NIGHTMARE ALLEY – The grifter, the con man, the three-card monte street game, we all know the allure of being tricked while secretly allowing ourselves the pleasure of falling for the con, hoping to choose the exact moment when we can pull out of it and declare the perpetrator a fraud.
Bradley Cooper’s character, Stan Carlyle, feels the same way. He will benefit from learning the tricks of a sad, two-bit carnival of the 1930s, and better himself with eventual success, making money and the unsuspecting woman who stumbles across him. Toni Collette, Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett each bring a gripping, clever take to these characters who cross Stan Carlyle’s path, only to suffer the devastation of his demented passion to regain his identity destroyed by a monstrous father.
Tod Browning’s scandalous 1932 film “Freaks” is at play here, compelling the viewer to “turn the page” of this cinematic version of the novel of the same name, Nightmare Alley. Guillermo del Toro peels back the façade of the original 1947 film starring Tyrone Power and Joan Blondell, and hands the audience a real, in the face, view of misguided redemption and ego.
The movie is gripping. That’s why it’s been nominated for 4 Academy Awards. It is worth your time, your vulnerability and you desire to see if you can choose the exact moment to pull out of it and declare the perpetrator a fraud. Is he? I’d love to know your take.
(NIGHTMARE ALLEY – 2021 American neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by Guillermo del Toro from a screenplay by del Toro and Kim Morgan. The story is based on the 1946 novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham, the second feature film adaptation of Gresham’s novel, following the 1947 version.
The plot centers around down-on-his-luck Stanton Carlisle, Bradley Cooper, as he endears himself to a clairvoyant and her mentalist husband at a traveling carnival. It stars Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Colette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen and David Strathairn. It was produced by TSG Entertainment and Double Dare You Productions, distributed by Searchlight Pictures.)
-Neil Healy
