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NIGHTMARE ALLEY MOVIE REVIEW
Guillermo del Toro finally got to mark something off his longtime wishlist, doing a new adaptation of the classic pitch black film noir from the 40s, “Nightmare Alley”. And we don’t know if it was him working with lead star Bradley Cooper, a great director in his own right, that created such deliberate and appropriate restraint (compared to most del Toro films), but we all concluded they should definitely work together again. The story follows Cooper as Stan, a grifter who gets on the carny circuit, but meets a young dame (Rooney Mara), steals an act, and whisks her away to pursue fame and fortune in the big city with their impressive grift. And if the guy could just stay happy with how good he has it, but no. There’s another dangerous dame (Cate Blanchett), a bigger grift, and his own inadequacies to deal with. Chris, Frank, Marco, and Beau pretty much are the carnival barkers for this one so listen to them tell you to hurry, hurry, step right up and see the wonders hidden within…
DIRECTED BY: Guillermo del Toro
STARRING: Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen, David Strathairn, Holt McCallany, Clifton Collins Jr., Tim Blake Nelson, Jim Beaver, Mark Povinelli, Romina Power, Paul Anderson, David Hewlett
YOUR REVIEWERS
Christopher Lawrence Cox (Founder, Da Boss)
Born in the wilds of northern Virginia, Chris managed to put all of his survival skills to use and barely escaped with his life to Austin Texas in 1992 where ever since he’s dabbled in everything from plumber’s assistant to sandwich maker, from band to bar management. An opportunity to see theatrical release films for free by becoming a critic on a local public access show called “The Reel Deal” turned into a full-time job when Chris and his friends decided to take it to the internet. They built the site Spill.com, adding multiple podcasts and animated features, to no small amount of success. During this time, a fortuitous friendship sprung up between Chris and young Brian Salisbury, who was also a local film critic, and they merged their forces of will, and their laundry list of ideas for shows, to eventually build this community of critics. While Brian eventually followed his heart to a new family, Chris continues on with a cast of colorful folks from all over the country (and a few others). You can also check out Chris in his videocast, along with Martin Thomas and Danni Danger, that One Of Us does with our friends at Bell of Lost Souls: Crossover Event. He also regularly guests on the video game website Rage Select. Follow Chris on Twitter and Facebook and check out his Amazon Wish List.
Frank Calvillo (Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad)
Born and raised in South Texas, Frank currently lives in Austin and has been in love with movies ever since his father showed him some Three Stooges shorts when he was five years old. Today he loves all kinds of film, regardless of era, country, budget or genre. He believes every film has an audience and is at least one person’s favorite movie. After writing for Sight & Sound and Slackerwood, he now writes for Cinapse where his increasingly random taste in all flavors of cinema (from Rashomon to Mars Attacks!) continues to thrive. His ultimate goal is to write a script for his boyhood crush, Michelle Pfeiffer.
Marco Noyola (Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad, Audio Editor)
By day, Marco is a mild-mannered office worker, but by night he is a mild-mannered movie watcher. He does other mild-mannered stuff too.
“You don’t need to follow me. You don’t need to follow anybody!”
Beau Paul (Highly Suspect Reviews, The Original Gentlemen, Screener Squad)
Beau Paul is an Austin native, an actor, and a writer. Sometimes all at once! Previously he has attempted to be an internet entertainer (the funny ha-ha kind, not the naked moneymaking kind) at Spill.com, and now here on OneOfUs.net. You can read his pithy witticisms and the retweeted material of funnier, cleverer people on Twitter or Facebook, and can buy him stuff on Amazon.
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I have one question to ask before I preorder my tickets to this movie. Has Del Toro conquered his weird western movie problem with writing characters with weak, barely established motivations? Because that’s kind of essential for a film noir.
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