1939. Having given up his old life, Stan Carlyle makes his way wherever he can and joins a traveling circus. There he begins to learn all sorts of ways to entertain and fool his audience, especially mind-reading, using the method of a formerly popular entertainer. Soon Stan decides to perform a similar act himself.

4k movies reviews
Observation, observation, observation and observation again! It is this that does amazing things. You look into a person and read him like an open book. Sherlock Holmes, I remember, used to present such things to Dr. Watson regularly. From the first time he met him. It’s all about ability. Our abilities.

Two and a half hours of Guillermo del Toro keeps the audience’s attention on an organic crime drama with thriller elements. Two and a half hours in a timeline that can both frighten and scare away. Will you sit through it? Won’t you tire yourself out? Can you handle it? There will be no disappointments. Definitely. The story told from the screen has a solid script, the characters are endowed with characters and memorable faces, the acting is of the highest standard. The film, like a river, flows and flows from a small to a full-flowing whirlpool. And the subject matter, in general, is quite intriguing, mesmerizing. Backstage fakirs. Backstage magicians. The truth, as it were. The pink glasses of confidence the director removes from all of us here overnight. We are in the kitchen of the Magicians. We are in the kitchen of Wizards.

A dodger like no other, a clever trickster, not without ability, paving the way to personal glory. From the ground up. From the bottom. But, as they say, ‘it’s not the point that usually kills, but by eleven an ace…’. There must always be a sense of proportion. Otherwise it’s too much.

Who was the Bulgarian soothsayer Vanga? Psychic or… a charlatan? Ask the general public for an answer, and opinions are diametrically opposed. Well, of course… Exactly! Yes, yes, she is… A miracle? A phenomenon? Unicum? Do you doubt it? But it’s obvious! Obvious as two times two. Okay, let’s leave the national heritage of the state alone. The economy as a poker in the furnace wiped the mass flow of tourists … After all, everyone is entitled to his own ‘delusion’ point!

And Wolf Messing is not one of this cohort? The tales of his personality are countless. And to Stalin in the Kremlin through security checkpoints like a knife in butter, and the State Bank with a blank piece of paper for a ‘million’ easily … And also suggestions, guessing thoughts, tricks and so on and so forth. No score. No boundaries. No limits to what I can and can’t do. Almost, no limits…

What’s the point? What’s this about? Vanga? Messing? Here, now? Them? No. Of course not. All told, it’s on the subject of the current painting, ‘Nightmare Alley. One should never trust one’s own deductions, relying on the visible. When it comes to ‘delicate matters’ it’s more likely that you’re being cleverly manipulated. That’s all. And all the greatest magicians, be they Igor Kio or David Copperfield, Harry Houdini or Amayak Akopian, are magicians, illusionists, extraordinary masters of trick effects. But they are not hiding it.

Circus Shapito, or better said, Amusement Park, toured provincial America. The early forties of the last century are on the screen. Surprising the public, shocking the public, shocking the public’s imagination. They make some money, and then, like gypsies, they hit the road. They’re always wandering. Always drifting from place to place. Stan Carlyle (Bradley Cooper) accidentally sticks to the ‘booth. And stays. And settles in little by little. Looking around, learning this and that. From sixes to aces he makes his way. Feelings, love fuel the lyricism of the male-female relationship in this strip. The self-interest, guile, and cunning sprout the characters of Willem Defoe, Cate Blanchett. From poverty to riches the path before us. A dream in incarnation. But flirting with the beyond has never done anyone any good. To get carried away is to lose one’s sense of reality.

The harmonious orchestra of actors’ instruments does not allow you to single out anyone in particular. Everyone is good. And the lead voices and even the backstage. You can feel it, you can feel the hand, the master’s head, attached to the picture. The dialogues are not empty, they are full of voices. The trill of one hundred and fifty minutes is a stuck composition. One returns to it with his thoughts again and again. Psychics – no good…

It is a nice, entertaining movie. And there’s even a moral at the end.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (46.4 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Audio
English: Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles
English SDH, French, Spanish.