Guillermo del Toro’s remake of the noir classic “Nightmare Alley” is one of 10 films nominated for this year's Academy Award for Best Picture. Here's where to watch it, what our critic had to say and what to watch next.
stars as a man with a troubled past who literally runs away to join the circus. There he learns how to put on a great clairvoyant act, a skill he decides to put to devious use once he meets glamorous psychologist Dr. Lilith Ritter . Based on both a 1946 novel and a 1947 film adaptation, del Toro brings his signature love of outcasts to this sordid tale of love, ambition and the rules of the side show.
Much like its onscreen world of wonder, "Nightmare Alley" has a curious production history of its own. The team shot the second half of the film first — a stylized Cooper/Blanchett psychological thriller steeped in noir tropes — only to be shut down by the pandemic in March of 2020. They then returned months later to finally shoot the first half of the film, which grew from mere prologue to a compellingly lived-in, extended character study about life in a carnival side show.
While both halves have their strengths , they never entirely gel together, leading to a film that feels consistently stylish but also strangely bifurcated. Still, del Toro knows how to put on a show with his sumptuous visuals, and his top-notch cast perform impressive sleight of hand when it comes to papering over some of the story’s weak points.
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