1. Nightmare Alley
It’s the late 1930s, and the America depicted here is still lost in the purgatory of the Great Depression. Director Guillermo del Toro has described it as “a straight, really dark story”, but it grips like a sinister, spectral visitation.
Based on William Lindsay Gresham’s novel (previously filmed in 1947 with Tyrone Power), it’s the story of Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper), whose journey starts with his miserably paid job at a travelling carnival.
It could have used a trim here and there. But once you get sucked into the narrative, it’s a wild ride – like a ghost train screeching through a graveyard of lost souls. The design and colour palette are intoxicating, while Cooper’s portrayal of Stan is surely his most powerful work to date.
The other nine:
2. Belfast
3. The Banshees of Inisherin
4. Munich: The Edge of War
5. Hive
6. The Duke
7. Here Before
8. Downton Abbey: A New Era
9. All Quiet on the Western Front
10. The Gray Man