Nightmare Alley (2021)

Set in the 1940s, a rural carnival worker (Bradley Cooper) with a secretive past has higher ambitions. After learning all he can from carny people as well as using them for his own ends, he heads to the big city with a girl (Rooney Mara) from the carnival. While successful, he enters into an agreement with a psychiatrist (Cate Blanchett) that will bring both of them bigger game but he underestimates her. Based on the novel by William Lindsay Gresham (previously filmed in 1947) and directed by Guillermo Del Toro (THE SHAPE OF WATER). I liked the film very much but like many recent movies, if suffers from being inflated. It's forty minutes longer than the 1947 film. Though Del Toro's film was critically admired (it received 4 Oscar nominations including best picture), like the 1947 version it was a box office flop. I suppose part of it was the Covid pandemic but I suspect like 1947 audiences, the story is just too dark and downbeat for mainstream audiences. The acting is good, Dan Laustsen's lensing imparts mood and style and Tamara Deverell's period production design is impeccable. It's a strong example of neo-noir, I just wish Del Toro and his editor Cam McLauchlin hadn't been so stingy with the editing shears. With Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Mary Steenburgen, Richard Jenkins, David Strathairn and Ron Perlman.