11 Huge Screw-Ups From The 94th Oscar Film Nominations
3. Nightmare Alley's Best Picture Nomination
The two most surprising Best Picture nods were Drive My Car and Nightmare Alley, which were two films few were expecting to see nominated. Drive My Car was a wonderful surprise... Nightmare Alley not so much.
The nominations the movie received for costumes, production design and cinematography were totally earned, since this movie is very well put-together in those fields, but Best Picture? Seriously?
Nightmare Alley is a good movie. Although Bradley Cooper is surprisingly weak the ensemble cast is otherwise terrific, while Del Toro's typically excellent direction and an awesome final act make this an overall satisfying work, but at the same time Nightmare Alley is overlong, emotionally distant and convoluted.
It's also not really the sort of film you'd want to see from Del Toro. He's well-known for his vibrantly imaginative movies, but Nightmare Alley is disappointingly conventional in comparison to most of his other works.
As such, to imply that it's among the top ten films of the year is pretty ridiculous, especially since there are so many other movies people loved far more from this past year.