Nightmare Alley (2021)
3.5/4
One my favourite film genres is old film noir. I really get a kick out of watching classic noir movies, such as the John Huston classic The Maltese Falcon or Roman Polanski’s thought-provoking Chinatown. Now, Oscar-wining director Guillermo Del Toro has crafted Nightmare Alley, a movie that pays tribute to the iconic noir movies of the past while also being a deserving entry to the enduring legacy of noir.
What I really like about the movie is Del Toro’s and co-writer Kim Morgen’s screenplay. Based on both the classic novel by William Lindsay Gresham and Edmund Goulding’s 1947 film adaptation, Del Toro and Morgen successfully complete the daunting task they set out to complete—craft a movie that blends Gresham’s themes of descent, justice, and human nature together into a great film noir.
The main thing that really makes the move shine is its stellar art and costume design. Whether we’re in an office or at a circus, every set completely immerses the viewer into both the movie and the era it is portraying.
The costumes by Luis Sequeira and the stunning cinematography by frequent Del Toro collaborator Dan Laustsen also do a delightful job of immersing its audience into the 1940s.
The acting is also really good here. Both Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett are fantastic in their leading roles and the supporting cast—consisting of such famous faces as Rooney Mara, Willem Dafoe, David Strathairn, Toni Collette, and Richard Jenkins—give show-stopping performances that are just as good as the movie they are in.
The only negative I found is that it’s sometimes hard to follow, especially in the scenes where Cooper’s character Stan is trying to con people. If you didn’t have a keen eye on the story, these scenes might seem out of left field, but it’s just part of noir: if you don’t want to pay close attention to a movie, Nightmare Alley is not for you.
Thanks to a fantastic script, a stellar cast, sweeping camera work, and stunning art and costume design, Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley is a super-immersive movie experience that no one will soon forget.