Nightmare Alley (2021)
Nightmare Alley
”An ambitious carny learns the art of human manipulation, but his dark past catches up with him.”
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Why watch this film?
Guillermo del Toro has two great passions, both very clear in his filmography: cinematic art (mainly from the Golden Age of Hollywood) and the worst of humanity. However, if until now he has hidden this perception through metaphors about imaginary monsters, in 'Nightmare Alley' the Mexican leaves aside these subterfuges and embraces his own human monstrosity. In the story, which is a remake of the classic noir 'Lost Souls Alley', we meet Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper), a man with a dark past who, when joining a circus, learns the art of human manipulation. From there, the feature touches on heavy topics such as addiction, degradation, violence, corruption, arrogance, guilt, abortion... All while we pass through real or figurative alleys, created from the great art direction. In the performances, Cooper brings a more naturalistic interpretation, exploring all the nuances of the various changes in the protagonist. The rest of the cast is stellar, with names like Willem Dafoe, Toni Collette, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara and Ron Perlman, but it is Cate Blanchett who steals the show. A sad, pessimistic, melancholic and dark movie, yes. However, a portrait of cruelty and human bestiality that, sooner or later, we must face.
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Plot summary
An extraordinary description of a freak-show geek alcoholic and abject and the object of the voyeuristic crowd's gleeful disgust and derision going about his work at a county fair. Young Stan Carlisle is working as a carny, and he wonders how a man could fall so low. There's no way in hell, he vows, that anything like that will ever happen to him.
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From the same director
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