Yes No Maybe So: "Nightmare Alley"
Friday, September 17, 2021 at 8:46AM by Nathaniel R
one of many memorable images in the trailerGuillermo Del Toro has never been what one might call an Oscar-bait director, as his preferred genre is the fantastical monster movie. And yet with his inspired auteur's eye and significant command of craft he bucked the odds to helm two movies Oscar just adored, the creepy mythological creature filled fantasy Pan's Labyrinth and the sea monster in love Best Picture winner The Shape of Water. So now he's most definitely an Oscar player. This time up he's doing a remake of the great 1947 noir Nightmare Alley which featured Tyrone Power's all time best performance and two fascinating female supporting roles. Will his latest movie be another Oscar player or another Crimson Tide (which people were very excited about in theory until it became reality). But, more importantly, will it be great? Let's do the Yes No Maybe So™ breakdown of the new trailer after the jump...
YES
• C'MON PRODUCTION DESIGN! (And the other crafts, too). At the very least this will be breathtaking to look at and score a few technical Oscar nominations. At the most it will be popular across the board and hog nominations in all categories. The production designer is Tamara Deverell who has mostly worked in television (Star Trek Discovery, Suits, The Strain etcetera) prior to this though she has several smaller films under her belt, too.
• The story of Nightmare Alley is really solid foundation and Del Toro's remake appears to be hewing closely to the original which is definitely a two act structure, first act in the circus where a newbie named Stanton (Bradley Cooper) gets mixed up with the carnies (Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Rooney Mara, etcetera) and learns the trade, and second act in upscale theaters with a new dangerous partner (Cate Blanchett) as Stanton moves up in the world to work a more lucrative "psychic" grift.
• That cast sure is spectacular. Cannot wait to see what Toni Collette, in particular, does with her (very good) role as a washed up psychic with an alcoholic husband. Bradley Cooper is wonderful with actresses so it will be a treat to see him paired with not one, not two, but THREE great ones in this narrative.
• We love a teaser trailer that doesn't give away much of the plot so this one is smart to just convey mood and the grand visual designs. We'll surely get the more usual 'here's the plot and some dialogue' trailer later. But teasers are better.
NO
• As with all remakes of already great movies this one will have to offer a reason for its existence. Will it?
• Also though this looks beautiful/glossy/glamorous there's also a lot of green tint which, together with the period, trappins looks a lot like Shape of Water. The only filmmaker who is allowed to not rethink his palette to make sure it's the right one for *that* particular film is Almodóvar. (kidding kind of. yes, this is a nitpick but we needed something in the "no" section.)
MAYBE SO
• In truth I rarely love Cate Blanchett when she plays villains. She's such a STAR and my god the camera worships her but she makes more obvious choices when playing evil roles and is thus less surprising. Also one hopes that they've beefed up or complicated the Rooney Mara part which is not-at-all interesting in the original.
• The Willem Dafoe narration is stronger in concept than in execution. I had to listen to it three times to make out what he's saying due to his strange cadences, the overall trailer sound mix, and the very distinct common-in-trailers probability that this is a longer speech all chopped up for dramatic short form backdrop for visual clips. But it doesn't make a lot of sense when chopped up and smooshed together.
Step right up and behold one of the unexplained mysteries of the universe
Is he man or beast?
This creature has been examined by the foremost scientists and pronounced unequivocally a man
I am prepared to offer you folks one last chance to witness this supreme oddity.Where did it come from?
Forgotten by the same [????] that got us all walkin this earth but gone wrong some how in maternal womb [???]
Is it a beast? Or is it a man?
You're in luck because tonight you will see him feed.
Come on in and find out: is he man or beast?
• The trailer is also bit misleading because it plays like a supernatural monster movie (a bit) rather than the humans can be monstrous vibe of the film noir genre. Of course it's only a trailer and they always go for what sells.
So are you a Yes No or a Maybe So? But if it was always a "yes" did this trailer move the needle for you at all?
Nightmare Alley, Yes No Maybe So
Reader Comments (22)
Yes, for sure. I would see anything with that cast, plus I'm interested in del Toro's follow-up to The Shape of Water, even though I wasn't crazy about it.
I agree with you about remakes, but if you're going to remake an old movie, Nightmare Alley seems like a good candidate (unlike, say, West Side Story). It isn't exactly widely seen - I hadn't seen it until I sought it out a couple of weeks ago BECAUSE of the del Toro film, and I've seen many films from this period. Also, my understanding is that the book was quite risque, and given this is rated R, del Toro will probably include some of the details from the book that were omitted from the original film.
I was never not a YES and remain so. I do share similar trepidation about the cinematography/color-grading, though. Didn't really love the look of The Shape of Water either.
Nathaniel, what’d you think of Blanchett in Cinderella? I thought she was pitch perfect, though I agree that villains aren’t her strong suit.
Could this be Toni Collette’s Oscar? She has the momentum, and if she knocks it out of the park in a buzzy film…
I know most people didn’t like Crimson Peak, but I still think it was ridiculous that it wasn’t nominated for Costume Design or Production Design. If nothing else, it was a gorgeous movie, and I feel like Guillermo del Toro might be taken for granted a bit in the visual department to where people ignore his movies entirely unless they’re on the level of a Pan’s Labyrinth or at least Shape of Water. But come on, there’s no way The Danish Girl or Bridge of Spies deserved nominations for their costume and production design over Crimson Peak.
I'm a yes. It sounds like it isn't going to be a slavish reiteration of the Ty Power film which is good since I can't see how that one could have been improved on.
The trailer is interesting though perhaps too stylized. The original felt very organic to its time and place, this feels very removed from reality. My big reservation is that I hated The Shape of Water so having del Toro at the helm doesn't fill me with confidence. But the cast will get me there though both Toni Collette and Cate Blanchett have big shoes to fill to even match the work of Joan Blondell and Helen Walker.
It seems odd that Mary Steenburgen isn't listed in the names, but arguably less famous Ron Perlman and Tim Blake Nelson are.
I'm still a definite yes. I read somewhere it's not a remake, but a "re-imagining" of the novel.
Bradley looks scrumptious!
Yes: Toni Collette in anything and everything.
No: Circus movies.
It's Guillermo. Of course I want to see it. Plus, I'm happy to have the 1947 film version in my DVR as I will watch it next month for Halloween season.
What I want to know is: When will Netflix release Pinocchio?
It looks repetitive. But let's hope for the best.
CRIMSON TIDE? Although I would definitely be interested in what del Toro would do with the submarine genre. :-)
Maybe so. I want to be excited for this, and I think I am. But it just looks SO 2021, all that digital color correction. I guess I shouldn't expect Del Toro to do something just classical, but something about the look of his period pieces always feels too contemporary to me.
Also, what a choice for the only dialogue in this trailer to be a practically unintelligible Dafoe monologue about nothing in particular.
In this trailer, the word "man" is heard four times in 70 seconds. "Beast" and its synonyms (creature, etc.) five times: "is it man or is it beast?" It's sad that a film with such an interesting plot comes with a trailer that focuses only on the geek aspect of the story, which, at least in the novel and first film adaptation, are hardly the be all and end all of the film. It's really more about con-artistry than anything else. So I don't know.... You'd think they'd have come up with a better trailer that suggests the scope of the tale.
The imagery, of course, looks great. So I'm still psyched for the movie.
Cate Blanchett AND Toni Collette?
I don't care who else is there. I will be seeing it.
I'm a yes in that I will obviously be seeing it, although I'm not sure it's going to do much for me? I'm really tired on that glossy, shiny look that's very modern but hopefully in context it will look better.
I love del Toro, but this is a Maybe So... I fear it may be too much style over substance, but this could be just the trailer...
The Shape of Water earned meaning with repeated viewings - unlike, Crimson Peak - but I yearn for del Toro to make a more simple masterpiece, like his best film - which almost no one saw! - "The Devil's Backbone".
I love del Toro, but this is a Maybe So... I fear it may be too much style over substance, but this could be just the trailer...
The Shape of Water earned meaning with repeated viewings - unlike, Crimson Peak - but I yearn for del Toro to make a more simple masterpiece, like his best film - which almost no one saw! - "The Devil's Backbone".
If this is good, with three great actresses in store, the studio will definitely campaign Blanchett in lead, let's not kid ourselves.
Looks gorgeous, well, is Del Toro but unless it turns out to be something really stunning and layered like The Shape of Water or Pan's Labyrinth I am a maybe so.
The cast is ridiculously delicious (well, not a Cooper die hard fan, though) but I don't see it as an Oscar vehicle for any of them, and YES for anything with Toni, she's the silver lining in this trailer.
Nathaniel, I think it's "begotten," not "forgotten," which makes more sense in context...general drift being he came from the same creator as the rest of us but something went wrong in the womb...
Anyway, I can't do horror but I did love both Pan's Labyrinth and The Shape of Water (even though I cringed and had to look away at moments in both). So I guess I'm a maybe so leaning yes, contingent on really good reviews and not *too* much scary/gory stuff?
Cannot wait.
I'll see it but I was honestly not impressed with the last few del Toro films (esp Shape of Water, which to my mind had no business winning a BP Oscar) -- but I love the original Ty Power movie and I'm curious to see what they'll do with it. I'm doubtful they can improve upon it just by throwing millions more dollars into production and FX, but we shall see.