Tag: Carnival

NIGHTMARE ALLEY (2021) – Review

Step right up, folks. Even though the temps are dipping (in most states), the fine folks in “Tinsel-Town’ want you to take in the wonders of a traveling carnival. Oh, you’ll also have to take a long trip back in the past, when these operations drew in the rubes…er..crowds. Say around 85 years or so ago. So besides the usual oddities of nature and games of chance, there’s plenty of duplicities, fraud, and even a murder or two. And just who’s running this group of startling attractions? Why it’s none other than an Oscar-winning director. He’ll be making sure you get your ticket for a stroll down NIGHTMARE ALLEY. If you dare….

But first, we’re introduced to the story’s protagonist (I almost said “hero”). Stanton “Stan” Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) is “hoofing it” on the rural backroads of 1930’s Depression-era America. He stumbles upon a traveling carnival trying to pack up the tents before a big storm hits. The show’s ” big boss” Clem (Willam Dafoe) promises Stan a “hot meal’ if he’ll join the “rousters”. Later the duo teams up to track down and capture the escaped “geek”, an animal-like drunkard who bites the heads off of live chickens to earn a bottle of “hooch”. An impressed Clem decides to “take on” Stan. But he needs to get the “road grime” washed off. Luckily the next “set-up” is nearby the cabin of boozy Pete (David Strathairn) and his wife Zeena (Toni Collette) who offer their bathtub for a “dime a dip”. As Pete “sleeps one off”, Zeena makes sure that Stan is “thoroughly clean” (if ya get my drift). As he becomes a frequent houseguest, Stan learns that the couple once had a phony “psychic’ act, one that involves Zeena using “code words” to get the proper response from Pete. The ambitious Stan decides that he’ll help them “revive” the bit after ‘selling” it to Clem. But that’s not the end of Stan’s interests. He starts pursuing the lovely young Molly (Rooney Mara) who pretends to take on thousands of volts as the “Electric Girl”. Deciding the carnival’s not big enough, Stan swipes the prized psychic act “codebook” and takes the “grift” on the road with Molly as his aide. Eventually they’re the big deal at nightclubs, with Stan looking suave in spats and tails. So sharp that he attracts the attention of the psychiatrist to the “swells”, Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett). She knows he’s a “phony”, but still enlists him to “con” several of her wealthy “patients”. After he hooks a grieving couple, the duo set out to “hook a whale”, ultra-rich Ezra Grindle (Richard Jenkins). But Lilith warns him that this fish “bites back”. Can the former “carny'” bamboozle him? Or, is it possible that Stan can actually contact ‘the great beyond”?

Whew, talk about an “all-star” cast, as they’d tout in Hollywood’s “heyday”. Ah, but first and foremost, driving the tale is Cooper as the man with a dark past whose morality careens towards utter blackness rather than the light. And all in pursuit of the almighty “buck”. We see him almost literally stumbling along until the carnival gives him purpose. He becomes more confident, as Cooper clears up his “Oakie” mumblings in order to sell his new “skills”. He has a shot at redemption with the somewhat innocent Molly, but she’s just another way to get to the top. No amount of fancy tuxedos can hide his devious ambitious nature. But he almost meets his match in Blanchett’s Lilith, a classic film femme fatale, wrapped up in a scholarly guise. Her silky seductive line delivery spins a tempting web of high-style heresy. And she knows she can make Stan jump for her “bait”. Mara, as Molly, seems to be the only character capable of escaping “the life”, as her misplaced love for the smooth-talking Stan pushes her into repugnant duplicity. Mara shows us how that light in Molly’s eye slowly dims as they go for the “brass ring”. Zeena, played by a sultry Collette, has given up on that ring until the hunky young Stan flashes his eager smile making her take down her “guard”. Jenkins gives the “mark” Ezra an interesting duality. Grief has him obsessively clinging to a chance to correct his past, but his seething cruelty overrides any empathetic feeling toward the lonely tycoon. Dafoe is full of energetic bluster as the blowhard barker, scoring with a terrific monologue on how to “groom a geek”. Strathairn makes Pete a sad confused sotted cuckold, while Ron Perlman is an intimidating physical menace as the over-protective (of Molly) sideshow strongman.

Just for fun here’s the poster for the first version of the story…

Oh, the Oscar winner “pulling the strings” behind the camera is the modern master of movie macabre, Guillermo del Toro, in a quite different follow-up to that “swoony” fantasy love story/monster fable THE SHAPE OF WATER. There’s little romance in this stylized “fever-dream” full of lust and avarice. Ah, but what style is to be savored. The story’s almost slashed in half, with the opening carnival sequence showing the “low”, sleazy squalor, while the second half bathes in rich colors and textures as the actions shift to “high” gear in plush offices (Lillth’s “den of debauchery”), the flashy nightclubs, and the fortress-like mansion of Ezra, all accented by the swirling soundtrack by Nathan Johnson. And if the story sounds a touch familiar, then you’ve been a fan of the old “late, late film shows”, or more recently TCM or the Fox Movie Channel. While there’s an excellent black and white film from 1947 (worth seeking), del Toro insists that this isn’t a “remake”, but rather a different take on the celebrated novel by William Lindsay Gresham. (this version ends more honestly than the censors then would allow) The screenplay shifts the actions from the 1920s to the still economically desperate mid-1930s (rumbling of unrest in Germany), and del Toro (who co-wrote it with Kim Morgan) really plunges into the twisted nature of the main characters. All the while, exploring the fascinations of “seedy show biz”, especially in the traveling carnival. The attractions lure in the “rubes’ with promises of sex and, oddly, death (the Electric Girl could be “fried to a crisp’, but. wow, she’s almost in her “undies”). Though the pace bogs down a bit in the third act, the expert art direction, incredible costumes, and the superb cast makes this a truly wild, and wonderful, walk on the “wild side” via a jaunt through NIGHTMARE ALLEY. Now, move along folks…the exit is right this way…


3 Out of 4


NIGHTMARE ALLEY is now playing everywhere including the Hi-Pointe Theatre in St. Louis, MO

BOUND BY FLESH – The Review

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Where once it was the centerpiece of mainstream entertainment in the Midwest, nowadays the circus sideshow is gradually returning to the public eye as a subcultural curiosity after years of negative publicity and a rise in television, films and digital media. A major contributing factor of this growing subculture is the desire by some to acknowledge and promote an awareness and understanding of this nearly forgotten and often misunderstood part of our American history.

Writer and director Leslie Zemeckis‘s BOUND BY FLESH is a film that takes great price in doing its part in resurrecting the titillating and often taboo facts and folklore of the freak show. This documentary focuses on the lives of two fascinating girls, Daisy and Violet Hilton, also known as The Hilton Sisters. On the surface, and as always primarily publicized, Daisy and Violet had one overwhelming unusual trait… they are Siamese twins, conjoined by a ribbon of flesh on their backsides, so to speak.

Born to a mother with mental and emotional issues, to put it kindly, the Hilton sisters were essentially sold into the circus at a very young age. Throughout a life of emotional abuse, neglect and social isolation outside of when they performed, the Hilton sisters would become cash cows for their guardians/parents while having little to no exposure and freedom to the public or outside world on their own behalf. At this point, you may be asking why such a film would ever be enjoyable to watch, but wait… there’s more.

BOUND BY FLESH doesn’t just tell the Hilton sisters’ story, it tells the whole story. We learn about those closest to them, both good and bad, those they loved and the many struggles they went through. Despite all of this, the Hilton sisters maintained a mostly positive, forward-thinking and optimistic attitude toward life. Have you ever heard of such an uplifting, inspiring story of someone being given lemons and making lemon vinegar? I know. I may have lost you there. Let me explain.

With all the crap the Hilton sisters endured, with all the greed and cruelty that surrounded them, even with their charmingly — if not naive — innocence and resilience, in the end I cannot promise that everything works out in their favor. Its an unfortunate fact of life, but one that must be represented. That’s the world we live in and that’s an important element to what makes this such an engaging film.

Zemeckis does not bombard the viewer with flashy graphics or intense imagery. She doesn’t get experimental with form, but remains true to the classically functional style of non-fiction storytelling. Much in the same way so many of Ken Burns’ timeless documentaries have captured a segment of our American cultural past, BOUND BY FLESH takes two characters from that larger book and utilizes their stories to depict a much larger picture. Where many reality TV attempts have been made to revitalize the genre of the weird and bizarre, Zemeckis manages to embrace the strange while highlighting the humanity. This is not an easy thing to accomplish.

BOUND BY FLESH succeeds by combining a plethora of research, candid but revelatory interviews with past promoters, historians and a few people who were close to the sisters, some amazing photographs and even some old sound bites into one cohesive 90-minute motion picture exhibit of museum quality. From beginning to end, I found myself thoroughly mesmerized, not in that rubber-necking look at the crazy stuff way, but in a mindset of amazement. I found myself utterly shocked at the way these two girls were treated, even into their womanhood, yet awestruck by their willingness to endure and their drive to learn and grow and expand their talents and their art as performers.

BOUND BY FLESH opens in select theaters on June 27th, 2014.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

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S.L.I.F.F. Review: ‘Carny’

Travis:

‘Carny’ is a documentary that plays more like a gritty drama of relationships you might find in a David Lynch film. The film follows a group of carnival workers (“carnies”) as they live their lives on the road running the traveling carnivals with the rides and the games and the cotton candy. The characters are fascinating, but then you realize these are real people and the film becomes that much more interesting. For anyone who thought the carnival was dead, think again. Those that call themselves carnies are not only devoted to their work, but most of them love what they do and can’t imagine doing anything else. Others do it because they have to, but the individuals that writer-director Alison Murray focuses on have a strange desire for this work, despite the long hours and low pay.

The film is told primarily through the eyes and experience of Hairy, a young lesbian who truly loves working with the carnival. She’s a terribly sweet person who sells cotton candy, but she sees her fellow carnies as her true family, experiencing love and friendship like she does nowhere else. Carnivals are typically a seasonal gig, so when it comes time to pack up and go “home” for the winter it breaks Hairy’s heart. She had a terrible childhood and her hometown is no home to her. She feels like an outcast in her hometown. She’s different and that’s not accepted where she’s from. This is why she yearns to return to her true home with the carnival because everyone’s different there, so everyone’s the same and she feels accepted and she is.

I could talk about the audio/video quality of the film which isn’t the most impressive at times, but who cares? This is a documentary and we shouldn’t expect the same high-quality audio-video production. Truly, this “style” of shooting does in deed add an element of realism and spontaneity to the film that helps to emphasize what it’s like to live this lifestyle. During the film, we meet others and learn about their lives, including Bozo, a man whose spent twenty years as a cut-down comic clown in a dunking booth. We also meet a man who builds rides for the carnival and has two girlfriends as they attempt to carry out a threesome relationship, dealing with all the obstacles and drama that involves. We are introduced to a man whose been a carny for over 55 years, a young group of “freaks” who perform a variety show and a man that runs gaming booths, from whom we learn a lot about the business. All things considered, ‘Carny’ is one of the more interesting and original documentaries I’ve seen in a while, despite it ages old subject matter.

[Overall: 3.75 stars out of 5]