NIGHTMARE ALLEY: VISION IN DARKNESS AND LIGHT
Director: Guillermo del Toro
150, R
Screenwriter: Guillermo del Toro and Kim Morgan, based on the novel by William Lindsay Gresham and the 1947 film.
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen, & David Strathairn.
Academy Award-winning director Guillermo de Toro, best known for bringing his visual wizardry to horror and fantasy movies from Pan’s Labyrinth to Hellboy, has taken a deep dive in a new direction. It’s a haunting version of the 1947 film starring Tyrone Power and Joan Blondell that captures the essence of American film noir, which ditched the Hollywood mainstream for dark portraits of society, poverty and human psychology. Bradley Cooper stars as Stanton Carlisle, a con man who joins a second-rank carnival known for luring desperate men to work as “geeks,” whose revolting acts were paid in alcohol. But Carlisle is too smart for the scam, learning a bogus psychic act and running off with his partner, Molly (Cate Blanchette). After a taste of success among the Buffalo elite, the past and present threaten to drown Carlisle in an ocean of his own deceit.
Four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.
