What a Nightmare

In recent years, the Academy Awards used an elaborate nomination system that meant an unfixed number of films from 5 to 10 could vie for Best Picture. In 2022, they dispensed with that system in favor of a guaranteed 10 movies. The prevailing internet wisdom seems to be that #10 -- a movie that would not have made it under the previous system -- was Nightmare Alley.

Based on a 1946 novel by William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley is the story of Stanton Carlisle, who escapes from a dark past to work at a carnival. From there, he builds a career as a mentalist. But he risks it all to conspire with a conniving psychologist in a scheme to dupe a wealthy mark.

Nightmare Alley is the work of director (and co-writer) Guillermo del Toro, who brings a lot of his signature visual pinache to the proceedings. By any measure, this movie is more grounded in reality that most del Toro films... but even if this is less "dream-like," it's still very heightened and meant to seem somewhat "manufactured." I think it's those visuals that won over enough Academy voters to make the movie a nominee in the first place -- because I think most audiences would find at best only half a good movie here.

The question is: which half? In my mind, there was no question that the first 40 minutes-or-so of Nightmare Alley was the disposable part. It's an aimless stroll through a 1940s carnival, setting up characters who won't figure at all into the rest of the movie. The first act does contain a single essential scene that sets up the end of the movie, but I felt like the rest of it was elaborate window dressing trying to disguise that scene (in the hopes that the audience won't figure out exactly where the story will end up).

"Act two" of the movie opens with on-screen text telling us that events are now taking place "Two Years Later," and that's when the worthwhile section of the movie starts, in my mind. It cultivates a reasonable amount of tension as it tells a "descent into moral darkness" kind of story. It was hardly "great," but I didn't find it boring. And a sleazy score by composer Nathan Johnson does a lot to create a moody atmosphere.

I was truly surprised when, in passing, a good friend of mine mentioned Nightmare Alley, and his completely opposite reaction. He too saw two half-movies in one here, but he found the carnival setting to be the only compelling section of the movie, followed up with an overly familiar story walking through the tropes of film noir.

The one thing I know for sure is that I will never revisit this movie to see who was right -- was it my friend who saw something I missed, or is he the crazy one? The truth is, it hardly matters, as the two halves of Nightmare Alley are so discordant with one another that it's hard to imagine many people being entertained by the whole. All they could probably agree on is that a cast of great actors is generally being underutilized: Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen, David Strathairn, Jim Beaver, and Tim Blake Nelson have all been in better than this.

I probably sound more down on this movie than it really deserves, and I think only because I watched this under the looming shadow of "this was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar?" It's really too mediocre for me to really warn you to skip it. But it certainly could have been better if it were a lot shorter. I give Nightmare Alley a C.