Click here to copy URL

Nightmare Alley

Nightmare Alley

2021

Guillermo del Toro

Bradley Cooper, Rooney Mara, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette ...

6.4

15,306

Film noir. Mystery. Drama This tale of seduction and treachery follows a former carnival worker (Bradley Cooper) as he teams up with a psychiatrist to con millionaires... A remake of the 1947 film.

	Media	Author	Review
		Clayton Davis Variety	"A gorgeous, fantastically sinister moral fable about the cruel predictability of human nature (...) It very well could be the best movie del Toro (...) the movie ranks as the most stunning modern noir to behold since Brian De Palma’s 'The Untouchables'."
		Richard Roeper Chicago Sun-Times	"A great, great movie about some bad, bad people (...) Filled with juicy performances and unforgettable visuals, 'Nightmare Alley' is one of the best films of the year (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"
		Sheri Linden The Hollywood Reporter	"With a semi-playful nod to the 1945 film Detour (...) 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"
		Benjamin Lee The Guardian	"It’s [Del Toro’s] most strikingly beautiful film yet (...) a curious misfire, overlong and overstretched, working only in all-too-brief bursts (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Stephanie Zacharek Time	"It marries the despair of Gresham’s superb, unsparing novel with the creepy angularity of Edmund Goulding’s film version. And it features a terrific, multitextured performance by Bradley Cooper"
		Tim Grierson Screendaily	"Del Toro sets aside his fascination with exotic creatures and strange beings for a study of some real-life monsters in Nightmare Alley, a noir richer in mood than compelling characters"
		David Ehrlich IndieWire	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"
		Leah Greenblatt Entertainment Weekly	"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"
		Manohla Dargis The New York Times	"Del Toro is a world builder, but he can have a tough time bringing his creations to life, which is the case here despite the hard work of his fine cast."
		Johnny Oleksinski New York Post	"Bradley Cooper's best performance ever (...) It is a far more entertaining and satisfying film than its overrated science-fiction predecessor (...) A long list of major stars are doing exciting work (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"
		Alonso Duralde The Wrap	"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 (...) For a potent remake, check out Steven Spielberg’s take on 'West Side Story'"
		Marya E. Gates The Playlist	"Bloated at nearly 140 minutes with Cooper clearly miscast in the lead, it struggles to maintain urgency (...) [It] remains emotionally inert and unclear exactly what it wants to say about these characters"
		Meagan Navarro Bloody Disgusting	"It’s the characters that make Nightmare Alley a success (...) Those hoping for conventional, fatalistic noir will come away disappointed; this wholly bears del Toro’s imprint (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 5)"
		Chuck Bowen Slant	"Modern filmmakers misunderstand vintage noirs, which were connected intimately to their own time and setting, with few pretentious frills. Del Toro, though, reimagines an agonizing, still shocking noir (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"
		Peter Travers ABC News	"[It] has flashes of brilliance but falls far short (...) What a shame that 'Nightmare Alley' is more an outline for a film than a living, breathing, dangerous thing"
		Chris Evangelista SlashFilm	"Del Toro is perhaps a touch too romantic for this kind of pitch-black material, but it's impossible not to get swept up in the thrills and chills of Nightmare Alley."
		Justin Chang Los Angeles Times	"It would be hard to imagine a more memorable guide to that world than Cooper, whose broodingly dark, increasingly frenzied performance captures nothing less than the realization —and putrefaction— of one man's American dream"
		Shelagh Rowan-Legg Screen Anarchy	"A beautiful ride that's missing the heart (...) It's like two sets of puzzle pieces, that, beautiful as they are, can't be forced together"
		Conor O'Donnell The Film Stage	"Guillermo del Toro brings a dreamlike sheen to noir retelling (...) 'Nightmare Alley' plays like new territory for him. He relies on the figurative and cerebral, but seems to underestimate (or at least underuse) the emotional"
		Kristy Puchko Mashable	"Guillermo del Toro misfires with a confounding noir (...) It's a gamble that just doesn't pay off."
		M.N. Miller Ready Steady Cut	"'Nightmare Alley' is a haunting game of drifters, grifters, con men and women that never fail to entertain their audience (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 5)"
		Katie Rife AV Club	"Stylish but uneven carnival noir (...) Del Toro is a romantic at heart. His sensibility isn't a bad thing. It just works better when the monsters aren't human"
		Ben Travis Empire	"A rare del Toro film that's not an outright spook show, 'Nightmare Alley' [boasts] an enveloping atmosphere, compelling characters, and gorgeous filmmaking (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Charlotte O'Sullivan London Evening Standard	"The journey taken by del Toro may be convoluted. Where he ends up, though, is a bad dream come true (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"

Return to movie

We encourage you to check the reviews' original sources. Intellectual property rights of these reviews belong to their authors and/or the correspondent media from which they have been extracted. If you'd like to help us to add more reviews to your favorite movies, just send us a message.