Nightmare Alley and the best modern film noirs

Guillermo del Toro’s seductive remake of the gritty cult classic hits a genre sweet spot alongside LA Confidential, The Postman Always Rings Twice and moreOur most enduring images and memories of film noir tend to be rooted in the 1940s and 1950s: say the words and monochromatic visions of fedoras, slinky satin gowns and unrestricted billows of cigarette smoke inevitably come to mind.

That makes it a difficult genre to tackle in the present day, even if its themes and social corners are hardly era-specific.

Lean too hard into the period styling and it feels like empty cosplay; update it too much and the shadowy romance dissipates.Guillermo del Toro’s snaky, seductive remake of Nightmare Alley (now on all major VOD platforms) gets the balance just about right, even if its early-40s production and costume design is sumptuous in a way that Edmund Goulding’s 1947 original,

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