OSCAR ROUNDUP REVIEWS #1 - "Nightmare Alley"

For the next few days, I've decided to write about the Oscar nominees for Best Picture at this year's Academy Awards ceremony. The first film I'm looking at is "Nightmare Alley", directed with loving care by the always impressive Guillermo del Toro and starring just about every great actor found in Hollywood's phonebook. The movie is a hard hitting film noir piece featuring an impressive lead, a few femme fatales, and impressive cinematography from Dan Laustsen and production design by Tamara Deverell and set design by Shane Vieau, all of whom have been nominated for Academy Awards.

The movie follows Bradley Cooper as Stan Carlisle, a drifter who happens upon a carnival after burning down a house with a body he places in the floorboards. Down on his luck, Stan takes a job as a carny and learns about the various shows. The one that impresses him the most is a clairvoyant act by Madame Zeena (Toni Collette) and her alcoholic husband, Pete (David Strathairn).

He is drawn to Pete's former life as a "mentalist" though Pete warns him about turning the act into a spook show about a target's lost loved ones. Eventually, Stan becomes attracted to Molly (Rooney Mara) and they eventually strike out on their own. Stan wishes to become a mentalist with Molly at his side.

Now, I'm going to admit that for the first hour of this movie, I was wondering just where in the hell it was going overall. During this time, we stay with the carnival and I began to wonder that this will be about the lives of those in the carnival. However, after Stan sees Pete's book of tricks when it comes to being a mentalist, I foresaw where the movie was going and I was there for the whole ride.

As I mentioned before, the style of this movie is spot on with brilliant direction by del Toro and its comparable in style to his earlier work (and Best Picture winner) "The Shape of Water" in 2017. On top of that, the movie also contains an impressive cast that includes the likes of Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, Ron Perlman, Richard Jenkins, Mary Steenburgen, and Holt McCallany. I think it also goes without saying that they all bring their best to the film.

Honestly, I would say that "The Shape of Water" is a better film for me in del Toro's filmography. That movie hooked me a lot faster with its story while this one kind of dragged a bit too much in the beginning. Yet, by the end of the movie, I knew that I had watched something pretty spectacular and worth watching again to see what I may have missed the first time around.

The movie was rightfully nominated for Best Picture, though I feel that del Toro and Cooper were snubbed for the Best Directing and Best Actor categories. If you haven't seen this movie and you're a fan of good film noir period pieces and del Toro's distinctive visual style, then this movie is definitely for you!