[FILM]
NIGHTMARE ALL EY
[ EDITED BY IAN FREER]
BIG SCREEN. SMALL SCREEN. YOUR REVIEWS BIBLE STARTS HERE
★★★★★ EXCELLENT ★★★★ GOOD ★★★ OKAY ★★ POOR ★ AWFUL
★★★★
OUT 21 JANUARY CERT TBC / 139 MINS
DIRECTOR Guillermo del Toro
CAST Bradley Cooper, Rooney Mara, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Ron Perlman
PLOT Charismatic drifter Stanton Carlisle (Cooper) sets fire to his old life and joins a carnival where he learns the secrets of mentalism, witnesses horrifying ‘geek’ shows, and falls for fellow carny Molly (Mara). But when he later hatches a plot with sultry psychiatrist Dr Lilith Ritter (Blanchett), his manipulative abilities are pushed to the brink.
FOR GUILLERMO DEL TORO fans who have followed the monster-obsessed auteur through decades of delicately drawn fantasyhorror fables (Pan’s Labyrinth, The Devil’s Backbone) and splashy sci-fi blockbusters (Pacific Rim, the Hellboy movies), the prospect of the filmmaker eschewing the supernatural in Nightmare Alley might feel somewhat disappointing. After his Oscar-sweeping The Shape Of Water (13 nominations and four wins, including Best Picture and Best Director), could the man who gave us face-sucking mutant vampires, red-clay ghouls and cinema’s most sensuous fish-man really be betraying genre fare in favour of more typically awardsworthy material?