Big screen, little screen review: Nightmare Alley
As soon as charming Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) met clairvoyant Zeena (Toni Collette) and her one-time mentalist husband Pete (David Strathairn) at a travelling festival, he developed a plan to achieve success by means of recently obtained facts to reward the wealthy elite of the 1940s New York society. The upright Molly (Rooney Mara) reliably supporting him, Stanton contrives to scam a dodgy businessperson (Richard Jenkins) with the assistance of a strange psychiatrist (Cate Blanchett) who may, possibly, be his main terrifying adversary.
This motion picture will not appeal to one and all, and it may not be for fans of Del Toro’s more customary contributions. But it’s his most grounded film, and with its strange, troubled, other-worldly susceptibility, it’s absolutely a Del Toro film for the world today. This is a visual and intellectual banquet and I appreciated it.
It’s dark as hell, genuinely unravelling in the cleverest of ways with Del Toro using all the apparatuses of his trade. This is Del Toro digging deep into his skills to beautifully craft a richly atmospheric and thrillingly dark-hearted drama that packs a powerful punch. The kind of depressing, total disappointment we need every now and then, although it is expected to be second-hand by the conventional public. Cooper is at his finest in this movie and the other cast members all get at least one grand flash. As with Crimson Peak, Guillermo Del Toro confirms all over again how immense he is at these old-fashioned narratives remixed with his one-of-its-kind method. Even though, with a running time of two hours and 30 minutes, it takes a little too long to get to the substance, the movie ties in everything full circle and will leave you in disbelief.
Nightmare Alley is an incredible film, creepy all the way through with a number of excellent twists and turns to keep you guessing. The characters are grand, camera work hard to believe, and had me engaged all the way through the movie. If I had to state any negatives, there were not many. But there was not an adequate amount of information on the subject of why he was extreme. In addition, there ought to have been additional scenes of the psychologist analyzing him. Plus, the scheme wasn’t powerful enough to create a big reason for the intensity of his hatred towards his father to validate the killings. All in all, the movie was beautifully executed. This is a movie for a well-informed, refined grown-up audience. Not a movie filled with frolic for kids and adolescents. It’s an Oscar-worthy flick on several levels.
- Rating: R (Nudity| Language |Some Sexual Content |Strong/Bloody Violence)
- Genre: Mystery & Thriller
- Director: Guillermo del Toro
- Producer: Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale, Bradley Cooper
- Writer: Guillermo del Toro, Kim Morgan
David R. Muhammad is a former morning host on Visions Television and a former member of the Palace Amusement Media Movie Review Committee. He is currently the Student Protocol Officer of the Nation of Islam’ study group – Jamaica.
