Nightmare Alley

Nightmare Alley has me divided. One one hand there's Toni Collette, in a smaller role perhaps, but perfoming amazingly. (I mean you have to be a good actress to pretend to be attracted to Bradley Cooper.) Willem Dafoe and Ron Perlman were great. I even liked Cate Blanchett (not usually a fan of her). But on the other hand you have... Well... Bradley Cooper, who's just so dull and -ugh (not to mention the scene where he's naked in the bath—most terrifying scene in the whole film). So yes I loved the aesthetic, locations, the music and the storyline;... read more

appreciate guillermo's continued commitment to good color grading but damn if this isn't a passionless plea for another oscar. all the character and weird dark humor i associate with del toro has been sanitized into a netflix friendly prestige drama. imagine having a cast this stacked and making them limply chat with each other like a highschool production of no exit. the second half almost pulled me in before being undercut by an excruciatingly blunt (and weirdly conservative) ending. what an indictment on 2021 that this is up for best picture. read more