, The Shape of Water, which I absolutely loved. Also, it has Bradley Cooper in the lead role and I challenge you to find me somebody who doesn’t love Bradley Cooper. I’ll wait. Aside from that, the trailer for this movie was just perfect and it was just oozing those neo-noir vibes that I just wanted to eat up. So yes, as you can tell my expectations were through the roof for this one, so now it is time to find out if it met those expectations!

There are so many things that I loved about this film and I will address all of them, but let’s address the elephant in the room. The elephant in the room being this all-star cast. I mean you got Bradley Cooper, but you also got three of the biggest actresses in the business today in Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, and Toni Collette. It also features supporting performances from great actors such as David Strathairn, Willem Dafoe, and one of my favorites, Richard Jenkins, just to name a few. Every performance was great if you ask me, but no surprise here, Bradley Cooper stole the show. I thought it was undeniably one of his best performances of his career, and I was just so dialed into his performance.

The best scenes of his were the ones when his character really starts to fully embody this psychic persona. I found his character, the protagonist, to be very enigmatic and I was always trying to figure out what his character was really like on the inside. It was all the more impressive because Cooper’s performance shifts throughout the film. At first he is just this very blank slate kind of guy, and then he even begins to change his accent (which was a 10/10) as he shifts into the role of the psychic. His character's last shift comes at the very end of the film, and I won’t spoil it, but this movie has a phenomenal ending that features a remarkable moment of acting from Cooper that shows us why he is one of the best in the industry. It was just an incredible performance from Cooper and it is easily one of the year's best. I would love for him to get a nomination for Best Actor, but it is starting to get pretty crowded so who knows.

The next best performance belonged to Cate Blanchett who plays Dr. Lilith Ritter, the corrupt psychiatrist who is very dangerous. There is just something that I love about Cate Blanchett and I don’t know what it is. All her scenes in this are so entertaining. It was such a treat getting to watch Blanchett and Cooper go blow-for-blow with each other as it felt like we were watching a sort of power-play between the two characters as they were trying to dominate each other psychologically. Other performances worth mentioning are Willem Dafoe, who is really only in the film for the first act, but he just had a couple of scenes where he completely utilizes his strengths as an actor. Also, I can’t forget to talk about my guy, Richard Jenkins, whose performance was very surprising as it was unlike anything we have seen from him as an actor. His character became more vulnerable then most in this film, and he really made his presence felt.

As for the man in charge here, Guillermo del Toro continues to deliver. A year ago today, the only films of his that I had seen were both Hellboy films he did, but now, there are only a couple films of his that I have not seen. I just love everything about him as a director. He also just makes some of the best looking movies you will ever see in your life, but I will address that a little later in the review. His craftsmanship here was impeccable if you ask me. The film just felt like his ode to the neo-noir genre that he clearly loves and is obsessed with. It is crazy though when you realize this is one of his only films ever to not include monsters, but with the way paints the picture that is Nightmare Alley, you begin to think that the humans are monsters. In conclusion, I just love everything about him as a director, and I won’t be mad if he collects another nomination for Best Director.

Speaking of del Toro, as I said earlier, every film of his is stunning to look at, and Nightmare Alley was just that. For this, we got del Toro teaming up with the same cinematographer that he did The Shape of Water with, Dan Laustsen. That fact there impresses me all the more because that film was a fantasy film, and this is not, but yet its visual style still feels otherworldly. It has a very expressive look to it which is very similar to older noir films. We got the constantly floating camera and a lot of visual motifs that just gave the film a different visual language. I know it may seem small, but the focus in this film is superb because in every scene, there is never a moment where the person you are focusing on is not absolutely sharp. I just don’t know how they do it. I rest my case, but this better get nominated for Best Cinematography.

Continuing with the look of this picture, the production design was off the charts. I could tell right from the jump that the production design was very entangled with the cinematography from the way that the carnival was set up. Yeah, that’s right I said carnival. They literally built an entire carnival full of crazy stuff for the movie set and that was just for the first part of the film. Every set of every scene is just so detail-oriented and simply put, there is no denying there was a ton of thought put into the production value here. It was just extremely beautiful and meaningfully done and it is very deserving of a nomination for Best Production Design.

Lastly, Nathan Johnson’s score was very good, especially in the very beginning of the film. His musical score just stood out a lot in those key moments which made for an even better experience. The costume design was exquisite, and I also really loved the story we get with this film. I already have the book in my house and I will be reading it very soon. I decided against reading it before seeing the film because with it being a neo-noir, I didn’t want to know what happened and I think I made the right decision. However, with it being a book adaptation that is also a very big awards contender, you might as well go ahead and lock in an Adapted Screenplay nomination for it. I also went ahead and watched the first feature film adaptation of Nightmare Alley that was released in 1947, and I did find del Toro’s version to be the better of the two. Don’t get me wrong, both films are very good, but this 2021 version is just on another level with the performances and the visual style of the film.

You got your answer, this film exceeded my expectations and I ate it all up. I loved everything about it, and I think I loved it even more because we really don’t get films like this that much anymore. It has a star-studded cast, but it is still a mid-budget film. Also, despite being labeled a psychological drama, it really isn’t playing into any genres that are trendy or popular if that makes sense. With that said, that is probably why the film has underperformed at the box office because this movie doesn’t really have a target audience, aside from just the lovers of cinema like myself which is unfortunate. I just wish these movies could get the respect they deserve financially, but people just don’t seem to be attracted to these new and intriguing original stories (although not technically original because it's based on a book, but you know what I mean).

THE BAD

I won’t lie, the film is a long one with its 150 minute runtime, and the fact that it is a slow-burn doesn’t do it any favors. It was actually hard, especially in the first act to see where this film is going and what it’s trying to do, and I definitely think some may get lost in the first half of it. No need to fear, but it does become a lot more clear where things are going throughout the course of the film. For me though, I was just starstruck watching this with how long I’ve been waiting for it, so to me it never felt like the film was wasting any time. Trust me when I say that you will dive right into the story once it gets going, and it will fly by.

Also, if you are going into this film thinking it will be similar to del Toro’s best works such as Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water, you are sadly mistaken. I’m not saying this movie is bad or far inferior to those, but this film just gives you a far more colder experience which makes this film a harder movie to love than those two. I would honestly say that is why critics aren’t connecting with it as much as his previous films, but I still found this movie exceptional and fully engrossing.

Lastly, I would have liked a little bit more from both Toni Collette and Rooney Mara. Now I liked both of their performances and I thought they were good, but these are GREAT actresses and I don’t think we got enough from them. Neither of their characters were really compelling to be honest, but at the end of the day that falls on the writers, not the actors. I really think that this film could have been masterful if it fleshed out their characters a little bit more, but the film was already 2 1/2 hours, so at the end of the day, it is what it is.

THE VERDICT

Nightmare Alley is a slow-burn, psychological neo-noir thriller that comes to us from one of the greatest directors working today in Guillermo del Toro. His craftsmanship here in this picture was simply flawless and awe-inspiring. The film was really a full-course meal as we got remarkable cinematography, a haunting score, and some of the best production design I have ever seen!

The performance we got here from Bradley Cooper was just jaw-dropping and it was definitely one of the best of his illustrious career. His final moments in the film are utterly terrifying as we get the film’s best moment in the final shot. Cate Blanchett also shines as when her character enters the story in the second half, the heat begins to crank up considerably.

This movie deserves all of its flowers as it is easily one of the year's best, and I can’t wait to give it a second watch. I found it to be an improvement over the 1947 version and now it is time to dive into William Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novel that the film is based on and I couldn’t be more excited to become more engrossed in the world that is Nightmare Alley!