The movement of a film like "Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts" depends on context for the story and how it reflects in the lexicon. This entry does a smart move at its inset, setting up what is to come and the basis of the story before the audience ever gets to the main characters.

Guillermo De Toro has always worked in the macabre but normally always works within the context of folklore. With "Nightmare Alley", his context is a little different. Granted this is a remake in most ways of the Tyrone Powers film from the 40s but it does take on some resonance today. It is more a character piece on the corruption of power from a perspective that is both Darwinian but also Machiavellian in way.