Title: Nightmare Alley
Year: 2021
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Country: US
Language: English
With a December release date, Searchlight Pictures positioned Nightmare Alley to be a late awards contender. Director Guillermo Del Toro won Best Picture and Best Director for Shape of Water (2017) and they were looking for similar success. Unfortunately, this decision pit Del Toro's latest against the cinematic giant No Way Home. This positioning guaranteed the film's fate of being overlooked among critics and public.
In this remake, a grifter (Bradley Cooper) working his way up from low-ranking carnival worker to lauded psychic medium matches wits with a psychiatrist (Cate Blanchette) bent on exposing him.
The production design of Nightmare Alley is simultaneously the best - and worst- part of the picture. Its elaborate sets dazzle the eye; looking both decadent and deranged. It really helps create an atmosphere of the macabre. At the same time, the sets don't really convey the time period of the film (1939) & don't express much about our characters.
Nightmare Alley (2021) is a remake of a 1947 film-noir of the same name. Directed by Edmund Goulding, I feel the 47' version is better because Del Toro's picture reveals too much about the carnival, the geek & Stanton Carlisle. In addition, Goulding's picture is less bloated and is a smoother viewing at only 110minutes. Del Toro's film is 40 minutes longer; much of the extra content doesn't do anything to improve the story.
I do, however, like Del Toro's ending over Goulding. In 1947 there was an extremely strict Hays' code in place that required a certain outcome. Del Toro was free from this restriction & ended the film exactly where I thought the previous should have. Does the improved ending mean this is a required viewing? No. Watch the 47' version instead.
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