LouHomey
From my favorite movies..
Cleveronix
A different way of telling a story
ChanFamous
I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.
MartinHafer
This is a film that I guarantee that the average person would not enjoy. It's a time capsule of sort from a very, very different time. Back in 1970, I am pretty sure many people liked this movie and thought it was brilliant and insightful. When seen in a different time, it just seems indulgent, unstructured and, at times, silly and pretentious. I think if I had been born a bit earlier, I might have enjoyed the film. As is, watching it was a real chore.When the film begins, the new film director (Donal Sutherland) is taking a bath with his daughter and talking a lot of philosophical nonsense. Now with today's sensibilities, such a scene might be misinterpreted as pedophilia--but this was not at all the intention. Do NOT read too much into this--it was just a freer style of parenting that was in vogue at that time. Now what I DID take offense at was soon after when Sutherland is talking with his friend--his friend who is about 30 and brags about sleeping with 16 year-olds! Now that IS creepy (not to mention probably illegal)! The film is structured a lot like Federico Fellini's film "8 1/2"--but with a few American twists. The structure, the surreal moments and style is very, very reminiscent of this Italian film...but only superficially. The quality of "Alex in Wonderland" is not nearly as good as Fellini's film. As a result, it seems like a second-rate knockoff...and one that frequently does not work--although, ironically, Fellini himself makes a cameo in this movie. Most of the surrealistic scenes simply fall flat (as did the 'deeply philosophical' ones)--though I DID like the one with the French actress, Jeanne Moreau. You just have to see it to believe it! And, the scene with the idiotic studio exec wasn't bad. But as for the rest--the Vietnam War breaking out around the car, the nude black beach scene and the rest just seemed self-indulgent and fell flat.If "8 1/2" never had been made, I might have enjoyed this film more. That, and if I used LSD!
Paul Weissman
It is so blatantly obvious that Mazursky is gently parodying the self righteousness of the hippie movement. When discussing the black uprising movie, it's the black dude who tells him it's a rotten idea. In a more stern observation, his wife is clearly upset and his family life is clearly hitting the skids and he goes on about an acid trip he and his friend took. His wife makes the incredibly accurate observation that he wants her to do what he wants her to do not what she wants to do.Look I fly a little to the left of the left wing but to blather on about Hollywood being left wing when they want nothing more than to do movies where "things blow up real good" is kind of ridiculous.The movie is good. It's not great. But it is a keen and well observed characterization of a creative man who is trying to keep his personal and creative life together and vibrant but falls prey to his own self doubts.
fedor8
As was to be expected, A Mazursky film made in the 70s would be counter-culture, sympathetic towards the hippies - and have a lot of hippies in it - and, naturally, it is childishly anti-authoritarian (e.g. the scene on the Mexican border, when Sutherland provokes a custom's officer by showing little respect and then accuses the latter of making him open his luggage only because he (Sutherland) has long hair). The constant left-wing dribble could have gotten on my nerves had I not been prepared for it beforehand; Sutherland muses aloud to his family and friends about potential movie ideas for his next film, and most of these ideas are either about blacks or Indians (needless to say, he would be welcomed with open arms in today's Hollywood). One of his movie ideas is about a black uprising in Beverly Hills - a race-war, so-to-speak, in the middle of L.A.. This is the kind of nonsense that Mazursky thinks about when writing scripts for his movies. Fortunately, some of Sutherland's hippie friends make fun of this black-revolution premise, and the resulting dialogue isn't bad; a little later, the Jewish guy makes a crack about Sutherland making a movie about "masturbation and the black problem", when the latter starts talking about masturbation. Another funny moment is when Sutherland's older daughter performs some PC crap on stage with her white school-mates, and they all say: "We, the black people of the Republic of South Africa...".There is always a certain amount of self-indulgence when Hollywood makes a movie about Hollywood - especially when it's Hollywood making a movie about Hollywood discussing Hollywood doing movies. Now, that's very, very self-indulgent, indeed. The scene with Fellini (playing himself) is more amusing than annoying, though. Mazursky throws in the standard flower-children and anti-Vietnam bullshit into the soup, and also pokes fun at corporate Hollywood, but he was/is just as much a part of the "phony Hollywood" (lyrics from that song in the surreal war segment) as anyone else; I am pretty sure that he, too, makes phony small-talk in Beverly Hills parties and grins fakely while shaking the hands of people whom he either doesn't know or like, but whose money he wants badly for his next (left-wing) project. As for his hair: he has the worst hair I've seen in a very long time (on film or elsewhere); it's sort of like the kind of long hair that a middle-aged accountant would have if he grew it long. The film remains relatively interesting in spite of its aimlessness, but it bogs down somewhat into tedium in the last third. If you'd like to read my parody/biography of Donald Sutherland (and other Hollywood actors), contact me by e-mail.
KGB-Greece-Patras
This is definately not for everybody. I found this really interesting and since I started combining forces of cable TV with IMDB I discover really nice films. After all THERE ARE nice, different & interesting american films, even in the seventies!Anyway, this movie is not for people who like one-dimentional films. This is both serious and funny, both tragic and amusing. Even if its not too slow, it won't appeal to those who like it fast. Basicly it's about an intelligent director who is starting to lose it a bit. This is depicted in a most realistic way. I dont know what it has in common with Fellini's 8-IN-1, as I havent seen it. Anyway ALEX IN WONDERLAND implies a straight effect of 8-IN-1 on it.The dialog is the strongest about this one and people on stupid action films or those who dont like a dialog based flick wont find anything in this one.
