Nightmare Alley: Movie Review
Nightmare Alley: Movie Review Cast: Bradley Cooper, Willem Dafoe, Toni Collette, Rooney Mara, David Strathairn, Cate Blanchett Director: Guillermo del Toro Spanish director and master of the whimsical and unsettlingly macabre Guillermo del Toro heads to the carnival for this Gothic slice of neo noir. Essentially a parable about going too far and overachieving your dreams above your own station, Bradley Cooper delivers a restrained near-career best as Stanton Carlisle, who takes a job working as a carny. Enthralled by the life of a clairvoyant act (Collette and Strathairn, both utterly compelling and human), Carlisle begins to learn the tricks of the trade while trying to woo fellow performer Molly (Mara), promising her a new life and riches if they head off together. But when Carlisle starts to enjoy the trappings of success and leaves the carnival to reinvent himself as the Great Stanton, he ends up falling under the spell of psychologist Dr Lilith Ritter (Blanchett, a cool and icy fe...