Its been 10 days with no cinema, i know whats happened, but im back & its time to hide behind my scarf & watch Nightmare Alley. You know i dont really do horror or grim stuff, so this is a big step, but with this cast im in safe hands arent i.

So for 2 years no ones asked to see my unlimited card & the last 2 trips ive been someone’s asked to see it. The hell, really. Why the sudden change in policy? I mean i had my hands full & i looked the guy & went if you hold my phone & my vegan drink which is burning my hand so will definitely burn yours i can rummage for it & then the guy who i usually see with the tickets walked past & went nah shes fine she can go in that was good. I mean its random that suddenly were asking for them.

age range of the cinema was from 15 (because the group behind me he actually asked how old there son was & they said he was 16) to late 70s (yea an old couple came & sat in my row with their popcorn about 1 minute into the film & moaned that they were late, i whispered to them that theyd missed the logos & cooper dragging a body into the fire they can now see & they said thank you.

Trailers Cyrano (BEN! & everyone but mainly Ben in period costume {weve had secret invasion content this week im very happy}) Moonfall (my unlimited screening is booked up) Jackass (which as a teen who grew up with it looked funny but im not going to go to the cinema to see it {i think}) & the new Guy Ritchie movie which i wasnt sold on until i saw that Hugh Grant was back in his films & now im like yep im in take me too it, its bloody months away, hurray up April.

& then the film started… & is it odd to say that a weird mystical noir freaky film that i wanted it to be weirder & more freaky, because i did. I felt a little short changed if im honest. & you know im not the kind of person who likes that, but yea i needed more of it.

So you spend the majority of the first hour of this film meeting these really interesting people at the carnival & looking at their lives & whats going on & really investing in them & the story’s…. & then only 3 of them other than the main 2 ever pop back into the film again & then its only for like 2 minutes in another hour 30…. Im sorry i cared more about them in the first part of the film than i did the people in the second except Cate (we will get to that) but i wasted so much time on stuff that turns out i didnt actually need. I mean the two halves to go well, but we could cut some of the first hour & some of the doddering in the second part about & we could save at least 20mins of run time. It felt like a very long film.

Its a Del Toro, i wanted it to be more graphic & more out there & really dark & twisted, but it wasnt. He went for style over substance at times, & okay that Noir style was very cool & there was some lovely cinematography at time & epic editing to certain bits to put you on edge, but it wasnt this mysterious thriller i had been promised.

Dafoe was so compelling. Every time he started talking to a character or just monologuing you just thought, oooooh yeah this is good hes working it. Also he was busy spouting exposition you needed in a clever way. I mean one of his monologues i did work out what would then happen in the last part of the film which i got right when he was telling that story, but he was good.

We had lots of questions answered far to late in the film after they were asked, that we no longer cared about, so when it was said why something had happened earlier it was like hang on what were we doing there. You forgot to car about bits, & not in a good way as the stuff that had happened in-between was more filler. & then some of my important questions still went unanswered.

Cate Blanchett was epic as always. Although the in thing with dodgy therapists at the moment isnt good or doing them aby favours in cinema. Seriously if someone wants to talk to you on a couch at the moment in a movie, run the fuck away from them. She was still very cool & stylish & so clever & her character was the most interesting to see where she would take it.

Cooper is always charming isnt he, even if hes playing someone extremely unlikeable. I mean the tash he gets half way through is very creepy, but i understand its of the time. & who wouldnt want to have a bath with him seriously?

& then the end tried to round it all off & do all the Del Toro things the film hadnt done yet into the last 20minutes. you had 2h10 before that to get some of this in, why not give us glimpses through out?

I did enjoy it, but i wanted to be more shocked than i was by it. For all its style & cinematography & monologues, it lacked that oh my god factor about a Del Toro film that they have, i mean even the shape of water had more oh really moments (& thats me saying a lot as i didnt enjoy that film). IT was stylishness over substance & story. IT was still a good watch but its not at all what i was expecting to see.