Why Nightmare Alley deserves to win Best Picture
The 2022 Oscars ceremony is coming up on March 27, and 10 new movies are up for the Best Picture title: Belfast, CODA, Don’t Look Up, Drive My Car, Dune, King Richard, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, The Power of the Dog, and West Side Story. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and any of them might end up winning big. In the leadup to the Oscars, we’re making a case for why each of them might deserve to take the big prize. Next up: Nightmare Alley.
Nightmare Alley, directed by Guillermo del Toro, based on William Lindsay Gresham’s hit 1946 novel.
Much like its 2022 Oscars peer West Side Story, Nightmare Alley is the second filmed adaptation of a classic work. Like the original book, and the 1947 film starring Tyrone Power that adapted it first, Nightmare Alley follows Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper), a drifter and con man who works his way up the ranks in a carnival before striking out on a grift of his own, a mentalism act that plays to a wealthier crowd. When goaded into a battle of wits with enigmatic psychologist Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), Stanton begins to aim bigger, convincing his marks that he can help them reconnect with dead loved ones. In his hubris, Stanton constructs a downfall that’s just as dramatic as his ascent.
Director Guillermo del Toro is one of the more unlikely awards favorites to emerge over the past decade or so. A gifted fabulist who crafts dark fairy tales for adults, del Toro has come to specialize in allegorical creature features like Pan’s Labyrinth, a highly specific personal subgenre that was rewarded with a surprise 2017 Best Picture win for The Shape of Water. While Nightmare Alley is a departure from the monster movies he built his name on, it’s still a del Toro film
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