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Nightmare Alley

✭ ✭ ✭ ✭   Read critic reviews

United States, Mexico, Canada
·
2021

2h 19m

Director Guillermo del Toro
Starring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe

Genre Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

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Fleeing his dark past, an ambitious and manipulative young carny who has a way with words teams up with a dangerous female psychiatrist, but trouble follows his attempts to scam and fool others while posing as a psychic that is capable of communicating with the dead.

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WHAT ARE CRITICS SAYING?

55

TheWrap by Alonso Duralde

From a rain-soaked carnival midway to a glossy, Art Deco therapist’s office, everything in Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley looks gorgeous. There just doesn’t seem to be a lot going on under the art direction.
80

Slashfilm by Chris Evangelista

A wickedly enjoyable tale of freak shows, dark and stormy nights, innocent dames, morally bankrupt schemers, and a femme fatale to die for.
75

Consequence by Clint Worthington

It may not have the sharp edges of a classic ’40s noir, but del Toro’s softer touch invites us in like one of Stan’s credulous marks.
75

IndieWire by David Ehrlich

This sordid excavation into the hollowness of a human soul is a strange fit for a director who’s spent his career searching for magic in the darkest margins of our world, but del Toro’s natural empathy for even the most damnable creatures he finds there sparks new life into “Nightmare Alley” as it narrows towards its inevitable dead end.
75

Entertainment Weekly by Leah Greenblatt

Nightmare Alley is both a beautiful-looking film and an oddly forgettable one, maybe because borrowed material is no match for the ingenious creations of del Toro's own mind.
42

The Playlist by Marya E. Gates

Bloated at nearly 140 minutes with Cooper clearly miscast in the lead, it struggles to maintain urgency. Dreary and overly saturated with a CGI patina, this new take on Nightmare Alley adds more gore and f-bombs to the source material but ultimately remains emotionally inert and unclear exactly what it wants to say about these characters and the world they inhabit.
90

Variety by Peter Debruge

A gorgeous, fantastically sinister moral fable about the cruel predictability of human nature and the way entire systems — from carnies and con men to shrinks and Sunday preachers — are engineered to exploit it.
88

Movie Nation by Roger Moore

Stunningly-detailed, with an A-list cast up and down the line, it’s a gorgeous and gloomy dip into the dark side, immersive and bleak from start to finish.
80

The Hollywood Reporter by Sheri Linden

With a semi-playful nod to the 1945 film Detour and more than a few rain-drenched streets, Nightmare Alley pays tribute to noir. But it’s also its own dark snow globe, luminous and finely faceted, and one of del Toro’s most fluent features.
60

Screen Daily by Tim Grierson

The period details are impeccable, the look and feel are seductive, but the muddled script lacks the killer instinct of its central figures.

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Joachim Trier
2021 Norway

The Worst Person in the World
(Verdens Verste Menneske)

  • ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
  • Norway • 2021
  • Director Joachim Trier
  • Cast Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Herbert Nordrum, Hans Olav Brenner, Helene Bjørnebye, Vidar Sandem
  • Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance
  • Available on Apple iTunes, Microsoft Store, Redbox, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, AMC on Demand, Vudu, Hulu, YouTube

Julie must navigate the troubled waters of her romantic life while struggling to find her career path in contemporary Oslo.

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