Punctuating an Oscar season of not-so-heroic protagonists, Nightmare Alley slinked into town like a midnight carnival, electrified, swankified, and bonafide its way into our brains, if not our hearts. Definitely not our hearts. Occasionally, we’ll get a slick piece of art around this time of year that leaves you ice cold and empty. This is true of both relatively good films, like The Talented Mr. Ripley and relatively bad ones, like Phantom Thread. The commonality is “decent film, but you’re kidding with this ‘Oscar’ nonsense, right? Right?!”
Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) isn’t the name of a carny, is it? Sounds more like a Fortune 500 blue blood, huh? And yet, our memory-torching anti-hero vagabond has to work his way up to carny at the start of Nightmare Alley. I mean, how low does your life have to be to respond enthusiastically when head carny Willem Dafoe offers you a job, huh?
Ah, but Stanton is no ordinary drifter. He has a dark past and a keen mind for the grift – well, the 1940s grift, at least. This leads to the questions: “What is the carny hierarchy power structure?” and “How long does it take to scale the carny ladder?” The answer here is “Just long enough to thieve Rooney Mara from this life of chicanery.” Oh, please don’t read that plot point as noble; there isn’t a noble deed to be had in this entire film. There is simply manipulation and the manipulated.
Take, for instance, Defoe’s trailer-replete barking: “Is he man or beast?” First of all, if you have to ask that question, the answer is “man.” But you have to know either way this is a situ in which something with human intelligence is being treated as a zoo animal, not unlike the amphibious dude in Guillermo del Toro’s last film, The Shape of Water. In fact, the “beast” question is abandoned almost immediately in favor of the term “Geek” (oh, that makes it
better). The audience can clearly see it’s a man who makes his living biting the heads off chickens … and geez, he doesn’t even get to trash a hotel room afterwards. Is it better if it’s government manipulation or carny manipulation? I dunno. This is the world of Stanton Carlisle; you can gussyify until the cows come home and start speaking Flemish, but it’s still a life based on either manipulation or manipulated. Does it matter which?
The slick part comes with the introduction of Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blachett), who uses her plush psychology degree and urban refinement for a higher form of grift. Will she get along with the new grifter in town or will there be fur a’ flyin’? In other words, will they be men or beasts?
There’s no question that Nightmare Alley is another highly polished artistic existential query from writer/director Guillermo del Toro. The true question is the value of the picture. I can’t say it was forgettable, but I sure have no wish to see it again. The film made no effort whatsoever to find my heart –or its own heart for that matter- and thus comes off as a work I didn’t hate, but have zero reason to laud, either. I don’t doubt it will draw Oscar’s gaze, but Oscar would do better –and almost certainly will do better- to look over this one and gaze elsewhere.
A drifter with a recent downfall
Joins a circus which didn’t enthrall
For he knew he had skills
In the field of ills
And little patience for “one grift fits all”
Rated R, 150 Minutes
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Writer: Guillermo del Toro, Kim Morgan
Genre: “I want an Oscar”
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Guillermo del Toro’s publicist
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People who hate carnies
