 From the guy that brought you a movie about a woman banging a fish dude, comes Nightmare Alley, a dark crime drama set in the late 1930s. This review is a Patreon request by Anthony, who runs a blog over at Medium.com, I put his link in the description below, so feel free to check him out there. The plot of Nightmare Alley in a nutshell is Bradley Cooper plays a talented grifter who works his way up the ranks at the carnival to be a gifted psychic. A medium, if you will, who pretends he can talk to spirits. Yes. Yes. And he'll tell you things like how your grandma's doing or what's in your purse right now. Things go very well for our boy Stanton for many years. He makes tons of money, has tons of accolades, until he performs in front of the wrong woman, a woman who knows a mark she can hit when she sees it. And that woman is Lilith, played by Kate Blanchett, an actress who never fails to amaze me. But this movie's brimming with great actors and even better performances. We have Tony Collette as Zena the Seer, the Green Goblin himself, Willem Dafoe as Clem, a carnival owner. The girl with the dragon tattoo, Rooney Mara gives an electrifying performance as Molly, and of course, a Guillermo del Toro favorite, Ron Perlman as Bruno. The big draw for this movie is Bradley Cooper, though. His performance as Stanton is phenomenal. How proud he is of you and how— He is in no way, shape or form, a good guy. He's selfish, he'll step on anyone he has to to get ahead, he'll befriend you as long as it's convenient, and then he'll throw you away like you're nothing. And the fact that I felt sympathy for this guy, that I felt compassion for him when always said and done, shows just how much range Cooper actually has as an actor. Because he's not entirely black and white either, as Zena perfectly points out earlier when she throws up a tarot card and sees this guy is a lot of trouble. Because he kinda walks the line, he's not bad, he's not great, he's just right there. He's always there, ready to strike. This movie reminded me of a great failed TV show on HBO years ago called Carnival, or maybe it was called Carnival. I can't remember, I think it might have been Carnival, but regardless, I freaking love that show. I think it only went one or two seasons before it was cancelled because it just cost too much to make and not enough people were watching. But the atmosphere in that was so good, and that same atmosphere and vibe is carried over to Nightmare Alley. I refuse to believe Guillermo del Toro didn't get inspiration from that show. I have like one hang up with this movie, and that's the fact that it's two hours and 30 minutes long. If you've watched this channel for a while, you know I'm a stickler for that sort of thing. I got shit to do, so you can't overstay your welcome. Even with the longer runtime though, Nightmare Alley is long. I do think it could have shaved some off. It does feel a little overlong at times, but man, there is so much good here, from the visuals to the score to once again, these phenomenal performances. You just can't go wrong with this movie. And if you're a fan of Guillermo del Toro like I am, Pan's Labyrinth is still like top 50 movie material for me, then you should absolutely watch Nightmare Alley. I know a lot of people slept on this, including myself originally, so I appreciate the Patreon request. Now, since it is Guillermo del Toro and half of it takes place at a carnival, I was expecting a scarier film. It's surprisingly not. It's pretty much just a thriller through and through, a mystery kind of. This is a random observation, but the movie also kind of reminded me of 2019's Parasite and only for one reason. Early on, we established this magical rock of sorts that's talked about. It's kind of a red herring. Clearly, there's a little bit of symbolism involved there. Nightmare Alley has something similar with this creepy baby in a jar with three eyes. They go back to it multiple times throughout the film. And I would honestly have to watch it again to really piece together what's going on there and how it relates to our lead character. This is also not a fun movie by any means. There's not a lot of joy to be found here. It's very drab. It's very sad and has one of the most depressing endings I've seen in quite some time. And the worst part is it's like watching a slow car wreck. You see it coming five to 10 minutes before it happens. And you're just sitting there like, no, no. But you know it's inevitable. The movie has teased it. The movie did a good job setting it up. And I don't want to give it away because I do think enough people haven't seen it that should for me to take that from them. Definitely check out Nightmare Alley if you haven't. Thank you again to Anthony for becoming a patron and recommending this film. Glad I got to watch it finally. And let me know in the comments if you have seen it. I'd love to hear from you. Keep the spoilers out of there. Like the video if you had a good time. Please subscribe if you haven't. I post tons of movie content each and every week. We'd love to hear from you. Take care. Oh, wow. What a gift. You're still here. Since I still have you, maybe think about joining me on Patreon at patreon.com slash adam does movies becoming a YouTube join member right here on YouTube via that join button. And I'm also on Twitch live streaming a podcast with my buddy bless every single week going forward. It's a fun time. I'd love to have you there.