Nightmare Alley
Rent & Buy
An ambitious carnival man with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychologist who is even more dangerous than he is.
What critics thought
Del Toro's noir is largely praised for its visual opulence, Bradley Cooper's uncommonly fragile performance, and its commitment to pulpy darkness — but detractors find it a lovingly assembled replica that never quite breathes on its own, stretched thin over a running time that tests patience. The central split is between those who feel the film's stylized surface is inseparable from its emotional power and those who see them as entirely disconnected.
“Del Toro can do worldbuilding in his sleep, but you might also find Cooper's brittle performance, filled with such elemental sadness, hard to shake off. Nightmare Alley is the shadow that lingers.”
Clarisse Loughrey·The Independent
“From its bruised colour palette to its spiralling descent into madness and degradation, this is deliciously damnable fare, looking back through the prism of Del Toro's adventurous oeuvre to the existential angst of his vampiric feature debut, Cronos.”
Mark Kermode·The Observer
“an act of origami-level homage: it's all folded together in impressively fiddly ways, but the result is an angular, inert approximation, lacking in the original's breath or heat.”
Robbie Collin·The Daily Telegraph
“there's little else in this drastically overstretched narrative (150 minutes!) to hold any attention beyond a cursory awareness that, yes, we're watching an oddly literal melodrama about bad people doing very bad things, very slowly.”
Kevin Maher·The Times
Accolades
Genres
Crime, Drama, Thriller
Cast & Crew
Guillermo del ToroDirector
Bradley CooperStanton Carlisle
Cate BlanchettDr. Lilith Ritter
Toni ColletteZeena the Seer
Willem DafoeClem Hoatley
Richard JenkinsEzra Grindle
Rooney MaraMolly Cahill
Ron PerlmanBruno
Mary SteenburgenMrs. Kimball
David StrathairnPete
Mark PovinelliThe Major
Peter MacNeillJudge Kimball
Holt McCallanyAnderson
Nathan JohnsonComposer
Kim MorganWriter
William Lindsay GreshamWriter
Dan LaustsenCinematographyFrom the studio
Nightmare Alley
An ambitious carnival man with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychologist who is even more dangerous than he is.
What critics thought
Del Toro's noir is largely praised for its visual opulence, Bradley Cooper's uncommonly fragile performance, and its commitment to pulpy darkness — but detractors find it a lovingly assembled replica that never quite breathes on its own, stretched thin over a running time that tests patience. The central split is between those who feel the film's stylized surface is inseparable from its emotional power and those who see them as entirely disconnected.
“Del Toro can do worldbuilding in his sleep, but you might also find Cooper's brittle performance, filled with such elemental sadness, hard to shake off. Nightmare Alley is the shadow that lingers.”
Clarisse Loughrey·The Independent
“From its bruised colour palette to its spiralling descent into madness and degradation, this is deliciously damnable fare, looking back through the prism of Del Toro's adventurous oeuvre to the existential angst of his vampiric feature debut, Cronos.”
Mark Kermode·The Observer
“an act of origami-level homage: it's all folded together in impressively fiddly ways, but the result is an angular, inert approximation, lacking in the original's breath or heat.”
Robbie Collin·The Daily Telegraph
“there's little else in this drastically overstretched narrative (150 minutes!) to hold any attention beyond a cursory awareness that, yes, we're watching an oddly literal melodrama about bad people doing very bad things, very slowly.”
Kevin Maher·The Times
Accolades
Genres
Crime, Drama, Thriller
Cast & Crew
Guillermo del ToroDirectorBradley CooperStanton CarlisleCate BlanchettDr. Lilith RitterToni ColletteZeena the SeerWillem DafoeClem HoatleyRichard JenkinsEzra GrindleRooney MaraMolly CahillRon PerlmanBrunoMary SteenburgenMrs. KimballDavid StrathairnPeteMark PovinelliThe MajorPeter MacNeillJudge KimballHolt McCallanyAndersonNathan JohnsonComposerKim MorganWriterWilliam Lindsay GreshamWriterDan LaustsenCinematographyFrom the studio
Rent & Buy