Alex in Wonderland

R

Released Dec 17, 1970

1h 49m

Comedy

Drama

List

Reviews

31%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

A hot-shot director (Donald Sutherland) desperately seeks inspiration amid Hollywood vulgarity.

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dave s

Clearly inspired by Federico Fellini's 8 ½, Paul Mazursky's Alex in Wonderland is an ambitious but deeply flawed movie about artistic ambition. Having completed his first feature film, Alex Morrison (Donald Sutherland) is desperate to find material as a follow-up to the anticipated success of his debut. While the idea isn't anything new, the movie works to a certain degree thanks to the performance of Sutherland who, early in his career, proves that he has some acting chops. Unfortunately, the sound in the movie is atrocious as some of the exterior dialogue is difficult to follow thanks to traffic noise and other factors and many of the interior shots are equally problematic due to echoing in the rooms. Furthermore, many scenes add nothing to the story or the development of the characters, rendering them pointless. As a footnote, it was nice to see cameos by Fellini and Jeanne Moreau, both playing themselves in small roles.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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Aldo G

Trippy tribute to Federico Fellini by director Paul Mazursky and actor Donald Sutherland. A hippy, husband, dad, and director (Sutherland) navigates through life and career with fantasy scenes added for punctuation.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/05/23

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crustina d

Paul Mazursky was a master and always going for the gold. Alex in Wonderland is a great idea, but a perfect example of a poor execution. Which is too bad, because there are so many gems within this mess of a flick, that the watch is totally worth it. But, be prepared to sit through a lot of sludge to find the gold.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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delysid d

man what a hunk o junk

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

09/20/20

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Audience Member

Ok at best and sutherland is just grungy to look at with that beard and nasty early 70' haircut.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

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Audience Member

Boy, this is unendingly self indulgent, with scenes that vary from incredibly questionable to total comedic brilliance, but at the end of the day I think it just manages to come out on top. Every time you think this movie goes too far, it manages to flicker a light of self-awareness that undercuts its previous discretions. The movie treats us the same way Alex treats his wife - it lashes out and then apologizes and then makes us laugh and then lashes out again. When it's funny it's outstanding, I laughed out loud as much as I cringed. I almost want to cut another version of this movie with just the satirical bits. When it got sexist, it apologized through pointed commentary via Ellen Burstyn's character. Where it got White Knight about race, it gave us a bunch of lily white school children putting on a play about "we the people of South Africa..." So at the end of the day it largely balanced out for me. Though I will say one place where it is super dated is in its use of completely unnecessary, casual female nudity. Re: the way too over the top beach naive-white-man fantasy scene and Burstyn getting dressed on screen for literally no reason. But that comes with the territory so I guess whatever. Oh and questionable parenting in some scenes but hey, who am I to uh...judge...errrr... though even that was half addressed in the scene where Alex rails against "square parenting," just before both of his kids show up with ho hos and turn the TV on. For a meandering movie about a man who can't make a decision to save his life, Alex in Wonderland strangely comes together. Though maybe in the loosest sense of the word as it ends rather vaguely with Donald Sutherland wandering around his empty house having just sold it (ugh why it was great), implying he does eventually figure something out, enough to make some money to move to a bigger and better home. Shout outs to Fellini hilariously as himself, Donald Sutherland and Ellen Burstyn absolutely nailing it all around, the goddamn amazing wardrobe for Sutherland, and Mazursky casting himself as the creepy Hollywood producer he obviously can't stand (with the great visual parallels between his wardrobe and hair vs Sutherland playing him).

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

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Paul Mazursky

Director

Donald Sutherland

Alex Morrison

Ellen Burstyn

Beth Morrison

Jeanne Moreau

Self

Federico Fellini

Actor

Glenna Sergent

Actor

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Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

What makes it so good is the gift Mazursky, Tucker and their actors have of fleshing out the small scenes of human contact that give the movie its almost frightening resonance.

Rated: 4/4

Oct 23, 2004

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John Mahoney

Los Angeles Free Press

[Paul] Mazursky does himself the disservice of letting us believe that there is nothing more distinctive within him than plastic storefronts and bubblegum philosophies.

Jan 13, 2020

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Tony Mastroianni

Cleveland Press

This is introverted self-indulgence.

Nov 29, 2018

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Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Mazursky's follow-up to his striking debut, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, is quite a pretentious imitation of the seminal 81/2 by maestro Fellini, who makes a cameo in the film but the acting of Sutherland is solid.

Rated: C+

Jul 6, 2005

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Synopsis

A hot-shot director (Donald Sutherland) desperately seeks inspiration amid Hollywood vulgarity.

Director: Paul Mazursky
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 17, 1970, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 1, 2011
Runtime: 1h 49m

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