Perhaps it’s a hard sell nowadays for a dramatic epic with a great darkness at its heart following the grand trajectory of a man’s life from drifter to carnie to socialite star to grand swindler and onward, across the course of two and a half hours. However for me it was such a tremendously refreshing watch, with some of the year’s best performances and many of the year’s most beautiful dark images. Guillermo Del Toro has given us, with writing from Kim Morgan also, one of the year’s darkest and most enthralling films and one with perhaps the best gut-punch final kicker I’ve seen in a while. It may be a hard-sell, but by God is it worth it.
For me there is no version of this film that could tell the majesty of this tale without leaning into the epic nature of the beast. This movie works as well as it does and lands its final punch as well as it does chiefly because of its length and the journey we go on with our characters along the way. Specifically of course our lead character of Bradley Cooper’s Stanton, whose journey from simple grifter, to carnie, to socialite con-man is one of the best twisting tales of the deep darkness of the human soul I have seen in a while. It really does remind one of the epic and loose character study pieces of the 70s, this time with the horrid fantasy of a Del Toro lens and an urgent thrusting into worlds largely unknown to us. Whereas Liquorice Pizza gave us the majesty and perfection of a small comedic dose of Cooper, Nightmare gives us the brilliance of a Cooper leading turn. With all the bizarre charisma and totally thrilling effortlessness that this character so completely needs. Del Toro has with this novel adaptation given Cooper his best leading role in years, bar those of Cooper’s own making of course. Del Toro’s direction throughout in-fact is often daring and obtuse, blending the worlds of fantasy and the supernatural all together with a brutal reality that befits this tale so perfectly.
The film too marks the return of the
great Del Toro ensemble feature, perfect once more for the manner in which we
pass through year and year and climb the ladder of success with Cooper’s Stanton.
In the beginning we are met with some familiar Del Toro faces and some very
enjoyable new faces into the Del Toro cannon (am I going to be sued by the
estate that I haven’t referred to him once yet as “visionary director Guillermo
Del Toro”?). Ron Perlman, Willem Dafoe, David Stratharan and Toni Collette mark
the standouts here, with Rooney Mara appearing as a figure of innocence who is
perhaps ruined by the dark matter she says under Stanton’s romantic and
business wing. As the film goes on however we find ourselves in darker and more
psychologically complex arenas of the era and come up against figures such as
Richard Jenkins, a possibly nefarious man who Stanton cons for great sums of
money even in the face of possible peril. Cate Blanchett also makes her
entrance around this period in the film and although some may see her ultimate
motivations as slightly underdeveloped, her manically composed and yet deeply
devious turn in this film is more than justified I feel by Blanchett’s bravura
turn and by the manner in which Del Toro composes the tone of the film during
her sequences and during the film entire. After-all if Del Toro is one thing
above the rest, he is a master of tone - often bizarre and multilayered genre
combining and genre bending tones.
A horridly dark and wildly thrilling 9/10 epic. Del Toro is a director where the surface is simple enough to praise, despite its incredible fantastical complexities and juxtaposing beauties and perceived freakish ugliness’s. However one of Del Toro’s further strengths is garnering incredibly specific and often excellent performances from his cast, and weaving these performances through complex and often riveting tales filled with twists and turns. Alley is all these things and more. A dark epic in scale and the journey it takes the astounding Bradley Cooper upon. A thrilling marvel that really does bring to mind the oft spoken comment; “they really don’t make them like this anymore”.
P.S. I’ve said it before and I will say it again. Having great well-known actors in small roles is never distracting in a good film. Liquorice Pizza and Alley are two sublime examples (Don’t Look Up is a whole other matter). It is only distracting when these actors are either given nothing to do or don’t befit the world. Del Toro here fills his film with stars, yes, but stars with incredible acting talent and a clear penchant for character acting (one of those stupid inane terms that means nothing when you actually think about it). I know as a struggling actor that I should be longing for directors who cast unknowns in all these small roles, but as a film fan and a true fan of the star actor, I love nothing more than a star-studded ensemble. However only if as already stated the stars are all used for purpose. Alley has purpose aplenty and in abundance.
- Thomas Carruthers
0 Comments