Hope you had a good Valentine’s Day. Movies about love lost and found abound. My go-to picks are usually Richard Linklater’s Before Trilogy and Wong Kar-Wai’s In The Mood For Love for instance. Even with the holiday out of the way, dear readers, you can check them out. However, the Oscar nominations are in, ready to be fomented over by pundits and neophytes of film alike. Some choices come as no surprise, the new West Side Story and Belfast. The Power Of The Dog seems to be the juggernaut to beat in some major categories; review for that, upcoming. A glaring omission has broken through as my biggest gripe. Only four nominations for Nightmare Alley; really, Academy?
Feeling more like a throwback to Hollywood prior, this noir thriller has all the hallmarks of prestige moviemaking. Taken from the 1940s pulp novel of the same name, we are dropped in medias res as Stanton Carlisle is leaving his past behind. From the beginning we assume his nefarious nature, but are given only vague wisps of what or why. After a short trip on a Greyhound bus, Carlisle finds himself at a rest stop near a carnival that’s underway. From there we are introduced to who will become his newfound family.
The wonderful talents of Rooney Mara, Toni Collette, David Strathairn Ron Perlman and Willem Defoe round out this rag-tag group of misfits. Their home disrupted by this newcomer. But as the plot progresses, Stanton hones his trickery so as to move to the big city. His grift gets a bit too big for him as he encounters a psychiatrist played by Cate Blanchett. With her assistance, Stanton gets in over his head in ways unexpected. All roads lead to a conclusion audiences won’t soon forget.
Guillermo del Toro, like most directors, have a preoccupation that becomes a through line across his filmography. The concept of what makes a monster and a man is omnipresent here. An attention to detail and care with visual craft surely is what netted nominations for costumes, production and cinematography. But it takes a trained eye to bring the whole together.
The Academy has a funny way of elevating artists at one moment and pulling the spotlight away the next. Egregiously so, it happened just the year after the infamous Moonlight/La La Land incidents. Barry Jenkins’s follow up, If Beale Street Could Talk, got Regina King an award but not much else. And Damien Chazelle’s First Man barely got notice in the technical department. Five years after The Shape Of Water del Toro seems to be put out of the inner circle, which is unfortunate.
All the attention should be given to Bradley Cooper for his turn as Stanton Carlisle. Over the past number of years his growth as a performer has expanded exponentially. From American Sniper, Silver Linings Playbook and A Star Is Born, the increasing depth of his range and willingness to go to places most actors wouldn’t gives him verve. Not interested in movie star status, Cooper takes on more demanding projects with little care to typecasting. In this last year alone, he was considered a shoe-in for both acting categories, with this film and his supporting role in Licorice Pizza. Sadly, neither came to fruition which is a shame.
Under seen at movie theaters this last fall, Nightmare Alley stands as a testament to Hollywood filmmaking at its finest. A type of movie that is not made much anymore, it deserves more recognition. Some multiplexes still have screenings as of this writing. However, if you can’t make it out, it is currently streaming on Hulu and HBO Max as well as playing on HBO proper. With that many avenues to check it out, I cordially invite you to step right up for some exciting and happy viewing readers.
