Full Moon that has a Nightmare Alley look – Photo: L. Weikel

Nightmare Alley

We watched another movie nominated for Best Picture tonight: Nightmare Alley. There are at least six very well known actors in the film, Bradley Cooper being the male lead and both Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett playing significant female roles. I assumed it had been nominated for something concerning them, such as Best Actor, Actress or Best Supporting Actress or Actor. Not once did I realize it was nominated for Best Picture – nor did I think it deserved it after watching it.

Holy cow was it a long movie – over two and a half hours! It definitely was not worth sitting in one place for that long. I was grateful, therefore, that we watched it at home, on HBO. Or maybe we watched it on Hulu. I can’t remember. It’s available on both of those streaming services. It was both a blessing and a curse to have the clicker handy for puppy bathroom breaks. When we would hit the pause button, Karl and were shocked – at least three times – to see just how much run-time was left on the film. (That’s never a good sign.)

And that’s not to say that I object to long movies. Quite the contrary, if they’re so engrossing I don’t even realize the passage of time. Dune, also up for Best Picture, was almost exactly as long – but in that movie I felt the length encouraged an immersion in its story.

No Surprises

I guess I was disappointed with the writing. The story line in Nightmare Alley was formulaic and flirted with being cliché. Even the plot twists (such as they were) seemed to be broadcast miles ahead and were sadly predictable.

I feel like a curmudgeon, griping about the length of a movie, or the formulaic storytelling. Between Nightmare Alley and The Power of the Dog, I sound pretentious and cranky even to my own ears.

I guess I’m offering my observations just in case any of you have a limited tolerance for watching movies and could use a filter.

How to Compare?

The only movies nominated for Best Picture that we have left to watch are Belfast, Licorice Pizza, West Side Story, and Drive My Car. And of those, it looks like the only one we have left to watch at home is Belfast – and even that will cost $19.99. The last three we’d have to go to a theater to see, and none of them have enough allure to lure me there at this stage of the game.

For the life of me, I don’t know how the Academy of Arts and Sciences can pit ten such vastly different movies against each other for Best Picture. So far, I think my favorites (of the nominees) have been Dune and King Richard. And just in sheer scope of losing myself in a film, I’d have to choose Dune. For now. But I’m open to being persuaded by the remaining contenders I’ve yet to watch.

Sincerely, your very neither Siskel nor Ebert.

(T+71)