Nightmare Alley
In 1940s New York, down-on-his-luck Stanton Carlisle endears himself to a clairvoyant and her mentalist husband at a traveling carnival. Using newly acquired knowledge, Carlisle crafts a golden ticket to success by swindling the elite and wealthy. Hoping for a big score, he soon hatches a scheme to con a dangerous tycoon with help from a mysterious psychologist who might be his most formidable opponent yet.
An absolute banger neo-noir psychological thriller film co-written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. I thought the premise sounded great, but I also went in knowing del Toro is fantastic but not usually to my taste.
So I am surprised and happy to say I couldn’t look away from this one. Haven’t liked a del Toro movie this much since Pan’s Labyrinth. Don’t be intimidated by the runtime!
We were just talking about how short most fantasy team up movies tend to come, but this one has everyone delivering a great performance, including Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen, and David Strathairn.
This came out December 2021, so being a mid pandemic release that is in part set at a Carnival was basically the kiss of death. I’m not surprised I hadn’t heard of it, but I’m very glad to have given it a chance.