Nightmare Alley

Nightmare Alley

An ambitious carnival man with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychologist who is even more dangerous than he is.

  • Released: 2021-12-02
  • Runtime: 150 minutes
  • Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
  • Stars: Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, David Strathairn, Holt McCallany, Mark Povinelli, Jim Beaver, Romina Power, Paul Anderson, Tim Blake Nelson, Mary Steenburgen, Clifton Collins Jr., Lara Jean Chorostecki, Drew Nelson, David Hewlett, Troy James, Samantha Rodes, Peter MacNeill, Sarah Mennell, Mike Hill, Caleb Ellsworth-Clark, Dian Bachar, Matthew MacCallum, Linden Porco, Jesse Buck, Stephen McHattie, Bill MacDonald, Natalie Brown, Perry Mucci, Dan Lett, Catherine McGregor, Martin Julien, Tim Post, Will Conlon, Daniel Falk, James Collins, Lili Connor, Danny Waugh, Walter Rinaldi, Andrew Locke, Calvin Desautels, Derrick Moore, Grant Bradley, Dani Klupsch, Vikki Ring, Vanessa Botbyl, Michael Bridgeman, Charles Langille, Paul Taylor, Clyde Whitham, Romina Power
  • Director: Guillermo del Toro
 Comments
  • kt039 - 29 April 2024
    The filmmakers played us like the con-man in the movie
    There is neither nightmare, nor noir, nor psycho-thriller in this clear-as-a-day, predictable and extremely, extremely boring movie. Production wise it is beautiful but creating beautiful sets can take you only so far without an interesting story.

    I have rarely experienced a bigger bait situation: Guillermo del Toro probably baited the star cast with his reputation. The star cast baited us, the audience. Then the story baits us to hope (or pray) that something we don't already know since an hour and half will happen. And then when finally something seems to be happening for around 10 minutes in this 2,5-hour long movie, it turns out anticlimactic - because it is precisely what has been foreshadowed the whole time.

    I am so disappointed. I watched it spontaneously, without any prior knowledge about anything other than the star cast, and from the title, genre and looks I thought I am getting in a numbed down version of Sin City or the like. That it will be freaky, creepy, plot-twisty, playing with your mind. Instead, you get a movie that feels like a public social announcement: "Children, listen to warnings other people give you, don't lie and don't drink!".
  • MattWillow - 14 December 2023
    A nightmare watch
    The good things first, obviously this was visually very appealing the carnival as well as the others sets looked really good. I can certainly understand how this got oscar nominated for production design. The cast was also very competent and mostly performed well, although Bradley Cooper is no favorite of mine so that was a clear drawback.

    Then to the bad which there sadly is more of. The most glaring problem is the lenght, 90 minutes would have sufficed grandly. The first half should have been cut down drastically since it didn't establish much in regard to the second half where something at least got going. But by the time I got there I had all but lost my interest in what was going on. Can't say I was thrilled about the second half either but it had more going for it. Since he was a bit of an ass, you just didn't care what happened to the main character. The psychologist otherwise well played by Cate Blanchett was equally dislikable tossing around personal information without any moral ambiguity. How this got nominated for best picture is just beyond me, must have been slim pickings that year...

    Anyhow, the ending carried a bit of irony that felt well deserved. But I honestly can't recommend this film, since at the end I felt I had wasted 2½ hours of my life.
  • ssvfolder-1 - 28 September 2023
    Great setup, yet a missed opportunity
    I missed this movie when it first came out and just now caught it at D+.

    The setup is great! The whole Carnival Noir style along with excellent cast, captures you instantly. Yet somehow the second part of the story feels empty. The story itself is written by the book. The main hero is actually a villain. There is a moral lesson to all. A dark secret in everybody's life and a final punchline. Yet it still feels empty.

    Perhaps what was needed are supernatural elements. Maybe some additional parties should have been involved. It just wasn't enough.

    During that last part of the movie, I was hoping for something far fetched like integration into a Stephan King's universe. To see the clown from "It" or Crimson King. That would have been something.

    But it ended expectedly and a bit boring.

    I gave it 7 but it's more like 6.5 for me.
  • jmjosmak - 2 December 2022
    How to end misery
    After watching Pan's Labyrinth I knew that de Toro is a filmmaker of dazzling yet authentic imagination. This is on display in Nightmare Alley in many arresting scenes. I won't belabor a rundown: the movie is a visual feast-of rotten food. The acting of course, is brilliant.

    I think the ending is a real problem. Somehow the dramatic doom-knell of Cooper's ending up back in the pit-where he belongs, where his destiny terminates-lacks a clear loud ring. The final scene when he is down there under the hooting, hideous crowd should have been much more explicit, more repulsive, to hammer home that ugly truth.

    Still, it's quite a ride...
  • AvionPrince16 - 21 October 2022
    Dont like carnival and people too much greedy
    Im just disappointing. The whole movie we follow a man who just greedy and will use all the tricks he know to make money and save his place. With his wife, he will play a lot of tricks and will try to use them for trap a Man who is really rich and we have a woman who is in love with Stanton but Molly will get sick of his greediness and will leave at the end. I found the movie pretty boring: if it was a biopic and we followed some true events about a real man i will surely get more interested but we know its a "mise en scene" so we will get a lot of bored and not impressed by the verbal code and all their tricks. Lillith Ritler will bring more tension and more psychological stuff but its really not enough in my opinion. The revelation at the end that she played with Stanton and robbed the money was interesting but thats all. The movie is slow, lack of storytelling. The lights and ambience are pretty immersive but the story lack of depth and we just follow that Stanton and wondering when he will get caught and all his manipulations will be revealed at the end and things get pretty dramatic and Stanton will get poor again and stay in this social condition and the line aboug the dumb guy was pretty effective but it was more and less a story about greediness. And manipulations to live and earn money but thats all and get pretty superficial quickly and the viewer dont get fooled by the director and we are pretty passive all along and wait for the end. Pretty simple story without any interesting part just when he will get caught and what will happened to Molly and Stanton? Thats all and it pretty lack interest because its all about money right? But we dont really what the movie want to tell us. Dont be greedy? Careful of lies and manipulations? Careful about womans? Dont really know but i didnt get into the movie even if we have the revelation that Stanton kill his own father but lack of meaning for me.
  • andreapeco - 27 August 2022
    There's no point in anything
    The story is pointless. The movie starts good then 2 hours of boredom. The finale was meant to be dramatic but it is also pointless. Mega ultra paid actors can't save a storyline this worthless. Only good things for which I gave three stars? Scenography and photography are really good. The rest is time wasted.

    Cate Blanchette is a b*tch like she is in real life, being a close friend to weinstein and then denying and accusing him, so that's accurate.

    I live carnivals and freak shows history but that wasn't really deepened, it was only used to create atmosphere to a, I repeat, pointless script. Skip this movie. Too long for nothing.