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As a genre, the Noir film is taken out of storage every few years by an auteur director who wants to make their mark on the long dormant genre. In the 1940s and 1950s, the cinematic landscape was dominated with Noir films because they were cheap to make so almost immediately after the release of the book Nightmare Alley in 1946, 20th Century Fox immediately optioned the book and released a theatrical version in 1947. At the time, the movie was incredibly expensive (for a frame of reference, the film rights to the book alone cost about a tenth of the production budget) and a box office flop because it was considered too dark by audiences and critics.
The modern era is more accepting of narratives where the protagonist is less morally grey and more just straight up not a good person. Stan Carlisle, as portrayed by Bradley Cooper, is unrepentant in his actions. His rise and fall fueled by a drive for fortune is as relevant today as it was over 70 years ago. Unlike other protagonists who are portrayed as more malicious, there is no silver lining to Stan. There is no moment of understanding where the audience is given a look into his backstory so they can see why he is the way that he is, there is no moment where he is put into a situation where he is forced to make a bad decision and just continues down that road. He is just a bad person, interacting with other bad people, making bad decisions compounded on bad decisions. By the time the audience reaches the end and Stan receives his final judgement so to speak, what happens to him is warranted, fair and poetic.
The whole cast in the ensemble puts on a great performance. Of note, Cate Blanchett nails the role of Dr. Lilith Ritter, a particularly important role since she acts as a foil to Bradley Cooper’s Stan. Rooney Mara, Willem DaFoe, and Toni Collette all also have small but important roles that are integral to Stan’s arc that complement him well. That’s not to say that their jobs are just to make Stan’s role clearer but as the movie is about Stan almost singularly, the rest of the cast are there as scaffolding to move his story along.
Guillermo del Toro does an excellent job directing this film, managing to bring real drama and palpable tension to even the most mundane of scenes. The story is not action heavy, so the drama needs to be built from framing and editing scenes to elicit an emotional response from the viewer. The fact that even scenes where a character goes through therapy can bring a level of anxiety to them is a testament to his ability as a filmmaker.
Do not be fooled by the marketing, this is not a horror movie. It is unclear as to why it is being pitched to audiences in this way considering a straight crime film with this cast would have been just as successful at the box office opening against Spider-Man: No Way Home and a week before The Matrix Resurrections. It seems misleading and may leave audiences with a weird taste in their mouth, akin to picking up a cup that one would expect to have water but instead has apple juice. It’s not a bad thing, just not what was expected when it was consumed. That said, this film should be seen in theaters if one can fit it into their packed theatrical schedule at the end of 2021.
Final Rating: 9.5/10
